Your Daily Dish: Cowboy Blondies

Take a bigger bite out of life! Every day is a holiday with BiteMeMore.com.

Today is The Gambler’s 75th birthday and we’re celebrating this country legend with our favorite Cowboy Blondies, loaded with chocolate chunks, oatmeal, coconut, and drizzled with a candied pecan topping.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp kosher salt
1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
½ cup shredded sweetened coconut
1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1½ cups chopped white chocolate

Pecan Topping

1 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup butter
3 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup icing sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a 13×9-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. Line the bottom and sides with parchment paper.
2. In an electric mixer, cream together butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla, adding eggs one at a time until combined. Add flour, baking soda, salt, oatmeal, coconut, semi-sweet chocolate and white chocolate, mixing on low speed just until the flour disappears. Spread batter in prepared pan and bake 25-26 minutes, until golden brown on the top. Remove from oven and let cool completely before topping goes on.
3. For the pecan topping, sprinkle toasted pecans over cooled cowboy blondies. In a medium saucepan, bring brown sugar, butter and milk to a boil over medium heat. Whisk constantly and let boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Gradually whisk in icing sugar and stir for a few minutes until slightly thickened. Pour over pecan pieces and let set completely before slicing.

Yield: 24 squares

Giddy Up and throw a kick-up-your-boots Cowboy Party… here’s how to make it a barn burner.

Whether it’s cruising the aisles at the Dollar Store or experimenting at the stove, we believe that every day can be a holiday.