Mint Julep Bars: Bourbon-pecan blondies with white chocolate-mint-bourbon frosting

The most recent Nom-Nom Food Challenge at work was mint themed, selected by Sonja, the winner of the last Golden Spatula challenge.  As soon as I announced the theme people started asking about mint drinks: both juleps and mojitos.  In fact, the topic of mint-flavored drinks was so popular that I added a column on the the entry spreadsheet entitled "Team Julep or Team Mojito?"  In reality, I just think everyone wanted to have a giant happy hour!

After the initial "Can we drink at work?!" questions (Umm...well, no.  You still can't.  Sorry about that?)  the early suggestions of entries seemed to imply that many people would be making things that were chocolate-mint.  I decided to look for something that matched one of the drink themes.  I stumbled across this recipe from Good Housekeeping for Mint Julep Blondies.  They looked pretty awesome, but I decided to up the specialness-factor by upping the bourbon content, so 1 Tbsp became nearly 2 1/2 Tbsp.  I also fiddled with a few things: notably a bit less salt, swapped the peppermint for regular mint extract in the frosting (Juleps are made with spearmint, not peppermint, after all), and put both a bit more mint and some bourbon in the frosting.  Result is pretty addictive and even initial testers who weren't huge mint fans enjoyed them, too.  (And one person who is a bourbon fan declared them to be "f@#%ing amazing!")  I was feeling pretty good about my chances of reclaiming the Golden Spatula.

Regretfully, I didn't end up winning the challenge....but the recipe is still a keeper.  The blondie part, in particular, is delicious.  I think if I make them again, I'll leave the extras out of the chocolate and will just drizzle melted white chocolate over the top.


Ingredients for Blondies 

Thanks for sharing the good stuff, Dad!

• 1 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• scant 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons melted butter or margarine (I used the second, because that's what I had in the fridge)
• approximately 1 3/4 cup of packed brown sugar  (I used a 1 cup measure and totally estimated, it was probably a bit more than the 1 3/4 cup.)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten 
• a bit less than 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• a bit more than 2 Tablespoons bourbon (I used a very nice Evan Williams Single Barrel barrelled in oak for 10 years.  Yum!)
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Ingredients for Frosting

• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 1/2  teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons mint extract (NOT peppermint, but mint, which is a combo of spearmint with a little peppermint)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons bourbon

Directions for Blondies

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line a 9x13 inch cake pan with parchment paper.
3. In a small- or medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. In a different bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, bourbon, vanilla, and eggs. 
5. Add flour and pecans, and stir/whisk together.  
6. Spread batter in prepared pan.
7. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean-ish (though not necessarily completely clean).  Mine definitely took the full 25 minutes.
8. Let cool.

Directions for Frosting

1. Melt white chocolate with oil, mint, and bourbon in the microwave. (Slowly, at a low power, stirring until smooth.)
2. Spread on cooled blondies.

Note: The liquids cause the white chocolate to seize up.  It makes the melted chips more of a frosting consistency in the finished product, but it also makes it incredibly hard to spread.  As I said above, if the mint addition isn't super important, I'll probably just drizzle melted white chocolate on these in the future.

I know they look a bit homely, but they are so tasty!