Blondies are like the second sister to chocolate brownies but are in fact just as delicious and even easier to make. It’s basically a bar-cookie version of chocolate chippers. You don’t have to cream butter and sugar but merely mix brown sugar with melted butter, add flour, chocolate chips and nuts. The version I make has a liquor component— a shot of bourbon or rum adds great flavor to these.
Lining the baking dish with parchment with ends overhanging, makes it easy to remove the blondies
As a simply prepared dessert they’re great to pair with a scoop of butter pecan or vanilla ice cream or just grab a square to enjoy on the go.
When I made these the other night as dessert after a dinner of chicken pot pie served to friends it was a last-minute thought. I wasn’t sure if I had all the ingredients on hand but it turned out I did to a tee.
Chicken pot pie made with leftover meat from a roast chicken mixed with sauteed vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, celery, green peas and topped with a cream sauce and covered in an all-butter short-crust
My actual method is an adaption of two excellent recipes: one from the excellent baking book, “Back in the Day” by Cheryl and Griffith Day and “The Perfect Scoop” by David Lebovitz.
I weigh my ingredients, and the recipe I created called for 1 cup of flour (140 grams). Using my flour scoop I plunged the scoop into the flour and weighed it, nearly exactly what I needed. It shows if you cook enough you can often eyeball ingredient measures pretty accurately.
A platter of blondies
I had half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, which weighed the exact amount I needed, 115 grams or a bit under 3/4 cup chips. I had a jar of chopped pecans on the counter, which weighed 75 grams (about 2/3 cup). Butter was easy—1 stick melted in the microwave. And instead of packing the light brown sugar into a cup, it’s much simpler to weigh it out to the amount of 215 grams or about 1 cup packed light-brown sugar. Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1 to 2 tablespoons bourbon or rum and one beaten egg. It can all be done in one mixing bowl, though you’ll need several receptacles to put on the scale to measure ingredients and one to hold and mix the dry ingredients.
Blondies with homemade butter-pecan ice cream
A platter of blondies
Ingredients
- 1 stick (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup (140 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch (about 1/8 teaspoon) baking soda
- Good pinch sea salt
- 1 packed cup (215 grams) light-brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 to 2 tablespoons bourbon or dark rum, to taste
- About 2/3 cup (115 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- About 2/3 cup (75 grams) chopped pecans, toasted for 5 minutes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease an 8-inch square baking pan and line it with a 12.5- by 16-inch sheet of parchment paper, the long side hanging over the two sides of the pan and the other sides which will just come up to the rim pressed neatly against the pan.
- Melt the butter and set aside.
- Measure the flour into a mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the melted butter with the brown sugar until smooth. Add the beaten egg, the vanilla extract and the liquor to combine. Fold in the dry ingredients, mixing gently but thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Fold in the nuts and chips.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. It will firm up and be slightly puffed when cooked through. Remove from oven and put on a cooling rack. Cool completely before cutting into squares. To remove from pan merely lift up the blondies, taking the ends of the overhanging parchment paper and lifting up to a board. Cut into squares. Serve with ice cream if desired.
Notes
Note: Whole Foods carries a brand of parchment paper that is boxed in a roll with 24 pre-cut sheets measuring 12.5 by 16 inches.
