Fast Cars & Coconut Oat Blondies

Are you ready for this?

This past weekend...I went...to a NASCAR race! For my very first (and very last) time.

Don't get me wrong; it was pretty much everything I expected it to be. Hours of beverage consumption, grilled meat, loud cars. Sounds terribly manly; but, aside from the rain and shockingly cold weather, I swear it was fun! And nothing could've prepared me for the overwhelming coolness of being up-close-and-personal to those race cars zooming around the track. Of course, this coolness decreased exponentially as the hours passed and the number of laps grew. Driving 200 laps around a 3/4 mile track is a little over too many in my book.

But that's just me.

For some people, 200 laps might be just right. Just like having 3 of these blondies right out of the oven seemed just right...at the time. These aren't the typical "chocolate chip cookie in bar form" blondies. They actually look like "tannies" and aren't as soft as I hoped. (I think creaming room temperature butter, versus just melting it, might resolve that issue.) The overall texture was pretty blondie-ish; soft, with an extra chew from the oats and shredded coconut.



I made them for the race because I knew we'd need something easy and filling throughout the evening, and these seemed to fit the bill. And wouldn't you know, just before heading into the race Saturday evening, all of us grabbed a blondie or two (oh no...) for good luck and then walked rather gracefully into the stands.

Coconut Oat Blondies

Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Servings: 20 squares

1 2/3 cups flour

1/3 cup old fashioned oats, ground in a food processor

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups light brown sugar

2 eggs

10 tablespoons butter, melted

3/4 to 1 cup chocolate chips semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 9x13 pan with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, combine melted butter and brown sugar; add eggs and vanilla. Mixed until well combined.

• In a separate bowl, combine remaining dry ingredients (except for the coconut and chocolate chips). Add dry ingredients into the wet, and stir until just combined. Stir in chips and coconut and then press dough into the prepared pan.

• Bake 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out with a few moist crumbles.