Call me overly sensitive or a wimp, but I have never been able to eat or drink things that I don't like. I can't fake it. In first grade, I went over to a classmates house and couldn't eat the spaghetti because it had sauce on it and I didn't like sauce. When I was even younger, I hated burgers so much that when my dad bought my sister and I hamburgers at McDonald's, I kept a piece of the hamburger in the right side of my mouth because I could not swallow it. And I only hoped with time that the burger taste would go away. Of course I thought that my dad didn't notice. Even now, when I get a stomach ache and Gustavo basically forces me to drink Alka-Seltzer (with very good intentions), I feel like I'm going to barf.
So go figure, the doctor sends me a prescription for a disgusting cough syrup. It's terrible. I have to take it every 6 hours and it's a sticky red concoction, one that tastes like fake cherries mixed with motor oil. Yesterday I did OK, I'm trying to convince myself that I can do it, and that my health is more important. But as I said, I'm pretty sensitive to nasty-tasting things. Maybe it's my overly refined taste buds (and olfactory gland). However today I'm not doing so well. I really feel like gagging the stuff up.
As Mary Poppins has always said, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." So I made blondies to reward myself for my good patient behavior.
Chocolate chunk blondie bars
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Makes 24 bars
Ingredients
⅔ cup (1 stick plus 2 ⅔ TBSP) unsalted butter, melted
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar (light or dark)
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp salt
1 TBSP white or cider vinegar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 ½ tsp baking powder
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk chocolate chunks
1 cup chocolate chips
Up to 2 cups coarsely chopped nuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch pan.
In the bowl of your stand mixer or hand mixer, mix together the butter, sugars, salt, and vinegar. If the mixture is too hot from the melted butter, let cool until it is lukewarm. Add eggs, vanilla, and baking powder; beat well. Stir in the flour and combine thoroughly. Add both chocolates and nuts if using.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the bars for about 38 minutes, until the top is golden and shiny, and the center is just barely baked through. The center should look very damp but not baked through when you insert a knife into it.
Remove from oven and cool to lukewarm before cutting. A plastic knife cuts these sticky blondes very well.
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