Pages

Monday, December 10, 2007

Christmas Cookies 2007: Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies

This was my oldest DS's pick this year - yet another recipe from the 2005 Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies issue. He did all of the work himself with me serving as advisor and sous chef - meaning mostly what I did was clean up behind him. Man, I wish I could have sous chef in the kitchen with me when I cook!

Cream Cheese Filled Blondies
I have to admit that I tend to avoid any kind of blondie or brownie with anything swirled in it. Not because I don't like them - they are usually delicious - but because they are fussy. I'm not fond of fussy. But this was DS's pick and after all, it is the holidays. It was also a chance for DS to find out why I'm not so fond of making these kinds of treats. Getting the batter to swirl proved to be quite challenging - the cream cheese batter was quite light and the blondie batter was quite dense so that we never really did succeed in getting a proper swirl - more of a layered effect. This did not prove to be a problem - they were delicious anyway. I would note though that these turn out more like a dense cake than a blondie. Again, not a problem.

Still to come: Chai Shortbread and Magic/Seven Layer Bars........

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:31 PM

    Those look great. Thanks for posting. And awesome that your son made the recipe with you being the sous chef.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I made these with my 8 yo daughter. They are delish. I didn't do so good on the swirl either.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous - It's fun having the boys in the kitchen with me now that they are old enough to actually help. ;)

    Kim - Yeah, we just decided not to get too picky about the swirl - we were only making them for us and we knew they would taste good.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I know my almost 6 yo son lost interest after adding two ingredients. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kim - We're baking today - day off for snow - and we're making my 10-year-old's Christmas cookie pick. Only my 13-year-old is doing most of the work. So some lose interest quickly even when they're older..... ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love to hear about family time cooking! I wish more families would do it. These look great!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Chris - When we lived far away from family, we turned Thanksgiving into a family cooking day - just the four of us. It was fun. We love being able to spend Thanksgiving with family now, but my oldest has expressed that he wishes we could do it the old way again - just the four of us in the kitchen all day together. Maybe we'll just have to have a second Thanksgiving each year. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous10:33 AM

    i can't wait till my son is older so when he wants to bake he could clean up himself :) that chai shortbread sounds wonderful Alysha, can't wait!

    http://fooddiary.blogsome.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. Eliza - I probably should start training them to clean up, huh? He's 13 - he could certainly handle it. But I guess I spoil them a little - I want them to learn to bake and cook without getting bogged down in the not-so-fun stuff. But I may regret that!

    ReplyDelete