One Thing I Ate: Roasted milk tea chocolate chip blondies 😌☕
A super-simple recipe for all your chocolate chip cookie cravings.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, let’s bake! Read past posts here, and please follow my Instagram, @fivethingsiate. Â
Welcome to the Year of the Dragon (Part II…n)! In case you missed it, I posted a little recap reel of our family’s dumpling making party last weekend.Â
Now, you may be thinking that i’ll share some family recipe with you this week, maybe something like these carrot & egg baozi or Mama’s scallion pancakes, but in a plot twist I made some blondies in a hurry, and they ended up being a huge hit, so I had to share them with you.
Roasted milk tea chocolate chip blondies
Based off this recipe from Smitten Kitchen
Makes 16 squares
This recipe is proof that simpler is better when it comes to baking. There’s not even baking powder or soda in the recipe, so it really relies on, and features the flavor of the browned butter and chocolate chips, so make sure to choose good chocolate chips. These are my favorite dark chocolate kind but I also love an extra-large milk chocolate chip if you can find them. Note that the batter is very thick and goes in the pan pretty thin, so do not overbake. The tea, of course, is an optional flavoring but it does lend a subtle roasty note.
Ingredients:
8 tablespoons (1 stick, 4 ounces or 115 grams) salted butter
2 black tea bags (or oolong) – I use cheap Red Rose
1 cup (190 grams) light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
¼ tsp salt or ½ tsp kosher salt (to taste)
1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
1 cup chocolate chips (see recommendation above)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350F and line a 8x8 square metal pan with parchment paper. Where the paper doesn’t cover the pan, liberally grease the sides with butter.
Melt the stick of butter in a saucepan. Rip open two tea bags and pour it in. Keep watching and cooking the butter till it foams, and starts to brown. When that happens, quickly shut off the heat so it doesn’t burn.
Pour the butter mixture into a large bowl. Add the brown sugar, followed by the egg, vanilla paste, flour, and a pinch of salt. I love using salted butter in everything, so the batter should be salty already. Salt to taste!Â
Stir in chocolate chips.
Press into pan (it should be a thick batter), and bake approximately 20 minutes. They should just be lightly browned at the edges. I have a convection toaster oven so 20 minutes is just fine for me, but you may need to watch and increment by 2 minutes at a time. Do not overbake!
Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then take out of the pan with parchment paper as a sling, and cut into 16 pieces.Â
Enjoy warm (gooey) or cooled (crunchy and buttery on edges).
Enjoy,
Soph
P.S. Did you make this recipe? Let me know how it turned out! You can reply directly to this email. And as always, please consider signing up for a paid subscription of Five Things I Ate. Subscriptions are only $30 per year, and directly fund my writing.