My Best Classic Blondie Recipe

Don’t think of blondies as brownies without the chocolate – these chewy little squares are sweet like butterscotch and studded with toasted walnuts and melty dark chocolate pockets. I add a generous sprinkle of flaky sea salt to balance the sweetness of the brown sugar, making these bars the best classic blondie recipe to come out of my kitchen.

This month on Joy the Baker, we’re exploring CLASSICS.  I’m talking about those bookmarked recipes in my favorite cookbooks (aka every cookbook by Dorie Greenspan) or the butter-stained recipe cards in my mom’s handwriting we taped to the inside of the pantry cupboard in my parent’s kitchen. The almost memorized GOOD ONES.

Over the past 15 years I’ve had a propensity to do thinks like – add bacon to peanut butter cookies and then have the audacity to add ramen to rice krispie treats and sure, we’ve lived by a more is more mantra rather successfully.  But this month we’re stripping it down to the basics of butter and sugar by sharing my very favorite classic baked goods.

First up: Classic Blondies.  I think of these as thin and chewy cookie bars.  Butterscotch forward (thank you, brown sugar) with a balance of dark chocolate, earthy walnuts, and sea salt.  Let’s get into the good stuff!

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this classic Blondie recipe:

•  all-purpose flour though a gluten-free flour blend also works well.

•  melted butter (I typically use unsalted butter in my baking but this recipe is also great with salted butter – just reduce the salt in the ingredient list by about half)

•  brown sugar, light or dark

•  powdered sugar

•  large eggs

•  vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

•  baking powder

•  dark chocolate chunks

•  walnuts, though pecans are great if you prefer

Because blondies are a simple combination of ingredients, I like to treat the nuts with extra care.  Walnuts are scientifically 1000% more delicious when toasted to golden.  While the oven preheats, toast the walnuts until they’re fragrant and just starting to take on color.

In a medium bowl whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt.

Let’s talk about sugar for this classic blondie recipe.  Do you prefer dark brown sugar or light brown sugar? I always keep light brown sugar in the pantry but dark brown sugar will add even more of that caramely butterscotch flavor.  I also chose powdered sugar over granulated sugar for this recipe.  Powdered sugar has a bit of cornstarch in it and I like the way it creates a lightly crinkled top to the blondies.

In a separate bowl whisk together sugar and melted butter.

The sugars and butter whisk to a velvety mixture.  Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract. Stir in the dry ingredients into a thick blondie batter.  It’ll feel sticky – that’s exactly right.

Fold in your favor mix-ins: dark chocolate chips and toasted walnuts or toasted pecans, white chocolate chips, or butterscotch chips.  Because we’re keeping it classic, less is more here.  We aren’t going for full of Candy Bar Blondies.

I’ve tested my way around my ideal blondie and I will say, the baking pan is important.  Most recipes call for an 8-inch square baking pan but I think that bakes too thick a blondie.  I want my bar more thin and chewy in texture and the ideal pan is a rimmed quarter sheet pan that measure 9×13-inches.

Lining the pan with parchment paper (and grease the parchment paper lightly) will make the blondies easier to lift from the pan and slice.

Spread the blondie batter, edge to edge and dot with more dark chocolate, toasty walnuts, and wow a generous sprinkle of flaky sea salt.

The blondies bake up to have golden brown edges and a dry, slightly wrinkled top.  The flavor is caramel meets chocolate chip cookies.  Chewy, nutty, perfectly sweet little squares.

Baker’s Law (which is something I’ve made up) indicates that the baker gets to eat the first warm blondie while standing at the kitchen counter for efforts put forth and quality control.  After this lawful blondie, I like to serve these warm, on a small plate, with a petite scoop of vanilla ice cream.  But because they are the best blondies, they’re nearly as satisfying served solo.

Can’t wait for you to bake these, friends! Let us know how you enjoy them in the comments below! xo

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