beach blondies with corona and lime

Believe it or not, I actually made these Corona Blondies back in January for an Oscars party. I added lime zest and juice to the original recipe and called them Hawaiian Corona Blondies in honor of nominee The Descendants. It was a pretty tenuous link to the film, but Corona does like to market themselves as a beer to drink while lounging at the beach, so I figured it sort of fit together with the film's paradisaical setting. 

I feel bad writing about something I cooked back in the dead of winter in the dog days of summer. Luckily, these would be perfect for any August picnic or trip to the beach. So perfect, in fact, that I can almost convince myself that I held this post back for that very reason. But no, I'm just slow--it's just coming in handy for once!

I did start off with a recipe for corona-blondies, but (as is so often my wont) I didn't worry about adhering to it too closely, and the results look markedly different. The originals were flakey, but mine turned out dense and moist, especially when I drenched them in a sugary lime glaze (the measurements for which are very rough-- it doesn't have to be a thick white icing or anything though, so don't worry about adding too much sugar). I suspect that element, at least, was a major improvement.

These are definitely a fairly sweet dessert, and if you go with the glaze like I did, they are also a bit of a sticky mess, but I don't think that's the worst thing in the world. A lot of summer foods seem to have that problem: melting ice pops, smores, juicy peaches and watermelons... So with that in mind these are just that much more appropriate as a summer treat!
 

Hawaiian Corona Blondies with Lime Glaze

adapted from scarlettabakes.com

Blondies:

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup white sugar, granulated

½ cup brown sugar

1½ cup all-purpose flour

⅔ cup Corona beer

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

1½ tbsp lime zest

Glaze:

½ cup lime juice

1 scant cup confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 350° and grease an 8'' x 8'' baking pan with butter..

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract and the beer.

Combine the flour and salt in a medium size bowl, then mix into the wet ingredients. Once a uniform batter has formed, fold in the zest.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30 minutes or until slightly golden. A cake tester inserted into the middle should come out clean.

While the cake is baking, whisk together the sugar and lime juice to form a glaze.

Remove the blondies from the oven and let cool. Cut into squares and brush each liberally with the glaze. Enjoy!