Chocolate Chip Blondies

Today is Raley's 10th birthday!! For the last couple of years, he has requested store bought cookies as his birthday treat for his class. This did not hurt my feelings at all, in fact, I was kind of happy! Lately though I have been cooking more and trying more new things (like this blog!!) and a couple weekends ago when we went camping, I made these for our bring-along treat. After savoring the last one, Raley asked if I would make them for his class birthday treat and I was happy to oblige him. By the way, if you would like to know more about my fabulous, oldest clone, check out the posts about him this week on the family blog.

Ingredients:
2 packages Martha White Chocolate Chip Muffin Mix ** recipe came from Martha White
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
6 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 for dark, nonstick pan). Grease bottom only of an 8-inch square baking pan (I doubled the recipe so I used a 9 x 13 pan). In a large bowl, combine muffin mix and brown sugar; stir to blend evenly. As you can see, I used a pastry blender:

Add melted butter.

Add egg and vanilla and mix well.

Stir in pecans; resist temptation to eat batter raw.

Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Since I doubled the recipe, it took an extra 10 minutes or so. When you take it out, you will be looking at THIS:

There are 22 kids in Raley's class, so my plan was to cut the whole thing in to 24 pieces. Unfortunately, my brain misfired and I cut 20 pieces instead. So, kiddies, I cut all of them in half again and now you get smaller pieces.

For an extra bit of fun, I piped some icing on the blondies. I hope the kids will like them! Here is the plate of extras for us to eat: