A couple weekends ago, I was invited to join a whole bunch of other local food bloggers for a potluck tea party meet n’ greet.
Usually the thought of having the opportunity to bring food to an event gets me quite aflutter, and I immediately start scanning my mental list of Recipes I’ve Been Wanting to Try to see if anything suits the occasion.
Admittedly, though, the thought of bringing a dish to be shared by a bunch of hardcore foodies was a little daunting. I have been spending a lot of time with my head in my Smitten Kitchen cookbook lately, though, and I felt like I couldn’t go wrong with one of the amazing recipes from the book. (by the way, if you don’t own this book, you’ll need to stop reading this post and get yourself to a book store. I have never – never – even seen let alone owned a cookbook that I wanted to cook all of the recipes from. This is The One).
These gooey cinnamon squares are just beyond. They taste like cinnamon toast if cinnamon toast were cakey on the bottom and topped with a buttery, sticky layer that resembles the centre of brownies when they’re perfect (read: sufficiently undercooked in the middle). These squares may not have been the prettiest thing on the table, but let’s not joke around: butter wins hearts and minds every time.
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup corn syrup
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tbsp. vanilla
- 12 tbsps. butter, room temperature
- 1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- Preheat your oven to 350F. Line a 9 X 13 baking dish with parchment paper and grease the parchment with butter.
- Start by making the base layer. Using electric beaters, cream the sugar and butter until the mixture is well incorporated and kind of fluffy - about 2 minutes. Add the egg and milk and beat again until the ingredients are all mixed in. Combine the rest of the dry ingredients for the base layer in a medium bowl, and then add to the wet ingredients. Spread this mixture into the baking dish.
- The gooey layer follows a similar method to the base layer. Cream the butter, 1 cup of the sugar and salt together using your electric beaters until they're fluffy. Beat in the egg. Whisk together the corn syrup, milk and vanilla in a separate bowl, and then add this and the flour into the wet ingredients alternately, with three additions of flour and two of the corn syrup mixture, stirring to incorporate between additions.
- Dollop the gooey part over the base layer and spread evenly. Combine the remaining 2 tbsp. of sugar with the cinnamon, and sprinkle over the entire mixture in the baking pan.
- Bake until the edges have set and started to pull away from the pan and the centre is still gooey - about 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool completely before cutting.
