Anyone who has spent any amount of time visiting Oui, Chef knows that we're a household of chocolate freaks and brownie aficionados of the highest order. There are countless ways to kill yourself with chocolate here, and at current count 6 different brownie recipes with which to indulge even your darkest cocoa-laced fantasy.
You will also note that up until this point we haven't posted a single "blondie" recipe.
Why?
Because til now I've viewed blondies as the poor, color challenged step-sib of our favorite chocolate addiction, the brownie. Most that I've tried over the years were dry, tasteless, and just plain old boring. All the hooha over blondies that I've been hearing for years was totally lost on me….to me they were just brownies that had every ounce of goodness sucked out of them.
Until now, that is.
My friends, I have finally encountered a blondie that I find addictively delicious, and totally worthy of sharing here on Oui, Chef….Huzzah! I wish I could say these came to me in a dream but they didn't, rather they came to me as a recipe test a few weeks back, and while they were pretty great as written, I made them even better with just one small change to the recipe. The original called for using milk chocolate-toffee chunks (like from a Skor bar), and while I love sugar as much as just about anybody, the end result was a little much even for me. Second time around I made them with a high quality bittersweet chocolate instead, and they were perfection.
The gads of dark brown sugar make the body of the bar a dense butterscotch bomb of a thing, and the chocolate chunks add a textural and flavor contrast that deliver real dimension to the treat. I think the only thing that could improve these even more would be the addition of some chopped pecans for a little buttery crunch. If nuts are your thing, I might suggest adding a cup and see what you think.
Do please report back!
Cheers – Steve
Butterscotch Blondies
Ingredients
- 3 sticks plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature (plus some for the pan)
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 3 large eggs
- 2 cups dark brown sugar (we used dark demerara...yum)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 8 ounces of great quality bittersweet (or semi-sweet) chocolate, cut into chunks
- 1 cup, chopped pecans (optional)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 325℉. Butter a 9"x9" baking pan and line it with parchment to come up over the sides, or better yet, lightly coat a silicone 9"x9" baking pan with cooking spray and forget the parchment.
- Melt the butter over a low flame and set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs and vanilla, then whisk in the cooled butter. Gently combine the wet and dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just mixed, then fold in the chocolate chunks (and nuts, if using).
- Pour the mix into the prepared pan (make sure to place a cookie sheet under the silicone pan if you are using one, before you move it to the oven), and place it on the center rack of the oven.
- Bake for 35 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of the pan comes out just moist.
- Let the blondies cool completely in the pan, then remove to a cutting board to cut into small squares. These babies are rich, so I do mean SMALL squares.