Butterscotch Blondies
- Total Time
- 40 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Ingredients
- 1cup/227 grams unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
- 1½cups/330 grams dark brown sugar
- 2teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1teaspoon kosher salt
- 2large eggs
- 1¾cups/224 grams all-purpose flour
- ½teaspoon baking powder
- Any mix-ins you like (see note)
- ¼teaspoon flaky salt (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees and butter and line a 9-by-9-inch baking dish with parchment paper.
- Step 2
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook butter, occasionally scraping the bottom and sides of the pan with a rubber spatula, until it turns deep golden brown and smells nutty. Don’t walk away from the pan during this process. The butter can go from brown and nutty to acrid and burnt in mere moments. Transfer the butter and all the brown bits from the pan to a large heat-safe bowl to cool slightly.
- Step 3
When the butter is cool (but still melted), add sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Whisk until smooth. Add the eggs and mix until well combined.
- Step 4
Fold in the flour and baking powder along with any mix-ins until well combined and no streaks of flour remain in the batter.
- Step 5
Pour batter into prepared pan, smooth the top, and sprinkle with flaky salt, if desired. Bake the blondies until set and slightly puffy, 20 to 27 minutes. For gooey blondies, err on the short side of the baking time. Cool before slicing.
- For other add-ins, try 1 cup chopped white or milk chocolate; about 1 cup toasted, chopped nuts; ½ cup toasted unsweetened shredded coconut; about ½ cup dried whole cherries or apricots, chopped; ¼ cup crumbled halva; 2 tablespoons bourbon or rum, or 1 tablespoon espresso powder, mixed in with butter and sugar; or a sprinkle of cinnamon or cardamom, mixed in with the butter and sugar. You can also swirl 2 to 4 tablespoons Nutella, peanut butter or tahini into the top of the batter before baking.
Private Notes
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Comments
This came together really easily -- I'll never be afraid of making brown butter again! I made a 1.5 sized recipe, to fit my 9x12 pan, but aside from adjusting the cooking time, no other changes. I do suggest a change to the process. Make the brown butter first, then prep the pan, get the other ingredients in order, and pre-heat the oven. By the time the oven is hot, the butter will be cool enough to proceed.
I have made these twice now: once as written and once with the changes recommended in another comment. I prefer the version with the changes as they are lighter and less sweet, but still delicious. Thanks for the recommendation ! Change: 3/4 cup butter and 1 1/4 cup sugar.
I'm a gluten free baker and find that blondies turn out much better if you add some ground almonds/ almond flour to the gf flour mix. It given the blondies a beautiful texture! With this recipe I would use 1 1/4 cups gf flour & 1/2 cup almond flour.
Way too much butter for my liking. Perhaps reducing the butter as someone suggested would have helped.
I used a 9x9 shiny metal pan with the mix-ins suggested in the text: 1 c chocolate chips, 1/2 c toasted walnuts, 1/2 c chopped dates. With that volume of added stuff, the cooking times were off--I took them out at 28 minutes but they were a little too gooey to share on a plate, even after cooling. I will definitely make them again--they taste amazing--but allow maybe 5 min more bake time and watch for them to become puffy before I take them out.
These blondes were delicious and easy to make. I made half the recipe, followed the instructions and didn’t have any problems. Highly recommend!