Wednesday, October 10, 2012

White Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting

This recipe pairs well with the Cranberry-White Chocolate Blondies, but I imagine it would also go well with white or dark chocolate cupcakes, dark chocolate brownies, and any number of other dishes. It's also really good just eaten straight out of the bowl. : )

What You'll Need:

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
3 oz white chocolate (chips or chopped baking chocolate), melted

How to Make It:

Beat the cream cheese and confectioner's sugar until blended. Slowly drizzle in the white chocolate, and beat until completely incorporated.

Cranberry-White Chocolate Blondies

These turned out to be so pretty! I think they'd make a nice Christmas dessert, since they are red and white.

What You'll Need: 

3/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup dried cranberries
6 oz white chocolate, chopped, or an equal amount of white chocolate chips
One recipe White Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
About 3 oz melted white chocolate (chips or chopped baking chocolate)


How to Make It: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in the microwave. Stir in the brown sugar. Transfer this mixture to a large bowl, and set it aside to cool. Meanwhile, Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. When the brown sugar-butter mixture has cooled to room temperature, beat in the eggs and the vanilla until everything is well combined. Gradually beat in the flour mixture until everything is combined. Stir in the chocolate and cranberries. The batter will be very thick- almost like cookie dough.

Spread the batter in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake the blondies for about 18-23 minutes, until the center passes the toothpick test. The blondies are very pale in color- be careful not to overbake them! Let the blondies cool in the pan on a wire rack. When the blondies are cool, frost them with the White Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting, sprinkle them with the chopped cranberries, and drizzle them with the melted white chocolate. Refrigerate the blondies a little while before serving, so the frosting can firm up.