{"id":193637,"title":"Authentic American Blondies","modified":"2026-10-29T19:29:47+01:00","plain":"American blondies made with brown butter, dark brown sugar and vanilla, dense and fudgy, with dark chocolate chips scattered over the top.\n\n\n\nThe pan has been cooling on the rack since lunch, and the whole kitchen still smells of brown butter and vanilla. The edges are amber and a little crisp, while the center stays dense and fudgy beneath the chocolate chips. \n\n\n\nThe first bite tastes of buttery caramel, with a toasty note that keeps you coming back. You cut one square to taste, then a second just to be sure.\n\n\n\nIts cocoa cousin: American brownies\n\n\n\nWhat Is a Blondie?\n\n\n\nA blondie is an American bar baked in a pan and cut into squares. It\u2019s known as the blond cousin of the chocolate brownie: the same dense, fudgy texture, but with no cocoa or melted chocolate in the batter. \n\n\n\nIts flavor comes from butter, molasses-rich brown sugar and vanilla, which give it a butterscotch taste, the American take on butter caramel. In this recipe, the butter is first turned into brown butter, and the dark chocolate chips are scattered over the top before baking.\n\n\n\nThe name simply comes from its golden color. In the mid-20th century, people spoke of \u201cblonde brownies\u201d or \u201cbutterscotch brownies,\u201d and then the shorter word \u201cblondies\u201d caught on in the 1970s.\n\n\n\nThe First Brownie Was Blond\n\n\n\nThe first recipe printed under the name \u201cbrownie\u201d appeared in 1896 in Fannie Farmer\u2019s cookbook, in Boston. It contained no chocolate: it was a small sweet molasses cake baked in individual molds. Chocolate was expensive for American households at the time, molasses far less so, and that first brownie was much closer to a blondie than to today\u2019s cocoa square.\n\n\n\nAnother American treat with a caramel flavor: pecan pie\n\n\n\nIn the early 20th century, chocolate became cheap and the chocolate brownie took over completely. The squares made with brown sugar and vanilla were then renamed to set them apart. Today the blondie is part of everyday American cooking, like cinnamon rolls, donuts and pancakes.\n\n\n\nThe Main Ingredients in Blondies\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUnsalted butter is cooked until its milk solids turn golden in the bottom of the saucepan: this brown butter gives blondies their toasty flavor. \n\n\n\nAmerican dark brown sugar is soft, moist and loaded with molasses. In France, the closest match is soft dark brown beet sugar, while raw cane sugar, which is drier, makes drier blondies. A little granulated sugar rounds out the sweetness.\n\n\n\nThe eggs and the extra yolk go into the batter cold, straight from the fridge: they bring down the temperature of the still-warm butter, and the yolk makes the squares softer. Vanilla and sea salt reinforce the caramel flavor. T55 flour, the standard French equivalent of American all-purpose flour, and a little baking powder give just enough structure.\n\n\n\nAnother classic American afternoon snack: banana bread\n\n\n\nThe dark chocolate chips stay on top of the batter. European chocolate often contains fewer stabilizers than American chocolate chips and melts more during baking. A pinch of fleur de sel as they come out of the oven is optional.\n\n\n\nTechnique Tips for Fudgy Blondies\n\n\n\nThe brown butter should cool until it\u2019s barely warm before it goes in with the eggs. At first, the mixture resists and tends to separate: keep whisking until there\u2019s no trace of butter left.\n\n\n\nOnce the flour is in, stir just until it disappears. The batter is thick, similar to the dough for American cookies, and should be worked as little as possible.\n\n\n\nFor raw dough fans: cookie dough to eat by the spoonful\n\n\n\nWhen they come out of the oven, the edges are nicely golden and the center still jiggles: that\u2019s intentional. The blondies firm up as they cool in the pan for 2 to 3 hours and cut cleanly once cold. They keep for several days in an airtight container. Serve them with a glass of cold milk or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.