Brown Butter Blondies
Rich, chewy vanilla blondies made with nutty brown butter, white chocolate chunks and pecans, finished with a golden pecan-studded top. Nutrition is estimated per bar. Batch yield: 16 blondie bars from one 20 × 20 cm tin. One serving: 1 bar, approximately 60 g after baking and cooling. Allow approximately 3 hours 20 minutes from starting to cutting. Prep minutes mean all non-oven elapsed time: 30 minutes of active work, including hob browning, plus 140 minutes of cooling, minus 5 minutes of lining and chopping done during the butter-cooling period. Cooling comprises 20 minutes for the browned butter and 120 minutes for the baked slab. Oven preheating also overlaps butter cooling and adds no separate time. Cook minutes cover one 35-minute oven batch; any additional baking needed for doneness adds to this. No chilling or frosting is required. Appliances: Hob; Oven. Equipment: Digital kitchen scales; Measuring jug or measuring spoons; Light-coloured saucepan; Large heatproof mixing bowl; Heatproof spatula; Hand whisk; 20 × 20 cm square baking tin, at least 5 cm deep; Baking parchment; Knife; Chopping board; Skewer; Wire cooling rack. Allergens: Butter, milk and white chocolate contain milk; self-raising flour contains wheat and gluten; pecans are tree nuts. White chocolate may contain soy lecithin, so check its label for soy and other product-specific allergen warnings. Storage: Once completely cool, store airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days, or refrigerate for up to 5 days. Bring refrigerated bars to room temperature before eating for a softer texture. Freeze individually wrapped bars in a sealed container for up to 2 months; thaw wrapped at room temperature for about 2 hours.
165 min
Prep
35 min
Cook
16
Serves
307
Calories
Macros · per serving
3g protein
31g carbs
19g fat
Ingredients
For 16 servings
- 225 g Unsalted butter
- 250 g Light brown soft sugar
- 2 whole eggs, about 100 g without shells Large eggs
- 10 ml Vanilla extract
- 30 ml Whole milk
- 200 g Self-raising flour
- 2 g Fine salt
- 150 g White chocolate
- 80 g Pecans
Instructions
- 1
Cut the butter into cubes; it can be cold, so no softening time is needed. Put it in a light-coloured saucepan over medium heat. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently with a heatproof spatula. The butter will melt, foam and then reveal golden-brown milk solids with a toasted, nutty smell. Immediately scrape the butter and all the brown specks into a large heatproof mixing bowl. Do not add water to replace the moisture lost.
- 2
Leave the browned butter to cool for 20 minutes, until just warm rather than hot. During this wait, spend about 5 minutes lining a 20 × 20 cm square baking tin, at least 5 cm deep, with baking parchment extending above two opposite sides. Chop the white chocolate into small chunks and roughly chop the pecans, keeping 50 g for the batter and 30 g for the top. Preheat the oven during the final 15 minutes of this cooling period to 180°C/350°F conventional or 160°C/320°F fan.
- 3
Allow about 10 minutes for mixing and filling the tin. Whisk the brown sugar into the cooled brown butter. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract and milk, until glossy and evenly combined; there is no need to whip in lots of air. Add the self-raising flour and salt, then fold gently with the spatula until almost incorporated. Fold in the white chocolate and the 50 g portion of pecans, stopping as soon as no dry flour remains.
- 4
Scrape all the thick batter into the prepared tin and spread it level, including the corners. Scatter the remaining 30 g pecans evenly over the surface and press them lightly into the batter. Bake the entire batch on the middle shelf for about 35 minutes, checking from 30 minutes. The top should be golden, the edges set and the centre no longer visibly wobbling. A skewer inserted away from a chocolate chunk should come out with moist crumbs, not liquid batter. If it is still wet, bake a little longer and check again.
- 5
Set the tin on a wire rack and cool for 90 minutes. Lift the slab out using the parchment handles, then leave it on the rack for another 30 minutes until completely cool. Do not cut it while warm: the centre firms into its chewy texture as it cools.
- 6
Allow about 5 minutes to transfer the cooled slab to a chopping board and cut it into a 4 × 4 grid, making 16 bars approximately 5 cm square.
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