Chef Dean
Almond Butter Cookies
Buttery, sandy-textured cookies crowned with whole blanched almonds, delivering old-fashioned elegance through honest technique and quality butter. The kind of cookie that earns its place on holiday platters.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Butterscotch Blondies
Created by
Dense, chewy bars where brown butter meets dark brown sugar in a one-bowl wonder. These golden squares deliver that elusive butterscotch depth that made American bar cookies famous.
Pastries & Cookies
American
Make Ahead
Potluck
15 min
Active Time
25 min cook•40 min total
Yield16 bars
The blondie has suffered an identity crisis for too long, dismissed as merely a brownie without chocolate. This misses the point entirely. The blondie came first, predating the chocolate version by decades, and it deserves recognition on its own considerable merits. What you're making here is essentially the filling of a butterscotch pie in bar form. Concentrate on that thought.
The secret to a proper blondie lives in the brown sugar. Dark brown, specifically, with its higher molasses content that creates those deep caramel notes. Combined with browned butter, you get a complexity that chocolate actually obscures. I've watched too many bakers reach for chocolate chips out of habit, as if naked blondies needed saving. They don't. The butterscotch flavor stands alone magnificently.
Texture matters as much as flavor here. You want dense and chewy, not cakey. This means mixing with restraint and pulling the pan from the oven while the center still wobbles slightly. The bars will set as they cool. Overbake them and you've made blonde shortbread, which is fine but not what we're after. Trust the wobble.
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Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
unsalted butter
Quantity
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks)
dark brown sugar
Quantity
2 cups
packed
large eggs
Quantity
2
room temperature
pure vanilla extract
Quantity
1 tablespoon
fine sea salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
baking powder
Quantity
1 teaspoon
all-purpose flour
Quantity
2 cups
butterscotch chips (optional)
Quantity
1 cup
flaky sea salt (optional)
Quantity
for finishing
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| unsalted butter | 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) |
| dark brown sugarpacked | 2 cups |
| large eggsroom temperature | 2 |
| pure vanilla extract | 1 tablespoon |
| fine sea salt | 1/2 teaspoon |
| baking powder | 1 teaspoon |
| all-purpose flour | 2 cups |
| butterscotch chips (optional) | 1 cup |
| flaky sea salt (optional) | for finishing |
Equipment Needed
- •9x13-inch baking pan
- •Light-colored saucepan for browning butter
- •Large mixing bowl
- •Rubber spatula
- •Wire cooling rack
Instructions
- 1
Brown the butter
Place the butter in a light-colored saucepan over medium heat. The light pan lets you watch the color change, which is everything here. Swirl occasionally as the butter melts, foams, and begins to smell nutty. Watch for golden-brown flecks forming at the bottom. This takes 4 to 6 minutes. The moment it smells like hazelnuts and the solids turn amber, pull it from the heat. Pour into a large mixing bowl, scraping every precious brown bit from the pan.
The butter can go from browned to burned in seconds. Stay present and keep swirling. If you see any black specks, you've gone too far. - 2
Prepare the pan
While the butter cools slightly, position a rack in the center of your oven and heat to 350°F. Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving overhang on the long sides. This creates handles for easy removal. Lightly grease the parchment.
- 3
Build the batter
Add the dark brown sugar to the warm butter and whisk vigorously until smooth. The residual heat helps dissolve the sugar and builds that characteristic sheen. Let this mixture cool for 3 minutes. You want it warm but not hot enough to scramble the eggs. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each. The batter will turn glossy and ribbony. Stir in the vanilla.
Room temperature eggs incorporate more smoothly and help the batter emulsify properly. Cold eggs can cause the butter to seize slightly. - 4
Add dry ingredients
Sprinkle the salt and baking powder over the batter and whisk briefly to distribute. Add the flour all at once. Switch to a rubber spatula and fold gently until the flour just disappears. The batter will be thick, glossy, and pull away from the bowl sides. If using butterscotch chips, fold them in now with three or four strokes. Stop mixing the moment everything comes together. Overmixing develops gluten and makes the bars tough.
- 5
Bake to a wobble
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly with the spatula, pushing into corners. The surface doesn't need to be perfectly smooth. Bake for 22 to 28 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. The blondies are done when the edges are set and beginning to pull away from the pan, and the center jiggles slightly when gently shaken. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it, not wet batter.
Every oven runs differently. Start checking at 20 minutes. The bars continue cooking as they cool, so pulling them slightly underdone is the path to chewy perfection. - 6
Cool and finish
Sprinkle flaky sea salt over the top while still warm if using. Let the blondies cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. This takes at least 90 minutes and patience you may not possess. The bars need this time to set properly. Once cool, use the parchment handles to lift the entire slab onto a cutting board. Cut into 16 squares with a sharp knife, wiping the blade between cuts for clean edges.
Chef Tips
- •Dark brown sugar is non-negotiable here. Light brown sugar produces a pleasant but one-dimensional bar. The extra molasses in dark brown creates that butterscotch complexity worth chasing.
- •For an even deeper flavor, toast the flour in a dry skillet until it smells faintly nutty and turns slightly golden before adding. This extra step rewards you with additional caramel notes.
- •Store bars at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days. They actually improve on day two as the flavors meld. For longer storage, freeze individually wrapped bars for up to 3 months.
- •These bars pair beautifully with vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of good bourbon caramel, or just strong black coffee.
Advance Preparation
- •Brown the butter up to 3 days ahead and refrigerate in an airtight container. Bring to room temperature or gently rewarm before using.
- •Baked blondies can be wrapped tightly in plastic and frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature for 2 hours before serving.
- •The batter cannot be made ahead. Once the eggs are added, proceed straight to baking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 bar (about 45g)
Calories
260 calories
Total Fat
8 g
Saturated Fat
5 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
3 g
Cholesterol
28 mg
Sodium
184 mg
Total Carbohydrates
44 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
34 g
Protein
2 g
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