\n\n\n\n\n\n\tAuthentic American Blondies\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tPanUnsalted butter, (for greasing the pan)Brown Butter226 g unsalted butter ((makes about 182 g of brown butter))Batter330 g dark brown beet sugar, (packed, or soft dark brown sugar)50 g granulated sugar2 large eggs, (cold)1 large egg yolk, (cold)1.5 tablespoons vanilla extract1.5 teaspoons sea salt1 teaspoon baking powder288 g all-purpose flour (T55)Topping128 g dark chocolate chipsFleur de sel, (optional)\t\n\t\n\t\tPreparing the Oven and PanPlace a rack in the center of the oven.Preheat the oven to 175\u00b0C.Butter a 23 cm square pan.Line the bottom and two sides of the pan with parchment paper.Brown ButterPut the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.Melt the butter over medium heat.Once the butter has melted, turn the heat up to medium-high.Stir constantly, without taking your eyes off the pan.As soon as small golden specks settle on the bottom of the pan and the butter is nicely golden, take the pan off the heat.Immediately pour the butter into a medium heatproof bowl, scraping in all the brown bits from the bottom.Let the brown butter cool until it is close to room temperature, or slightly warm at most.BatterIn the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a whisk, combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, egg yolk, vanilla and salt.Beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until the mixture is thick, lighter in color and smooth.Add the cooled brown butter.Whisk until the butter is fully incorporated: at first, the mixture resists and tends to separate, so keep going until there is no trace of butter left.On low speed, add the baking powder and mix for 30 seconds.Add the flour.Mix on low speed just until the flour disappears.With a spatula, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl one last time so that no pockets of flour remain.Don't overmix: the batter is thick, like cookie dough.BakingTransfer the batter to the prepared pan.Smooth the top with the back of a spoon or an offset spatula, without aiming for perfection.Scatter the chocolate chips over the top.Bake in the center of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes.Take the pan out when the edges are golden brown, the top has puffed up slightly and the center still jiggles a little.Sprinkle with fleur de sel, if desired.Cooling and CuttingSet the pan on a wire rack.Let cool completely in the pan, 2 to 3 hours: straight out of the oven, the blondies look underbaked, but they firm up as they cool.For even cleaner cuts, then refrigerate the pan for a few hours.Cut into 12 squares, or 9, with a very sharp knife.Wipe the blade clean and dry it between each cut.\t\n\t\n\t\tBrown butter: this is what gives these blondies their toasty flavor. To save time, you can simply use melted butter. Melted butter, rather than creamed butter, gives a dense, fudgy texture, not a cakey one.\nCold eggs: the eggs and yolk are deliberately used straight from the fridge to bring down the temperature of the still-warm butter. That way, the batter keeps the right consistency and doesn't melt the chocolate. The extra egg yolk makes the blondies softer and fudgier.\nSugar: American dark brown sugar is a soft, moist brown sugar rich in molasses. In France, dark brown beet sugar (or light brown beet sugar, for a milder flavor) is the closest match. Raw cane sugar, which is drier, makes drier blondies. \nFlour: in the United States, all-purpose flour is used. French T55 is the usual supermarket equivalent; in Germany, it's Type 550.\nNo stand mixer: the recipe works very well by hand, in a large mixing bowl with a whisk and then a spatula, or with an electric hand mixer. Either way, don't overmix once the flour has been added.\nPan: a metal pan is ideal. It's better to grease it with butter than with oil, because with so few ingredients, everything that touches the blondies matters.\nChocolate: here the dark chocolate chips go on top, but any chocolate works (semisweet, dark, milk or white). European chocolate often contains fewer stabilizers than American chocolate chips and tends to melt more during baking.\nToppings: you can replace the chocolate with, or add to it, caramel bits, toffee bits, peanut butter chips or butterscotch chips, or roughly chopped walnuts or pecans. Don't use more than about 240 ml of toppings in total.\nDoneness: a fudgy blondie is intentionally underbaked in the center. To be on the safe side, check with a thermometer that the center reaches at least 71\u00b0C.\nStorage: several days at room temperature in an airtight container.\nTo serve: plain with a glass of cold milk, or as a dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of caramel.\n\t\n\t\n\t\tDessertAm\u00e9ricaine","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}