Baking · American
Blondies
Butterscotchy brown-sugar bars with a shiny crackly top, a fudgy middle and toasty nuts.
- Hands-on
- 20 min
- Hands-off
- 1 h 35 min
- Total
- 1 h 55 min
- Makes
- 24 squares (5 cm / 2 in)
- Serves
- 24
Preheating overlaps the 20 minutes of mixing. Bake 30-35 minutes, then cool completely before slicing; we allow about 1 hour for cooling, which the 55-minute time often quoted for this recipe leaves out. Total about 1 hour 55 minutes.
Oven 180 °C · 160 °C fan (350 °F)
Pan 23 x 33 cm baking pan (US: 9 x 13 in baking pan)
- easy
- vegetarian
- bar-cookies
- bake-sale
- one-bowl
Verified against at least two trusted test kitchens or food-safety guides · Last checked · What this means
Scaling? Made for a 23 x 33 cm (9 x 13 in) pan. Halving it into the same pan makes a thin layer that overbakes; use a smaller pan and go by the doneness cues rather than the clock. Some items (like eggs) don’t halve neatly: beat them, then measure out half.
Ingredients
You need: 23 x 33 cm (9 x 13 in) baking pan · medium heatproof (microwave-safe) bowl, or a saucepan · spoon or spatula (wet it to spread the batter) · toothpick · wire rack · oven mitts
Contains: milk · egg · wheat · tree nuts
Method
Heat the oven, grease the pan
Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, 350°F). Lightly grease the 23 x 33 cm (9 x 13 in) pan with the 1 tsp butter or oil.
Ready when: The oven has fully reached 180°C (350°F) before the pan goes in.
Melt butter with sugar
Put the 113 g (8 tbsp) butter, 426 g (2 cups) brown sugar and 3/4 tsp salt in the heatproof bowl. Microwave on high for 90 seconds to 2 minutes, or heat in a saucepan over medium heat, then stir until evenly combined.
Ready when: The butter is completely melted and the mixture looks like wet sand.
Beat in the eggs
Beat in the 3 cold eggs one at a time, mixing until each is absorbed before adding the next. Stir in the 2 tsp vanilla.
Otto tried this firstOtto cracks all three eggs in at once. Adding them one at a time and beating each in helps give that shiny, crackly top.Add flour
Mix the 180 g (1 1/2 cups) flour with the 1 tsp baking powder, add it to the bowl and stir until smooth. Scrape the bowl so there are no dry streaks.
Ready when: The batter is smooth and thick, with no dry streaks of flour.
Nuts and pan
Stir in 113 g (1 cup) of the nuts. Spread the batter evenly in the pan with a wet spatula or wet fingers, then scatter the remaining 55 g (1/2 cup) nuts over the top.
Bake
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Start checking at 30.
Ready when: The top crust is shiny, and the middle is still soft and gooey but not liquid. A toothpick in the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs and no raw batter.
Cool, then slice
Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack, about 1 hour, then cut into 24 squares.
Swaps
- Instead of 168 g (1 1/2 cups) chopped nuts: 255 g (1 1/2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips, or butterscotch, peanut-butter or white chocolate chips Stir them into the batter. Removes the tree nuts (peanut-butter chips add peanut).
- Instead of light brown sugar: dark brown sugar, same amount Either works; dark gives a deeper caramel flavour.
Make ahead, store & reheat
- Storage
- Wrap leftovers well and keep at room temperature for up to a week. Freeze for longer storage.
If something goes wrong
- Wet, raw batter in the middle Why: Pulled too early.
Bake a few minutes more until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs but no liquid batter. - Dry, cakey blondies Why: Baked until the middle was firm.
Take them out while the centre is still soft; they firm up as they cool. - No shiny top Why: The sugar didn't dissolve or the eggs weren't beaten in well.
Heat the butter and sugar together until it looks like wet sand, then beat the eggs in one at a time.
Good to know
- Melting the brown sugar with the butter gives the sugar a head start on dissolving, which helps the shiny top form.
- Wet your spatula or fingers so the sticky batter spreads easily.
- Cool completely before cutting for clean squares.
Safety
- Don't taste the raw batter: it contains raw egg and raw flour. Only the baked blondies are safe to eat. Wash your hands after handling it.
- The melted butter-sugar mixture and the bowl get very hot. Use oven mitts to take the bowl out of the microwave, and let an adult handle it and the oven.
- Contains tree nuts. For a nut-free batch, use the chocolate-chip swap and check the chip label.