Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (2024)

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Chewy Brown Butter Blondies are one of the simplest bars to make with maximum flavour. Soft and fudgey, with a beautiful caramel, nutty undertone and loaded with white and milk chocolate and almonds. They are hard to beat.

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (1)

Brownies and Bars are a firm favourite snack at home. They're simple to make, serve many, and can be eaten for a teatime treat or turned into a delicious dessert with the addition of a scoop of ice cream. My Strawberry Crumble Bars are a perfect small-batch treat, whilst my Cherry Brownies use in-season cherries to perfection.

This Chewy Blondies Recipe is delectable, to say the least. I browned the butter in these so that I could maximise the nutty notes of the brown butter alongside the molasses flavour from the brown sugar. The taste is well-rounded, rich, nutty and sweet, but not cloyingly so.

The white and milk chocolate adds another fantastic flavour, whilst the almonds complement the nuttiness and add a fab crunch. With a papery thin top and a fudgy, soft centre, these White Chocolate Blondies are delicious in every way.

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (2)

My love affair with brown butter blondies first started whilst living in Sydney, Australia. They're a popular café treat over there, and when we moved back to London, UK, I knew that I would have to re-create them. After much recipe testing to get that perfect fudgy center, chewy texture (this was super important to achieve), and a crackly top, I believe I've nailed it!

Check out my Banana Chocolate Chip Bars that use the blondie recipe with bananas for the ultimate banana bread-tasting blondie! The perfect mashup!

Jump to:
  • 🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe
  • 🧾 Ingredients Needed
  • 📖 Variations
  • 👩🏻‍🍳 How to Make
  • 🥣 How To Serve
  • 💭 Recipe Pro Tips
  • 📋Recipe FAQs
  • ❄️ Storage and Freezer Instructions
  • 🍫 More Chocolate Recipes
  • 📖 Recipe
  • 💬 Comments

🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe

  • Comes together quickly. These blondies can be made and put in the oven in under 20 minutes and you let the oven do the rest of the work!
  • Pantry ingredients. With under 10 ingredients needed to make these, you'll most likely have them in your pantry or fridge making these easy to make when the cravings are real!
  • You can create your own adventure. I love the fact that you can swap out the chocolate and almonds for any other type of chocolate, dried fruit, or nuts. You can literally go with what you feel like at that minute!
  • Makes the perfect portable snack. Baked in a paper sling, once cooled, the blondies can easily be removed and cut into squares, and transported. Office potluck here we come!

🧾 Ingredients Needed

Some compare blondies to cookie bars, but I have to say that these are stand-alone dessert recipes by themselves. All the ingredients are basic pantry or refrigerator ingredients.

If you organise your panty/fridge as I do, then I know I have everything on hand. Check out my insightful guide to What's In My Baking Pantry for some invaluable tips.

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (3)
  • Butter - Unsalted butter is used. Don't worry about cold or room temperature as it will be melted and browned in the first step of the recipe. Unconfident when browning butter- don't worry, I go into detail a bit further down the post.
  • Brown Sugar - Using brown sugar adds extra caramelly notes to the blondie from the high levels of molasses in the sugar. Not only does it pack in flavour but also moisture to the chewy blondies.
  • Eggs - I use large eggs in all my recipes. Here 2 whole eggs and 1 extra egg yolk is used. The extra yolk adds richness and more chew to the texture. The eggs in general, bind the ingredients together and add moisture.
  • Vanilla Extract - You can use vanilla bean paste, or the seeds of a vanilla pod as an alternative. The vanilla adds another layer of flavour that works well with brown sugar and white chocolate.
  • Salt - Absolutely necessary to balance out the sweetness from the sugar and white chocolate.
  • Chocolate - I've included the white chocolate in bar form chopped up for the large white chocolate puddles it provides. The milk chocolate chips hold their shape more but the ones in the middle melt into the blondie making it even fudgier!
  • Almonds - A fabulous addition to these chewy blondies to accentuate the nutty notes of the brown butter. Leave the nuts out if you aren't a fan.

