Rudolph's Blondies

In the off chance you have leftover holiday food hanging around (guilty as charged!), it can just be one more temptation to steer you clear of your New Year diet resolution. You know you have one. We all put ourselves on a diet come January 1... even if it's not for weight loss per se. With a monthful of parties and dinners and stress and mall food - oy!

Then of course come the leftovers, which can get a bit tired after a few meals or snacks (yes, even my mom's delicious turkey and the Holiday Supper Stuffing), and January is usually spent around here figuring out what to do with the sweets! We've still got a half-loaf of panettone left, after receiving two for the holidays, and the cookie tin of shortbreads has a few stragglers too. The problem here is that we're a house of allergies, dieters and diabetics. So, what to do with a bagful of holiday candy corn that a well-meaning houseguest gave us?

Well, I suppose I could have eaten them all myself... but then I'd have fallen into a sugar shock myself! Apparently, candy corn has less sugar than raisins (who knew?) but it's too sweet to enjoy more than a few pieces at a time. Instead, I scouted around on Pinterest and came across a perfect use for the sweet but bland flavour of the candy - blondies!

Liz from CakeFYI went all out with her version, adding a candy corn frosting to her bars, but I was already reeling from the original recipe's ingredient list calling for a whole cup of brown sugar. Plus a cup of candy corn. So I did three major things in my recipe - cut the sugar in half, swapped canola oil for most of the butter (it was cheaper and butter was at a premium over the holidays!) and nixed the frosting. Because I'm a "salty girl" and I was still concerned that the finished batch would be too sweet (Liz' version adds no salt), I added a dash along with some nutmeg and used salted butter for what little I included.


The balance of the final bars was great - they're dense and rich, like a slightly better version of both the candy and blondies. The sweetness is there, but not overpowering either - it's a whole family treat!

Rudolph?sBlondiesInspired byhttp://cakefyi.com/2011/11/03/candy-corn-blondies/Serves 16 ½ cup canola oil½ cup brown sugar1 egg1 tsp vanilla1 cup flour½ oat flour½ tsp baking powderPinch nutmeg¼ tsp salt1 tbsp salted butter1 ¼ cups Christmas candy corn (or regular, whatever!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and line an 8? square pan withgreased parchment or foil.
2. In a bowl, beat together the oil, sugar, egg and vanilla.
3. Stir in the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt.
4. Melt the butter and candy corn together in the microwaveor in a saucepan over medium heat.
5. Stir melted candy into the blondie mixture.
6. Spread in the pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.
7. Cool completely before cutting.

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