Butter! Once we were able to return to the apartment after Hurricane Sandy, I wanted the smell of brown butter to once again fill the kitchen. The bars of gold and silver wrapped Kerrygold butter sat on the cool floor tiles awaiting our retrieval, like treasures resting in Gringotts Wizarding Bank.
A week earlier, I had been excited to receive pounds of butter from Pie Party Potluck Live, thinking I was set for the holiday season. Then the storm’s power outage had forced me to dispose of all perishables from the refrigerator and freezer. Without a clear schedule for power restoration, it was hard to gauge what to throw out when.
After some energetic twitter chatter, I decided that the heatless apartment was cool enough to keep butter. So I placed them in the coolest spot and hoped for the best.
As soon as we restocked the basic groceries, I started to brown butter for a batch of these Butterscotch-Banana Blondies. The aroma of brown butter comforted us–and signaled that we were back home.
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350℉. Butter a 8 x 8-inch baking pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper; butter and flour parchment paper.
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the butter until it turns golden brown, about 5-8 minutes; remove from heat, and let cool for 15-20 minutes.
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl, set aside.
3. In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine brown butter and both sugars; beat on low speed until combined, 1 minute. Add egg and egg yolk, beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and add half of the flour mixture, beat until combined. Beat in vanilla and milk, follow by the remaining flour mixture. Beat until combined. Pour 3/4 of the blondie batter into prepared pan and spread evenly with small off-set spatula. Pour remaining batter into a bowl, set aside.
1. Wipe bowl of stand mixer clean, add cream cheese, egg yolk, sugar, butter and vanilla to clean bowl. Beat on medium speed until combined. Add flour, cornstarch and mashed banana, continue to beat until mixture is smooth and fully combined, about 20 seconds.
2. Pour banana mixture on top of blondie batter in prepared pan and spread evenly. Dollops remaining blondie batter, about 1-inch apart. Gently swirl banana mixture into blondie batter with a knife, off-set spatula or chopstick to make desire pattern.
3. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs but not wet, about 35 to 45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before turning out of pan onto a cutting board. Peel off parchment paper; cut blondies into 2-inch squares. Blondies can be stored between layers of parchments, or in muffin cups, in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.