📖 Variations

I adore the flavour combination of the almonds, white and milk chocolate and almonds in this recipe, but I've created a great base recipe that you can add in some super alternatives. Here are my favourites:

  • Raspberry Blondies: Add a cupful of fresh or frozen raspberries and stir through the batter. The sweet fruit will sit perfectly alongside the blondie taste.
  • Biscoff Blondies: Swirl this awesome spread throughout the batter for a flavour boost.
  • Blueberry White Chocolate Blondies: Juicy blueberries dotted throughout a lemon-flavoured batter along with white chocolate is divine.
  • Dark Chocolate Walnut Blondies: Probably my favourite flavour add-ins. The bitterness of the dark chocolate balances out the sweetness of the blondies and the walnuts emphasize the nutty brown butter taste.

Other flavour add-ins you might like can be dried fruit like cherries or cranberries, fresh fruit such as strawberries or blackberries, or other types of nuts like hazelnuts or macadamias.

👩🏻‍🍳 How to Make

*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*

I can't say it enough, these really are the best Brown Butter Blondies as they're so simple to make yet taste so incredible. I think the hardest part is browning the butter, but because I describe to you exactly how to do this, you won't have any problems at all. The rest is a piece of cake, so without further ado, let me show you exactly how to make these blondies.

Make sure to check out my Guide on How To Brown Butter for my detailed step-by-step instructions and process imagery.

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (4)

STEP 1. Brown the butter. Turn normal melted butter into a thing of nutty goodness in one simple step. Add the butter to a saucepan set over medium heat and allow the butter to melt.

Once melted, the butter will start to foam and bubble (Image 1) and this is the point that the milk solids have separated from the fats and they'll start to caramelize on the base of the saucepan. Watch the yellow butter turn golden and then brown.

Once the butter is browned, take the pan off the stove and pour it into a bowl. The butter can go from brown to burnt quite quickly. Set the butter aside and cool for ten minutes (Image 2).

TIP: Brown butter bits

Once the brown butter is poured into a bowl, make sure to scrape out all the brown bits that are stuck to the bottom of the saucepan. These bits are where all the nutty, rich flavour is held.

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (5)

STEP 2. Prepare your pan. Grease and line the base and sides of a 23 x 23cm (9x9-inch) square baking pan and set it to one side. Check out my handy tip below (Image 3).

TIP: Paper Overhang

Make sure that the baking paper overhangs the sides of your baking pan. Once the blondies are baked, you can easily lift out the blondies to place them on a wire rack to cool completely. Such a simple tip that really helps later on!

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (6)

STEP 3. Mix sugar into the butter. Whilst the butter is still warm, add the brown sugar into a bowl and mix with hand-held electric beaters until the sugar is mixed in and the butter has cooled slightly (Images 4 & 5).

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (7)

STEP 4. Add eggs and beat. Add the 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk and vanilla extract into the bowl and beat with the electric hand-held beaters until the batter is pale in colour and thickened. This can take a couple of minutes to achieve (Images 6 & 7).

TIP: Aerate the eggs

By beating the eggs into the sugar and butter until they are pale, you are incorporating lots of air into them, kind of like a meringue. In the oven, the top of the blondies bakes to form a thin shiny crust. This is exactly what we want!

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (8)

STEP 5. Sift in the dry ingredients. I'm all about saving time washing up, so I don't ask you to sift the dry ingredients into a separate bowl and then add it to the batter. Nope. Sift that flour, baking powder and salt right on top of your batter (Image 8). And then fold it in with a rubber spatula- but only until you see some flour streaks remain (Image 9). This ensures you don't overmix it!

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (9)

STEP 6. Add the flavourings. Now's the chance to add in your flavourings (Image 10). Obviously white chocolate, but I also included milk chocolate chips and chopped almonds to bring out the nutty flavours and add textural contrast. Stir those in until just combined (Image 11).

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (10)

STEP 7. Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and level off with an offset spatula and sprinkle any extra flavourings over the top (Image 12)

Bake until the centre is just set and the top is golden (Image 13). The top will be shiny and paper-thin and the interior chewy around the edges and fudgy in the centre.

