With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I’m baking a batch or two of Double Chocolate & Pistachio Blondies for delivery to some special people in my life. Here we have a dough that is very much chocolate chip cookie like, but instead of forming cookies, the whole works is scooped into a 13×9 inch baking pan. This special treat contains a full package of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the batter, along with a hefty amount of chopped pistachio nuts. And then – just to make the point of it all – a big handful of dark chocolate chips and additional nuts are patted into the top of the dough. The result is heavenly – crisp edges for those edge loving people on your list, and an almost gooey center for those of that persuasion. My mother, Neeners, proclaimed “Do not waste your time making cookies anymore – just focus on these. My gawwwd, they put cookies to shame.” I’ll let you judge for yourself, but I tend to agree.
I love making these when I need to feed a crowd or when the desire to hover over the oven in cookie baking mode is not in the cards (which is often). I will admit that there is a major ton of chocolate in these guys, both semi-sweet and dark. Feel free to adapt as you like. Prefer milk chocolate? Have at it. Don’t feel the need for as much chocolate? Leave it off the top or cut the whole amount in half. See? It’s easy and you are in control, so go on ahead and make it the way you want. Since there are major chocolate fans on my delivery list, I am going whole hog today, or they would be disappointed. This guy takes about 40 minutes to bake, but keep your eyes peeled – they will be done when they look set in the center and the edges are starting to pull away from the sides of the pan.
I know – pistachio nuts are kind of a splurge, but I couldn’t resist their bright green color and salty crunch. If you aren’t a pistachio fan, just substitute any other salted and roasted nut of your choice. You could chop peanuts, almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts..you get the idea. All up to you.
If you’re serving this to a group, it’s fun to sprinkle some additional nuts around on the dish, just to jazz up the plate a little bit.
HAPPY VALENTINES’ DAY!!! Thanks so much for reading. xoxoxo
Double Chocolate and Pistachio Blondies
Ingredients
- FOR THE COOKIES
- 2 sticks 1 cup of salted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1, 11.5- ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 ½ cups roughly chopped pistachio nuts
- FOR THE TOPPING
- ½ - ¾ cup additional roughly chopped pistachio nuts
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Generously butter (or spray with cooking spray) a 13x9 inch baking pan
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy
- Add the granulated sugar and beat until incorporated, then add the brown sugar and beat until well mixed in and things are looking light and airy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time. After adding the first egg, beat for one minute until adding the second, then beat for an additional minute.
- Add the vanilla and let it mix in as well.
- Stop the mixer and add the baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Stir or mix slowly to incorporate, then add the flour one cup at a time and mix on low or medium-low until the mixture comes together.
- Add the package of semi-sweet chocolate chips and mix until blended.
- Add the 1 ½ cups chopped pistachio nuts and continue mixing until blended in with everything else.
- Scoop the mixture into your prepared 13.9-inch pan. Take a few minutes with this to make sure your dough is evenly distributed. Sometimes I start with a butter knife, then end up smooshing it around with my hands to make sure all the corners and edges are covered.
- Sprinkle the 1 cup dark chocolate chips over the dough.
- Sprinkle ½ - ¾ cup chopped pistachios over the dough.
- Now, using your hands, just pat all of that topping stuff gently down so it gets a good grasp onto the dough.
- Into the oven it goes for right about 40 minutes, or until everything is a nice golden brown and the dough starts to pull away from the side of the pan.
- Remove from the oven and cool on a cooling rack until you can’t stand it anymore. Dive in!!
- NOTE: If you want, you can line your pan with foil, making sure to run the foil up about 1 inch over the short sides of the pan. This lets you just lift the whole thing out of the pan when cooled and is a lot easier to slice. Up to you – just thought I’d throw it out there to think about.