Baked! Chocolate-chip toffee blondies.

I've mentioned this before, but one of my favorite things about my job is that I get to meet all kinds of people that I likely wouldn't otherwise. In fact, when I wasn't working there, I felt kind of out of touch with the Sarasota community; I've discovered that I'm pretty invested in this town and I like knowing what's going on in it. Also, I'm nosy.

One of the lovely people I've met through work is Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy. Susan is delightful: Not only is her blog full of delicious, drool-worthy recipes (most of them sweet, at that—she's a woman after my own heart!), but we went to the same university and we share a love of the written word. I've only had the opportunity to spend a couple hours with Susan, but those few hours included an ice-cream-tasting excursion, if that tells you anything.

Anyway, the other day Susan posted a recipe for toffee blondie bites on her blog, and I immediately took note. I really like bar cookies and I really like toffee, so there was that. There was also the fact that the recipe is ridiculously simple: two cups dark brown sugar, two cups flour, two sticks butter, two eggs, two teaspoons vanilla, a little baking powder, some toffee bits and some salt. Mix together and boom: Blondies. (Did I just say "boom"? I think I just said "boom.") Here's the full recipe if you'd like to make them yourself, and really, you should.

A couple notes: I added a cup of semisweet chocolate chips to this recipe, because why not?, although next time I might go with my trusty Ghirarelli 60 percent chips since they're a little less sweet. Which brings me to my next point: These blondies? They are very sweet. Like, so sweet that if you taste the batter—and you should—you might wonder if you've added too much sugar (you haven't, although I bet you could knock off half a cup, which I might do next time). But they're also a perfect cross between cakey and gooey, they have an intense caramel flavor thanks to all the brown sugar and butter, and they are a crowd pleaser. I took them to work yesterday and not one was left on the plate at the end of the day.

And finally, Susan recommends baking these blondies in mini muffin tins, but I made them in a 9x13 pan lined with parchment paper and everything turned out just fine. I just kept them in the oven for about 30 minutes, instead of the 18-20 she suggests.

Again, here's the recipe if you'd like to make these yourself—if you do, let me know how they turn out.