🥣 How To Serve

Set the baking pan on a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Then use the paper overhang to lift the blondie square out of the pan. For super neat edges refrigerate the brown butter blondie for an hour.

To cut the blondies, use a sharp knife run under warm water to heat the blade and cut. After every slice, wipe the blade clean. With this trick, you'll achieve super clean, neat edges like a pro.

Enjoy these cold, at room temperature, or warm - whichever way, these blondies will taste incredible. Secretly, I love these warm (microwave for ten seconds if need be) and topped with a cheeky scoop of vanilla ice cream. Just dreamy!

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (11)

💭 Recipe Pro Tips

  1. Brown butter bits. Make sure to scrape all those brown butter bits from the bottom of the saucepan- that's where the flavor is held.
  2. Paper overhang. Set yourself up for success and make sure to use the baking paper as a sling.
  3. Glossy, crackly thin top. The surefire way to get that golden papery thin shiny top is to whip the eggs until pale and thick so that they can work their magic once baked.

📋Recipe FAQs

What exactly are blondies?

They are essentially the fairer cousin of a brownie. They are a rich and quite sweet dessert made up of flour, butter, eggs, brown sugar, vanilla and baking powder.
Unlike a brownie, they don’t have any cocoa powder in them. This allows the flavour of the brown sugar to shine through and this gives the blondies a beautiful caramel taste too.

Do I have to brown the butter for these to work?

Absolutely not. I do it as I love the extra layer of flavour that brown butter imparts, but if you don't fancy it, then just melt the butter as normal and carry on with the recipe.

Why are my blondies so cakey?

Two things spring to mind. It could be as a result of measuring out your flour with a cup rather than by using digital scales. There is far higher room for error when measuring with a cup as you can inadvertently measure too much flour into the batter making it cakey.
Oven temperature and the length of time baking play a huge part. I give my temperature and baking time guide but everyone's oven runs slightly differently. Overbaking will cause the blondies to lose their fudginess and develop more of a cakey texture.

❄️ Storage and Freezer Instructions

To store: Store these Brown Butter White Chocolate Blondies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or refrigerate for up to 7 days.

To freeze: Freeze individual blondies wrapped well in plastic wrap for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature and enjoy.

🍫 More Chocolate Recipes

If you tried this Chewy Blondies Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below. I love hearing from you!

📖 Recipe

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe

These Browned Butter Blondies really are as delicious as they sound. Soft and chewy with a beautiful caramel, nutty undertone. and filled with almonds, white and milk chocolate, it’ll be hard to stop at one!

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Category: Brownies & Bars

Cuisine: American

Servings: 16 squares

Calories: 274kcal

Ingredients

Metric - US Customary

  • 170 g unsalted butter
  • 330 g brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 220 g plain flour (all-purpose)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon fine salt
  • 100 g white chocolate , coarsely chopped
  • 100 g milk chocolate chips
  • 140 g almonds, coarsely chopped

Instructions

  • Brown the butter. Pre-heat oven to 170°C (340°F). In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt your butter. Continue to cook until the butter is golden brown and has a nutty fragrance. This takes about 4-5 minutes.Note that the butter turns very quickly from golden to burnt, so keep an eye on it. Remove from the heat, pour into a large mixing bowl, and leave at room temperature cool for ten minutes.

  • Prepare your pan. Line a 23cm (9-inch) square baking pan with parchment paper. Leave an overhang on the sides so that it is easy to lift the blondies out after they are baked.

  • Mix sugar into the butter. Into the bowl with the brown butter, add brown sugar and using hand-held electric beaters, to beat on high until well mixed in.

  • Add eggs. Add the 2 eggs, the 1 egg yolk and vanilla extract into the mixing bowl and using the hand-held electric beaters on high speed, beat until the mixture is visibly paler and thicker. This can take 3 to 4 minutes to achieve. The length of time not only cools the butter down but also aerates the eggs.

