Copycat Applebee's Blondie Brownies

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg - beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
3/8 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup butter
3/8 cup brown sugar
8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
1/2 teaspoon maple extract or flavoring
vanilla ice cream

Directions:
1. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Add chopped nuts.
3. Mix well and set aside.
4. Melt butter.
5. Add brown sugar and mix well.
6. Add egg and vanilla and blend well.
7. Add flour mixture, a little at a time, blending well.
8. Stir in white chocolate chips.
9. Spread into a 9 inch square pan.
10. Bake at 350, 20-25 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out clean or with slightly fudgy looking crumbs.
11. Combine syrup and butter; cook over low heat until butter is melted.
12. Stir in brown sugar until dissolved.
13. Remove from heat and beat in cream cheese and maple extract until smooth.
14. Heat again either over low heat or in the microwave at short intervals to reach desired sauce consistency.
15. Serve sauce over warm blondies topped with vanilla ice cream.

What I changed:
1. I didn't see the maple extract on the ingredient list originally, so I left that out.
2. The 100% maple stuff is very expensive (about $7 for a small bottle), so I used maple-flavored pancake syrup.

Review:
This was awesome. Seth and I couldn't tell the difference between the taste of the recipe and the one we have had before at Applebee's. The only thing I didn't like was that I couldn't get the cream cheese to melt 100% even though I had let if soften for quite some time at room temperature. Even after I made the sauce and got it VERY hot, there were still a bunch of tiny little pieces of cream cheese floaties in there. It tasted fine, but didn't look smooth. Maybe next time I should microwave the cream cheese to get it to melt more before combining to make the sauce.