Cinnamon Almond Roca Blondies

What do you do with left over candy? You re-event them into something even more delicious! One week ago, I and another Bridesmaid, Vie, helped our friend Yae assemble all her favors for the wedding, bridal shower, and rehearsal dinner. After labeling, bagging, and ribbon-ing all the favors, there were left over Almond Rocas.

I left the leftover Almond Rocas at Yae’s house that night. Two days latter, Yae made a special trip to my house and dropped off the leftovers. Almond Rocas were her favorite candy and she did not want to devour the 20-30 pieces of candy left. I gladly accepted the candy and was determined to bake it into something.

I was playing around with the idea of cookies, but settled on the blondie idea instead. I have only attempted to make blondies once and it was a disaster. Not every recipe is a good recipe, and the previous one was horrible. This blondie recipe was phenomenal however.

These blondies came out chewy, gooey and delicious. These are more than just a chocolate free brownie or a chocolate chip cookie bar, which is what most blondies are compared to. These little beauties deserve a category and name of their own. I can definitely see using theis recipe as a base and just changing the add-ins in the future.

I did share with Yae one of the blondies (it was perfect portion control according to her) and I took the rest into my office.  These are decadent and I suggest cutting them into smaller pieces, more to share that way.

Cinnamon Almond Roca Blondies

Adapted from Two Peas & Their Pod

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups Cake Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 cups Light Brown Sugar
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) Butter, melted
2 large Eggs
2-3 tsp Vanilla Extract
approx 2 cups Almond Roca, chopped/smashed into small pieces

Method:
1. Adjust rack in oven to lower third of oven and preheat oven to 330F.

2. Line 8 inch square pan with parchment paper.

3. Mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

4. Whisk together butter and brown sugar. Next whisk in eggs and vanilla.

5. Whisk dry ingredients into butter mixture until just combined.

6. Fold in Almond Roca pieces and then pour into pan.

7. Bake for 50-55 minutes until a tooth pick inserted comes out with no batter, but possibly melted toffee and/or moist crumbs.

8. Cool completed, cut into bars, and enjoy.