This blondie is a giant soft cookie bar - full of chocolate and buttery goodness that is a great alternative to baking up a full batch of cookies. It's fast, tasty and chewy and don't get me started on the irresistible brown butter smell coming from that oven!
I got this recipe from my new book The Magnolia Bakery Handbook. Thanks mom...what a great gift! She knows me so well:) The original recipe uses either chunks or chips and I don't generally have chunks...so semi-sweet chips were my addition. But I can totally imagine this being a great recipe for creative add ins like different chocolate chunks - dark, golden or white, peanut butter chips, craisins, nuts, potato chips, pretzels...what CAN'T you add to a cookie bar?
And the chew. Ah! So good! I must admit I am normally deeply entrenched on the side of brownies. Oowey gooey chocolatey brownies! I LOVE them! But here is a blondie (a brownie without the cocoa basically) that I must say rivals a brownie any day! Now let me tell you about brown butter...
I always buy salted butter and simply cut down on the amount of salt I add to recipes or omit it completely if I find that it is too salty. And that's what I did here. I placed my cup of salted butter in my frypan and on low heat - browned it. It takes maybe 5 to 7 minutes and a bit of stirring. But the results of your house smelling all nutty and butterific (that's a word) is so worth it! A recipe calling for brown butter VS melted butter has my vote every time!
Now as you can see in my pictures of browning butter...it gets pretty foamy. And when it separated, I tasted a bit of the foamy butter part. It was super salty...so I did not add any salt to my blondie. AND I scooped off almost all the foamy part and threw the foam out. When you use salted butter you simply don't have any control over how much salt the company may have added. Hmmm I think I may be talking myself into switching to the unsalted variety.
Make sure you cool the browned butter to room temp before you get started. I did mine first, walked the dog, and made the bars when I got home.
No need for a mixer. Just whisk together your dry ingredients. Set aside. Combine your sugar, butter and vanilla and whisk together until creamy. Add the eggs and remix until creamy again. Add the flour mix until combined. Fold in the chocolate. Done!
I used a 9x13 pan lined with overhanging parchment (for ease of lifting out). But you can use an 8x8 pan and just have thicker bars. The larger pan - thinner bar - cooks faster too, so you can have 24 pieces in 25 to 28 minutes versus 16 pieces in 40 to 45 minutes in the smaller pan. You decide:)
I really hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! Please let me know if you give it a try in the comments below!
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, browned and cooled to room temperature
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
Directions
Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and parchment paper or foil a 9x13 pan or 8x8 pan with overhang for lifting out
Before starting, brown your butter and cool to room temp
Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, browned butter, and vanilla. Whisk together until creamy
Add eggs and remix until creamy again
Add the flour mixture and stir with wooden spoon until combined
Fold in chocolate chips or chunks until combined
Press batter into pan and smooth it out using an offset spatula
Bake until set. 25 - 28 minutes in 9x13 pan or 40 - 45 minutes for the 8x8. Rotate pan half way through baking time.
Cool completely in pan. Lift and cut into bars when cool. Store covered.
