White Chocolate Walnut Gingerbread Blondies

Adapted from: Peanut Butter and Julie
Made by: Cathy

A couple of months ago, I bought white chocolate and macadamia nuts in bulk from amazon. I'm almost done with nuts, but I still have an overwhelming amount of white chocolate. I needed to use it up, so I started looking up recipes white chocolate. Actually, they sort of have a way of finding me. It's the holidays, so many people are using white chocolate in their recipes. I saw this on Tastespotting.com.

Please ignore my ugly yellow kitchen. :)


Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
10 oz. (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup molasses
10 ounces coarsely chopped white chocolate (I used a 12oz bag of white chocolate chips)
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped, lightly toasted walnuts (I didn't toast them)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Spray a rimmed half-sheet pan (17X12 inches) with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottom with parchment paper and spray the parchment.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and both sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 5 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the vanilla and molasses until combined. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating until just combined. Mix in the white chocolate and walnuts.


4. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake until set and the edges are golden, 22-25 minutes. Let the bars cool completely in a pan on a wire rack. Cut into squares or your desired shape.


These were amazing! The batter was pretty thick. I had to spread it out on the pan, and it was sticking everywhere. I'm so used to cookies and cakes where I just pour and leave it alone. This was worth the extra effort (not too much effort, I'm just exaggerating). They're just a little harder than cake.

I switched the order of the original recipe because I like to prepare the dry ingredients before starting up my mixer.