I have a long history with blondies. My friend Jean, who lived down the street from me, used to make the best blondies. We would bake them together all summer at her house. I have fond memories of mixing up blondies, putting them in the oven and swimming in her in-ground pool (such a big deal!) while they baked. We would get out dripping wet and eat them while watching General Hospital. Heaven.

I thought they were so good, I shared the recipe with my home ec class in junior high when the teacher gave extra credit for bringing in a recipe. I still have the original piece of notebook paper I wrote the recipe on and took to school.

Mr. MarthaandMe is a big blondie fan. He doesn’t like chocolate a lot (I know, I still can’t accept that), so blondies have always been one of his favorites. My kids have grown up eating Jean’s blondie recipe too. So we’re definitely blondie aficionados here.

With that history, obviously I had to make the Halloween Blondies on the last page of October Martha Stewart Everyday Food.

The recipe was quick and simple – butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, salt and fall colored M&Ms to put on top. I couldn’t find those fall colored M&Ms though! I did find Reese’s pieces in orange, yellow and brown so I bought those.

This is the first Martha recipe I’ve ever made that was done before the time it said. These were ready for me in about 40 minutes, as opposed to the 45-50 minutes the recipe says.

As you can see from the photo, the hungry hands in this house got into these before I could even take a photo. These were pretty good, but first of all, using the Reese’s pieces was a mistake. It really needs chocolate. Secondly, this recipe has too much salt. I would cut it in half.  Other than that, these were good. And the colored candies on top are really cute. This would be a great bake sale item.

Because Martha would, I’m going to share Jean’s recipe for blondies with you, which I think is better than Martha’s.

Jean’s Blondies

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup unsalted butter

2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts

1 cup chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350. Melt butter, add sugar and stir till dissolved. Add eggs and vanilla and stir. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt. Pour into a rectangular baking pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts on top. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.