The Best Blondies

Friday 23 March 2018


Blondies.  Blondies are often called a white brownie. That's not an entirely accurate description. Just what is a Blondie?  

It is the dense, more caramel like version of a brownie, but every bit as dense and fudgy in texture. They are incredibly sweet and incredibly moreish.  But what makes a good Blondie?

What could you classify as the best blondie recipe? I'll tell you.


Quality ingredients.  That's what.  First, you need to use a really good quality butter.  I use lurkpac, lightly salted.  

There is also a fine line between using too little butter and too much. 125g (about 1/2 cup) does it perfectly.  Any more and they would be greasy.  I also melt the butter.  

My ex MIL taught me to do that.  It creates a perfect denseness.


I like to use muscovado sugar, or at the very least dark soft brown sugar.  The higher the molasses content, the more fudge-like consistency you will get.  

This gets whisked into the melted butter along with 1 large free range egg and some really good vanilla.


I use pure vanilla extract, not artificial.  Don't be tempted to use Vanilla Paste. Its a waste here and too sweet.

These are really sweet bars, and you don't want to be adding too much extra in the way of sweetness.  Extract works beautifully.


Plain flour.  No leavening.  Just stir it in with a pinch of salt, just to combine.  

Don't overmix, or you might overdevelop the gluten in the flour.  Just mix until there are no dry streaks.


I like to use two kinds of chocolate chips, and again I use quality ones here.  A good semi-sweet and a good white chocolate chip work well.  

I like the Kirkland chocolate chips you can get at Costco for the semi sweet ones, and I buy my white chocolate chips at an American supply company. 

Failing that, get some really good white chocolate, like Green & Blacks and chop it up.


You want the white chocolate to be somewhat creamy and not artificial . . .  and you want the semi sweet chocolate chips to be really semi sweet, again not artificial tasting.  

With the Kirkland chocolate chips, even an hour later, they still appear moist and fudgy in the bake, not hard.  I like that.


I bake them in a 9 inch square baking tin.  You could bake them in a smaller tin, but you would need to bake them for longer and, in all honesty, you won't end up with the right quality of dense fudginess.  

I prefer to cook for a shorter time and go fudgier.


You don't want dry Blondies.  Dry Blondies are no fun.  

Fudgy is better. Way, way better.


And that's what you want. Dense and fudgy. Not raw.  

I remember attending a cooking show down in London  a number of years back and they had celebrity chef's on baking Brownies. I was NOT impressed.  

Their idea of a good Brownie was a raw Brownie.  Seriously.  That's not a good brownie, that's a mess.


Like a good brownie, you should be able to pick up a good blondie in your hands to eat it, without it falling apart or oozing. If its oozing its raw.  

It should hold together with a moist dense crumb.  That is what makes a Blondie a "The Best" Blondie. End of.



*The Best Blondies*
Makes 9 large
or 18 smaller
 
Rich, gooey and stogged full of white and semi-sweet chocolate chips.
 

125g unsalted butter, melted (1/2 cup)
200g muscovado sugar (1 cup, soft brown sugar with a high molasses count)
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large free range egg
140g plain flour (1 cup)
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
90g each white and semi sweet chocolate chips (1/2 cup)




Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.  Butter a 9 inch square baking tin and line with baking paper, leaving an overhang for lifting out of the pan.


Whisk together the melted butter, sugar, vanilla and egg until well mixed together.  Stir in the flour and salt. Mix to combine.  Stir in both chocolates.  Spread in the prepared baking tin.


Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until the top appears set, but they still a bit squidgy beneath.  Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before lifting out.  For 9 servings, cut into 9 even squares.  For 18, cut each square crosswise into a triangle.  Store in an airtight container.


I prefer to serve these cut into triangles.  They are very rich and very sweet.  I think a triangle gives you just enough to enjoy.  Bon Appetit! 


The Best Blondies 

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21 comments

  1. Blondies aren’t another type of brownie, they are tollhouse cookies (chocolate chip) in bar form. Sorry but those are under cooked, nasty looking,

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    1. We seem to have a difference in opinion, and that's okay. To each their own. Every blondie I have ever had has been a bar. These are not under cooked, nor are they nasty. Toll house cookies or chocolate chip cookies are indeed something quite different than these bars and are intended to be.

