Perfect Blondies
- PREP 10min
- COOK 25min
- TOTAL 35min
This is my favorite blondie recipe. It makes dense, rich, and fudgy blondies with a paper-thin, crinkly top. If you have it, use dark brown sugar. In our video, we use browned butter (adding an extra 5 minutes to the prep time). You can use plain melted butter in this recipe, but brown butter adds a lovely, toasty caramel flavor.
I love how fudgy and gooey these blondies turn out. With our recipe, the blondies will be around 1/2-inch thick. We love them this way, but if you want to make thicker blondies, add some baking powder to your batter (tips for baking powder are below the recipe).
You Will Need
8 tablespoons (115g) unsalted butter, 1 stick
1 cup (190g) lightly packed dark or light brown sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract, optional
1/4 rounded teaspoon fine sea salt, decrease a little if sensitive to salt
1 cup (130g) all-purpose flour
1 cup (170g) chocolate chips
1/2 cup optional extras like toasted nuts, dried fruit, or shredded coconut
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). Lightly butter and line an 8-inch by 8-inch metal baking pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
Melt the butter or make brown butter (brown butter adds a toasted flavor). To brown butter, add the butter to a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-low heat. As the butter melts, continuously swirl it around the pan. It will melt, get a little foamy, and finally turn golden brown. Remove it from the heat when the butter is light brown and smells nutty.
Whisk the warm butter into the brown sugar until blended. The mixture will look greasy and gritty. Set aside for a few minutes to cool.
When the sugar and butter mixture is warm, not hot, add the egg, vanilla, almond extract (optional), and salt. Stir until smooth and ever so slightly lighter in color.
Add the flour in two additions, gently folding it into the batter after each addition until you no longer see streaks of flour.
Stir in the chocolate chips and any additional add-ins like nuts or dried fruit.
Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. It just covers the bottom of the pan. The batter is very thick, so gently pressing the batter into the corners helps.
Bake the blondies until the edges look dry and the middle looks shiny and slightly underbaked, 20 to 30 minutes.
Cool to room temperature before removing from the pan — this step is essential and helps the blondies set. Cut into 16 squares. Don’t be surprised if the blondies have not risen much (they should be about 1/2-inch thick). These are intended to be dense, rich, and a little fudgy.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Keep your baked blondies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Or store them in the fridge for 2 weeks. You can also freeze blondies for up to 3 months! I like wrapping them individually so I can take one or two out of the freezer.
- Baking powder: I prefer these blondies without baking powder (they are fudgy), but if you want taller 1-inch blondies, whisk 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder with the flour before adding to the batter.
- Baking tips: We consistently achieve excellent results when baking these blondies in a 350°F oven for 23 minutes. Ovens vary, and bake time can be affected by the pan you have used. We remove the pan when the top looks shiny and light golden brown. The batter might still look slightly wet if there are cracks, but the middle should not wiggle like jello.
- Baking pan: We recommend using an 8×8-inch metal square pan (ours is from USA Pans), as it provides consistent heat distribution and baking results. Glass and ceramic pans are okay. Due to their different heat transfer properties, they may require a longer baking time.
- Doubling the recipe: Double all the ingredients and bake in a 9-inch by 13-inch baking pan. They will be slightly thicker. The bake time will be similar, but keep an eye on them and use our visual cues in the recipe as a guide.
- The recipe is slightly adapted from Mark Bittman’s cookbook, “How to Cook Everything” (highly recommended), via Smitten Kitchen.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. The calculations include 1 cup of chocolate chips.