  • Add dry ingredients. Sift into this mixture the flour, baking powder and salt and fold through using a rubber spatula until a few flour streaks remain.

  • Add chocolate and nuts. Fold in the white and milk chocolate and almonds until just combined. Spoon batter into the prepared baking tray and level with an offset spatula.Sprinkle any extra nuts or chocolate over the top.

  • Bake. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned on top and the sides are set, and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs. Rotate the pan halfway through baking.

    Remove from the oven and let sit in the pan for ten minutes. Using the paper, lift the blondie square out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Use a sharp knife, to cut into 16 squares and serve immediately.

All recipes are developed and tested in Metric grams. I strongly recommend that you bake using digital scales for a more accurate result. I have provided a conversion to US customary in the recipe but please note that I haven’t tested using this method.

Notes

Step-by-Step Photos: My blog post includes helpful step-by-step photos to help guide you through making this recipe.

How to store:Store blondies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Freeze: Wrap blondies individually in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.

Alternatives:Substitute with other chopped nuts, dried fruit or sub white chocolate for milk or dark chocolate for a variation.

TIP 1: Brown butter bits. Make sure to scrape all those brown butter bits from the bottom of the saucepan- that's where the flavour is held.

TIP 2: Paper overhang. Set yourself up for success and make sure to use the baking paper as sling.

TIP 3: Glossy, crackly thin top. The sure-fire way to get that golden papery thin top is to whip the eggs until pale and thick so that they can work their magic once baked.

Tips 4: Don't overcook.You want a slight jiggle in the centre of the blondie for that soft, fudgy interior. Bake for longer for a more ‘cakey’ texture.

Nutrition

Calories: 274kcal | Carbohydrates: 39g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 58mg | Sodium: 128mg | Potassium: 123mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 317IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 73mg | Iron: 1mg

Have you tried this recipe yet?Mention @emmaduckworthbakes or tag #emmaduckworthbakes! I’d love to see what you are getting up to in the kitchen!

This post was originally published in November 2019 but has been updated with new photos, new content and a revised recipe.

Reader Interactions

Comments

    Leave a Reply

  1. Cindy

    I am on team blonde all the way. I think that brownies get way too much undeserved love.
    Browned butter makes everything better. Can’t wait to bake these.

    Reply

    • Emma

      Ha! I totally agree with you. They have such a subtle nutty flavour that I love! My next batch, I want to add raspberries to these- yum!!

      Reply

  2. Sarah

    Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (17)
    I made these White Chocolate Blondies over the weekend and oh my word- what a delight- huge hit in our household- kids loved them. Browning the butter is a fab tip- adds so much flavour and takes no time at all. These are the best! Sarah

    Reply

  3. Wendy

    Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (18)
    Fantastic recipe. Your instructions are so clear and easy to follow. Tips were great, especially helpful for a self-taught home baker like myself. Thanks so much for sharing. Look forward to trying out your other recipes soon.

    Reply

    • Emma

      Hi Wendy - thanks so much for the review on my white chocolate blondies. I love creating my posts with lots of useful info so that any baker can tackle a recipe confidently 🙂 So glad you found this gave you confidence. x

      Reply

Chewy Brown Butter Blondies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my blondies not gooey? ›

If they're not gooey, they were over-baked. Remember that we're letting them cool in the pan completely, so they will continue to cook out of the oven. Remove them from the oven when moist crumbs are still clinging to a toothpick. Why are my blondies cakey?

How do I know if my blondies are cooked? ›

Check if the blondies are cooked by giving the tin a gentle shake, they should be mostly set but a little bit of a wobble in the centre is fine. Cool completely in the tin – the blondies will sink in the middle as they cool, just like brownies.

Why are my blondies not cooked in the middle? ›

You want the blondies to be slightly undercooked in the middle. If the top isn't set (jiggles slightly), or there is a lot of uncooked batter when you insert a toothpick in the centre to check it, then bake for a couple of more minutes. Keep an eye on the blondies as you don't want to overcook them.

