Work Catering #40: Blondies vs. Brownies

Which do you like better? Blondies or Brownies? I made both for work last week~! Well technically the blondies weren't "blondies" because they didn't have any white chocolate in them... and it was a bit biased because the brownies had cream cheese and Kit Kats...so of course the brownies won XD But they were both yummy :D 

I was still in a Kit Kat phase from last work catering, so I decided to use them in a brownie!

Kit Kat Cream cheese Brownies
Recipe adapted from Bakerella

Ingredients
Brownie
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
150g unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 x 45g package Kit Kat bars

Cream cheese topping
250g cream cheese, softened at room temp
2 eggs
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 180oC and grease and line a 20x30cm baking pan.
2. Sift flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder in medium bowl and set aside.
3. Melt butter in microwave. Stir in sugar, then eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and mix until well combined.
4. Add dry ingredients. Stir until combined then pour into prepared pan. Gently press 16 individual Kit Kat bars on top of brownie batter.
5. To make the topping, beat cream cheese with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time to mix until combined.
6. Gradually add icing sugar and then vanilla. Mix until smooth. Pour on top of brownie batter.
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. Place a sheet of foil on top of pan for the last 10-15 minutes to avoid over browning.
8. Remove from oven and cool completely. Chill in refrigerator for a few hours or overnight before slicing and serving - I was too impatient and I think that's why it was quite hard to slice XD was too warm and sticky! haha


Falling brownies....

The cream cheese topping wasn't quite what I was expecting. It was quite soft and pretty sweet but I think the layer was just the right thickness! Any thicker and it would have been overly sweet.

Did I tell you that some of these were stolen? :O

I put them in the work fridge overnight and the next day most of them were gone~

To balance out the sweetness we have some tart apple harvest "blondies". I like the texture of the nuts on top and also bits of cream cheese ^^

Apple Harvest Blondies
Recipe adapted from Recipe Girl

Ingredients
150g unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups packed brown sugar (divided)
3 large eggs
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essense
2 medium apples, peeled and chopped (I used granny smith apples for tartness)
125g cream cheese (you can freeze to make it easier to chop later)
3/4 cup pecans or walnuts, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 170oC. Grease and line 20x30cm baking pan. 
2. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, remove from heat and stir in 2 cups of brown sugar. Mix well and add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 
3. Add flour, baking powder and vanilla essence and mix well. Fold in apples.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Chop cream cheese into small bits and mix with nuts, cinnamon and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar. Sprinkle evenly over batter.
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

Pretty moist and full of fruit :D

and Golden!

I wonder why they are called Apple harvest blondies...