Butterscotch Blondies

By Yossy Arefi

Butterscotch Blondies
Craig Lee for The New York Times
Total Time
40 minutes
Rating
5(1,495)
Comments
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These rich, chewy bars get their deep caramel flavor from a combination of brown butter, dark brown sugar and an optional sprinkle of flaky salt on top. They're delicious as is, but feel free to add some mix-ins (see note), if that’s more your style. You'll want to keep the amount of extra ingredients, like nuts, chocolate and dried fruits, to 2 cups total, since blondies with a lot of mix-ins may take a few minutes longer to bake. For an especially delicious combination, try a mix of 1 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate or chips, ½ cup toasted walnuts and ½ cup chopped pitted dates.

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Ingredients

Yield:16 servings
  • 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)
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees and butter and line a 9-by-9-inch baking dish with parchment paper.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

Tip
  • 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.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
1,495 user ratings
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Comments

Lauren

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.

MsRogers

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.

Jayne

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.

Suzanne

I make these with 1 c. Bittersweet choc, 1/2 c. Dates, 1/2 c. Walnut. DIVINE!!!!

Fran

I used the suggested reduced sugar and butter amounts, and added macadamia nuts and butterscotch chips as add-ins. After the suggested bake time had passed, I turned off the oven and kept the blondies inside for 5-ish minutes. They had the best chewy texture!! I really liked everything about this, and they were a success at our NYE party (pair well with eggnog!), while my husband did not enjoy the “salty bits”. Will skip the coarse salt on top next time, or maybe just put a flake on the square that I will be having just before I eat it.

Elyssa

Really confused at the positive reviews on this. The cooking times were laughable- I used a cup total of chocolate chips and toffee bits. At 20 minutes it was literal liquid in the pan- 27 same thing. I ended up cooking them for almost 40 minutes and even increased the heat to 375 for the last 5 minutes in hope of them puffing up as described in the recipe. The edges ended up being near edible but the whole thing was oozing butter- I can see some people not hating this but they felt SO unnecessarily greasy. It was a shame because I used homemade toffee for this and it went to waste. I think this is a salvageable recipe but really needs extra flour or a reduction in the amount of butter used. I’m not a novice baker and surprised people got this to work for them.

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