Why are my blondies falling apart? ›

If your blondies are coming apart in your hands, it's likely for one of three reasons: You didn't aerate the eggs enough. The leading cause of raw, sunken blondies is not whipping enough air into the batter.

How do you keep brownies soft and chewy? ›

Using airtight wrappings (including using plastic wrap right against the brownies) is key to keeping your brownies fresh, whether you're keeping them at room temperature for short-term storage, or planning to freeze them so you can have a fresh brownie ready whenever you need it.

Why do some brownies turn out chewy? ›

Fat. With any cocoa powder-based brownie recipe, we need quite a bit of fat to prevent the cocoa powder from drying the brownies out and making them crumbly. In looking at what makes box mix brownies so chewy, it appears that the combination of saturated (solid) fats and unsaturated (liquid) fats is the winning answer.

How do you know when chewy brownies are done? ›

Gently shake the pan back and forth a few times and look at the middle of the brownies—if you're cooking fudgy brownies, they should wobble or jiggle slightly. They'll finish cooking after you take them out of the oven. If you're cooking chewy or cakey brownies, you shouldn't see any movement in the middle of the pan.

What's the difference between fudgy and undercooked brownies? ›

To test for doneness with a toothpick, insert a toothpick into the center of the brownies and pull it back out. For fudgy brownies, you'll want to see some moist crumbs attached to the toothpick when you pull it back out. If it looks like it's covered in brownie batter, the brownies will need to bake a bit longer.

Is it better to overcook or undercook brownies? ›

Even people who think they like "underbaked" brownies (as our editor David Tamarkin claims to) don't really want their brownies undercooked—they just want a brownie that's gooey and rich. And if your recipe has enough butter, chocolate, and sugar, that's what you'll get, even when the brownie is fully cooked.

Can you eat undercooked blondies? ›

In the UK, eggs with the Red Lion seal of approval are safe to eat raw or undercooked. So you can slightly undercook blondies and brownies if you prefer a fudgier texture. However, if you don't cook them enough, you just have a tray of uncooked batter.

Why are my blondies dry? ›

These blondie brownies are baked when a skewer inserted into the center where some brownie batter is comes out with a few moist sticky crumbs attached -- not wet batter, and NOT dry. If the skewer is dry then these brownies are over-baked and if the skewer has wet batter then they are still raw.

Can I put undercooked brownies back in the oven? ›

Put the brownies back in the 300 degree oven and bake until a cooking thermometer reads 195 degrees, or about 30 more minutes.

Why are my blondies still gooey? ›

Don't Overbake Blondies!

These blondies are meant to be a little gooey and soft. You can remove them from the oven just before they look like they're completely done because the residual heat of the oven and the pan will continue to cook them. Also, be sure your oven is actually at the temperature it says it is.

Why do my blondies taste like cake? ›

Tips. If your blondies are like cake when you take them out, it simply means they have been over baked – try less time or a lower temperature next time. If they are too soft, it just means they needed longer!

How do you know when a blondie is done? ›

For a chewy, gooey-centered blondie, look for golden edges and a just-set center. It shouldn't jiggle but it may look a bit underdone and feel soft when you press it. That's perfect as the blondie will continue to cook in the pan after you take them out of the oven.

Why aren't my brownies gooey? ›

If your brownies are turning out dry, it's for one of two reasons - either you've overcooked the brownies or there is too much flour in your recipe. Overcooked brownies? You can tell the difference using the edges; if they are a little burnt-looking and very dry, it's likely that the brownies are overcooked.

How do you soften hard blondies? ›

Cover them with damp paper towels. Fold the paper towels over the brownies. Microwave on medium for about 15 seconds. Check the brownies' texture and repeat in five-second increments until they reach the desired softness.

Why are my brownies still soft in the middle? ›

If the brownies still look wet or aren't pulling away, they aren't done. Even fudgy brownies will pull from the edges once they've finished baking. You'll see that the edges look dry while the middle still looks soft or slightly wet. Chewy and cakey brownies will have dry edges with firmer-looking centers.

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