Brown Sugar Cashew Blondies

Today is baking day with my friend Tanya! Up first are these delicious blondies. Neither of us are crazy about cashews, but this recipe was wonderful! I baked them in an 8x8 glass pan, so they turned out pretty thick. A cake pan would work well too, depending on your preferences! Vanilla ice cream would go well with this, but I couldn't find ours. I ended up using Caramel Pecan Praline-- a fine substitution! Can you go wrong with any flavor of ice cream though?! Enjoy :)

Brown Sugar Cashew Blondies

Makes 16 2-inch square bars

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt*
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped unsalted roasted cashews*

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan for thick bars or a cake pan for thin bars.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until combined after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add flour mixture, mixing until combined. Stir in cashews.

Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Tip: Serve warm with ice cream :) Yumm!

*If using salted cashews, you may want to reduce salt to 1/2 teaspoon.

Recipe adapted from Go Bold with Butter.