Recipe Recaps: Blondies, Bars,and an Onion Tarte

I had Women's Night in the 'hood Friday night and the hostess wanted to do a recipe exchange where everyone was supposed to bring a favorite recipe. It wasn't really spelled out, but I assumed you were supposed to MAKE the recipe and share it as well. Is that not how a recipe exchange usually works? One other neighbor and I each made something, but she did so mainly because I mentioned that I was actually making two things. I just couldn't make up my mind, and I had two new recipes I wanted to try.

The McWife: Overachiever.

Anyway, I made the two things for my Women's Night, and I made one thing for the McHusband to share at a poker night he was going to. Cuz that's what every man wants to do: arrive for a guys' night with treats to share.

I chose Baking Blonde's Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dream Bars for the McHusband because I had everything I needed to make a half-batch and they were going to be easy. I had about a half-cup of leftover sweetened condensed milk that I needed to use up so this seemed like a good choice. Overall, I think they were pretty good. They had mass appeal with the milk chocolate and peanut butter chips and the peanut butter-sweetened condensed milk layer. And with all that oatmeal, well, they were practically health food!
















Mmm, gotta love a gooey middle.
















You REALLY need to love a gooey middle to appreciate the blondies I made for the recipe exchange. This was a recipe I found in the newspaper. Someone had written in to ask for the butterscotch blondie recipe from a restaurant that shut down. These blondies are about twice as thick as any normal blondie or brownie and even though I cooked them slightly longer than the recipe called for, the middle never got all the way baked. Oh well, as we decided at Women's Night, you'd much rather err on the side of gooey than overbaked.
















I wasn't kidding about the gooey factor.
















The blondies around the edge were just about perfect though.











And lastly, I made an onion tarte. I had high hopes for it, but I was less than impressed. I'm not sure why - maybe it was because the dip was soupier than I expected it to be? It shouldn't have been because I added extra cheese, but maybe my onion was juicier than expected or something.

I want to try the blondies again, but I'll either make a half-batch or I'll divide the whole recipe between two 9 x 13 pans. I think I've made better peanut butter-chocolate-oatmeal bars, but the recipe was so easy that I want to keep it around just in case. And I don't think the onion tarte will ever make another appearance.