This is the best blondie recipe I’ve made. They are perfectly chewy and fudgy, and I love that the batter comes together in just one bowl.
Imagine a brownie, but instead of rich chocolate or cocoa, it has a warm, caramel-like vanilla flavor. That’s a blondie! The key to that classic flavor is using melted butter and brown sugar as the base of the batter.
This blondie recipe is incredible when made with plain melted butter, but for even more flavor, you have the option to make brown butter blondies. Browning the butter first adds a nutty and toasty flavor that really takes them to the next level. This simple step only takes an extra 5 minutes, but makes a big difference in the end.
Key Ingredients
- Butter: The secret to rich and flavorful blondies. I use unsalted butter, and for an extra toasty flavor, I love to brown the butter, as shown in our recipe video below. See how to brown butter for more tips.
- Brown Sugar: The toasty notes of the molasses in brown sugar make these taste like sweet caramel. Light brown sugar is fine, but if you have it on hand, I love using dark brown sugar for even more flavor.
- Egg: The egg provides structure and helps make them fudgy in the middle. A room temperature egg mixes better into the batter, so either leave it out on the counter for a bit, or quickly warm up your egg by placing it in a bowl of lukewarm water for 5 minutes before adding it to the batter.
- Vanilla and Salt: Just like when making homemade chocolate chip cookies, vanilla and salt help the bars taste amazing. If you have almond extract on hand, add a little dash (it’s delicious).
- Flour: I use all-purpose flour, which provides some structure, although I don’t use much of it. Like when making our favorite homemade brownies, we only add a little flour to the batter (more flour results in a cakey, drier texture).
- Chocolate Chips: I love chocolate chip blondies, but I’ve provided tips for using other mix-ins in our recipe. Consider white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, chopped candy bars, M&Ms, dried fruit, or nuts. Anything goes!
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Blondies
Tip 1: Melt the butter. Starting with melted butter makes these blondies so easy to mix. You don’t need a mixer or softened butter. Whenever I can use melted butter in baking, I do (see our chocolate chip cookies as proof). Since we’re melting it anyway, take the extra minute to make brown butter for a toasty, caramelized flavor.
To brown the butter, swirl it in a saucepan over medium-low heat. It will melt, get foamy, and then turn golden brown with a nutty aroma.
Tip 2: Combine the butter and sugar. Whisk the still-warm butter into the brown sugar (we use all brown sugar for a rich, caramel-like flavor). The mixture may look a bit greasy or gritty at first, but don’t worry. It’s normal, and it will smooth out once the other ingredients are added.
Tip 3: Add the egg and flavorings. When the butter-sugar mixture is no longer hot to the touch, whisk in the egg, vanilla, salt, and optional almond extract. The liquid from the egg helps smooth the batter and brings everything together, just as it does when making our one-bowl brownies.
Tip 4: Add a small amount of flour. There’s very little flour in this blondie recipe, and that’s on purpose. Using less flour keeps them dense and fudgy rather than cakey. You’ll also notice there’s no baking powder or baking soda. That’s how we keep the texture chewy. (If you prefer a bit more lift, check the recipe notes for an easy adjustment.)
Tip 5: Fold in mix-ins. Here’s where you can have some fun. This batter can handle about 1 ½ cups of mix-ins. We used chocolate chips in our video and photos, but you can switch it up with crushed freeze-dried strawberries and white chocolate chips, chopped candy, nuts and dried fruit, or sprinkles for a funfetti-style twist.
Tip 6: How to know when blondies are done. The biggest mistake you can make is baking your blondies for too long. For the best texture, remove them from the oven when the edges are set but the center looks shiny and slightly underbaked. Just like when baking our fudgy brownies, these will continue to set and firm up in the middle as they cool.
Serving Suggestions
These blondies are incredible all on their own, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t share a few of my favorite ways to serve them. They’re wonderful warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or chilled (almost frozen) and crumbled over the top of ice cream for a little crunch.
You can even turn them into a blondie sundae, and drizzle them with chocolate or caramel sauce, add whipped cream, and finish with a cherry on top. Yum!
More Easy Desserts
Easy Blondies
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This blondie recipe 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 turn out. With our recipe, the bars will be around ½ inch thick. We love them this way, but for thicker blondies, try adding baking powder to your batter (see tips below the recipe).
