Recipe Notes: Browned Butter Blondies

20 February 2019

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2019

My mom frequently made brownies, but I don't recall her making blondies. Thus I was not familiar with this treat until much later in life. I only recall making them once before but I don't find a post in my blog about them. When a recipe appeared in Cook's Illustrated I knew I wanted to try it. A blondie tastes more like a chocolate chip cookie than a brownie. The test kitchen's favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, which I enjoy, uses browned butter, as does this blondie recipe.

These blondies were pretty easy to make, no mixer is required and the ingredient list is not very long. The dry ingredients—AP flour, salt, and baking powder—were whisked together and set aside. Butter was browned and poured into a mixing bowl where it was mixed, in turn, with brown sugar, eggs, corn syrup, and vanilla. The flour mixture was added and the ingredients combined using a rubber spatula. Toasted pecans and milk chocolate chips were stirred in and the batter was poured into a prepared baking pan. It baked at 350° for about 35 minutes. Total time from start to removing the pan from the oven was about 80 minutes.

The blondies taste good and keep reasonably well. They are nether super sweet nor super rich. When fresh they had a thin veneer of crispness but as leftovers the texture, while not a problem in itself, offers little contrast. There are many other recipes for similar treats that I have enjoyed more than these, so I probably won't be making them again.