Cranberry Chocolate Chip Blondies

Thanksgiving 2021. Sixth Thanksgiving at the Martin table. This one is the most fully mine of any of them: I planned every dish, I made every dish, I drove to Prattville Wednesday evening with the car packed. Gloria was at the kitchen table with coffee when I arrived. James was in his chair. The house smelled like November.

We cooked on Thursday as we always have, but this year I was not helping. I was leading. Gloria watched and commented and occasionally stood at the stove for specific things she wanted to do herself, but the kitchen was mine on Thanksgiving in the way it has been slowly becoming mine for years. I made the turkey, the dressing, the sweet potato casserole from card thirty-eight with the orange zest, the collard greens, the rolls, the cranberry sauce, the pecan pie, the bread pudding. Everything. The table Gloria has been making for forty years, made by my hands from her recipes from her mother recipes.

James said grace. He said: we thank you for the hands that prepared this meal and for the love behind the hands. Same as last year. But this year he added: and for the years we have had together and the years still to come. He said it with conviction. I believe him. The years still to come. Yes.

I made cranberry sauce that Thanksgiving from scratch — card twenty-two, orange peel and a little heat — and it was the one dish James went back for twice without saying a word about it, which is how I knew it worked. Cranberry has a way of cutting through everything rich and heavy on a Thanksgiving table, and that tartness is exactly what I wanted to carry into something sweet. These cranberry chocolate chip blondies have become my way of bringing that same brightness forward: the cranberry keeps them honest, the chocolate makes them feel like a celebration, and every time I pull a pan of them out of the oven I think about James saying the years still to come and I believe it all over again.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 16 bars

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, halved (thawed if frozen, patted dry)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar (for tossing cranberries)

Instructions

Prepare the pan and oven. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan and line with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides for easy lifting.
Toss the cranberries. In a small bowl, toss the halved cranberries with the 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar. Set aside. This draws out a little moisture and keeps them from sinking or making the batter too wet.
Mix the wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter and brown sugar together until smooth and glossy, about 1 minute. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition, then stir in the vanilla extract.
Add the dry ingredients. Sprinkle the flour, baking powder, and salt over the butter mixture. Fold gently with a spatula until just combined — do not overmix or the blondies will be tough.
Fold in the mix-ins. Gently fold in the chocolate chips and the sugared cranberries until evenly distributed throughout the batter.
Bake. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 28–32 minutes, until the top is set and golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs (not wet batter). Do not overbake — the blondies will firm up as they cool.
Cool and slice. Allow the blondies to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack, at least 45 minutes. Use the parchment overhang to lift them out, then cut into 16 squares. They slice cleanest when fully cooled.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Blondies — The Recipe That Made the Table Mine