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (113g)
1 cup dark or light brown sugar, lightly packed (200g)
1 large egg at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract, optional
¼ rounded teaspoon fine sea salt, decrease a little if sensitive to salt
1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled (130g)
1 cup chocolate chips (170g)
½ cup optional extras like toasted nuts or dried fruit (85g)
Directions
1Prep the oven and pan: Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Lightly butter and line an 8×8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
2Prep the butter: Melt the butter or make browned butter. To make browned 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.
3Make the batter: 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.
4Add the flour: Add the flour in two additions, gently folding it into the batter after each addition until you no longer see streaks of flour.
5Add the mix-ins: Stir in the chocolate chips and any additional add-ins like nuts or dried fruit.
6Bake blondies: 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 until the edges look dry and the middle looks shiny and slightly underbaked, 20 to 30 minutes.
7Cool and cut: Cool to room temperature before removing from the pan, allowing them to set in the middle. 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 supposed to be dense, rich, and a little fudgy.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Keep these 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 them for up to 3 months! I like wrapping them individually so I can take one or two out of the freezer.
- Baking powder: For taller 1-inch blondies, whisk 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder with the flour before adding to the batter. They will be a bit less fudgy.
- Measuring flour: Weigh it or use the “spoon and level” method. Fluff the flour, spoon it into the measuring cup, then level off the top with a flat edge.
- Baking tips: We consistently achieve excellent results when baking these in a 350°F oven for 23 minutes. Ovens vary, and bake time can be affected by the pan you use. 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-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.
I’ve made this recipe twice: the first time with plain melted unsalted butter, and the second time with browned butter. Well, I will always make these blondies with browned butter in the future! The caramel-like flavor is incredible, especially when using dark brown sugar. I added vanilla chips and toffee brickle. Rave reviews! Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
You are so welcome and so we glad you love the recipe! Thank you for coming back to leave a review 🙂
I followed this recipe exactly, added chocolate chips…it was INCREDIBLE! The best easy treat I’ve ever made. Need to make it a weekly staple – so decadent with a perfect texture. Easy for a beginner baker.
Hi! So I have a question regarding the amount of sugar. In the recipe it calls for 115 grams but that adds up to about 3/4 of a cup when lightly packed. Is there a chance theres been an error? Thank you 🙂
Oh no! You are absolutely correct. The grams provided were incorrect. I’ve corrected it. you will need 1 cup or 200 grams of brown sugar in this recipe.
The original recipe here was STELLAR! This is NOT the original recipe on the blog. Your ratio to of brown sugar and flour are not the same. I made this over a second time because I thought I mucked up the first batch. The original recipe has a shiney crinkly top. This recipe doesn’t have enough sugar and too much flour. I am a professional baker for a living, I’m no novice. I loved this recipe so much I had it saved from years ago as my go to when I made blondies. I just thought it would be easier if I pulled it up on my phone to get the recipe. Turns out I had to dig in my files to determine what happened as there was no way I made the same mistake twice. Please adjust to the original gram weight you had previously. Thank you.
Hi Carrie, You are so right! When editing this recipe, we mistakenly changed the gram weight. Very sorry and it is fixed now.
Could you add in diced apples to make it more of an apple blondie?
That sounds great!
I’ve been in love with this recipe for years. It’s my go-to whenever I want to bring dessert to work or to friends. And EVERYTIME, I’m asked for the recipe. It’s a killer!!! Recently I’ve found that melting about 25% of the chips in the batter gives it a more chocolatey flavour which is also delicious. Thank you for this wonderful recipe
Have made this several times. This is the first time I ever doubled it. Directions were spot on. Taking it to a cookout tomorrow. Thank you! Judging from that extra batter, which I already sampled, I have a hit!
10/10! This recipie is so bomb. The blondies wre crispy and sweet. Perefect chocolate ratio.
Absolutely delicious! I know my family will ask me to make these blondies again and again. I did use the 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to make them a little more cookie-like. Thanks for all your great recipes!
This recipe has long been a favorite of mine. I’ve been asked to make it many, many times. I use white chocolate chips as the add-in and have on many occasions made a boozy version with bourbon. The bourbon with the brown sugar is definitely a good combo! A colleague of mine used butterscotch chips as the add-in. I’m gonna have to try that next time! They turn out perfect every single time!