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    2. PS - I thought you might like to read what Wikipedia has to say on the matter:

      A blondie (also known as a blonde brownie) is a rich, sweet dessert bar. It resembles the traditional chocolate brownie, but substitutes vanilla for the cocoa used in brownies,[1] and contains brown sugar. Blondies are made from flour, brown sugar, butter, eggs, baking powder, and vanilla, and may also contain walnuts or pecans. Blondies often contain white or dark chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or other flavored chips.[1]

      Blondies differ significantly from white chocolate brownies. Unlike the white chocolate brownie or the normal brownie, they contain no chocolate or chocolate flavouring, other than chocolate chips, which may be included. They may also contain coconut, nuts, toffee, or any other chunky candy for added texture. Blondies are not usually frosted; the brown sugar tends to be sweet enough. A variation is the Congo bar, which contains chocolate chips with either walnuts or coconut.

      They are baked in a pan in an oven in a manner similar to that of the baking of traditional brownies, then they are cut into rectangular shapes for serving. Blondies are sometimes served in sundaes, often topped with caramel sauce.

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  2. Replies
    1. It's okay Mary. For the most part people are very nice. That’s who I do this for. The rest, I just try to ignore. We are all different! Thank you for your kind support! Xo

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  3. I am never surprised when very opinionated people leave their professional comments ..when we click on their names to see the degree of their qualifications..because they must be stellar.. there is no link to be found.


    Marie..thanks for everything you share.. always.
    The time you take to create..test ..photo..share..
    Admirable.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Monique! I love doing it. It’s not really surprising to me when people hide their meanness behind the cloak of anonymity. For the most part people are much nicer than that, which makes it easier for me to look past the people who aren’t! Xo

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  4. These look delicious -- and it's giving me an idea. I have been trying to think what kind of dessert for Easter and no one is cooperating and settling plans (millennials are very annoying in the planning department). A cake or something bigger is too much if it is just Rick and me. So maybe I will do a dessert plate with some of these and a some pretty cookies -- this, cut-outs and shortbread. Anything leftover will be easy to deliver to friends (and get out of my house!) And if we have our baby grand with us, it will be easy for him to eat. Thanks!

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    1. That sounds like an excellent plan Jeanie! And I am sure your friends will be really pleased with your generous gift of leftovers! You are so lucky to be able to have a baby grand close enough so you can spend time together! What a blessing! Xo

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  5. They look very tasty to me. Mary would not like any of my blondies as I use peanut butter-but that's her loss too.

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    1. Ohh Jay, peanut butter sounds like a fabulous addition! I adore peanut butter. Just think of how many really wonderful things people miss out on by narrowing their view of the world! I am going to try peanut butter. Do you just substitute it for some of the butter?? xoxo

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    2. Hi Marie-yes peanut butter and butter creamed together.
      I can't take credit for the recipe though-it's from a Rachel Allen cookbook.

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    3. Oh, I have some of her cookbooks! I will have to check! Thanks!

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  6. Thank you so much for a blondie recipe that is not a white chocolate brownie! I used to like a little white chocolate but have grown to hate it being in so many recipes, often making them too suckly. With your recipe, I can control the amount of white chocolate or remove it all together whilst still enjoying the blondie.

    I am also glad to see that your recipe uses all melted butter. I adapted my favourite brownie recipe from using a percentage of melted butter to mix with cocoa and the rest creamed with sugar, to melting all the butter and mixing with the dry ingredients. It makes feel I am doing something right for melting all the butter rather than feeling I am breaking some kind of important rule ;-)

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    1. You are welcome Karen! Of course you can use only semi sweet chocolate chips in these, or even add chopped toasted nuts (pecans would be lovely) in place of the white chocolate chips! Melting the butter does add to the dense fudginess of these!! I also melt all the butter in my regular brownie recipe which are incredibly dense and fudgy also! White chocolate can be very cloying on its own I find. Too sweet. xo

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  7. I think Mary may be confusing blondies with butterscotch blondie cookies or vanilla blondie cookies, both of which look very similar to a white tollhouse cookie (or choc chip in the uk). If they were a regular make in a family home than they may well have been abbreviated to a blondie, but they are actually a different beast!

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    1. It is quite possible that is so Karen! We will give her a benefit of the doubt! xo

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  8. Pay no mind to the haters commenting on the recipe's you post, Marie!

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    1. Thanks so much. I try hard not to! But its all a part of what you just learn to live with when you do this job! oxoxo

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