Brown Butter Blondies

Week 2 of quarantine baking and I still haven’t come up with a good word for it. “Quaranbaking”? “Sugar isolation”? Those are both so bad. If someone has already figured this out, let me know.

I’m also quickly realizing that baking treats when you don’t have a kitchen to offload them into is a different experience. This week, a friend in the building requested blondies, so that’s what I made, and now they aren’t in my kitchen! If you live in the Boston area and are looking for something sweet, PLEASE let me know – I will happily make it and you can have it all.

I’ve been very into Weeknight Baking recently, so this recipe obviously came from there. And I was shocked to realize I hadn’t made just normal blondies on the blog before. These have a bit of a twist – brown butter, which, as you know by now, terrifies me. But I gave it a try once I realized I had a light colored pan, and I will say that made a huge difference. You can actually see the colors change!

Start by browning the butter. Chop it all up and put it in a small light-colored saucepan over medium-low heat. Give it a swirl every once in awhile while it melts, then continue to cook until amber brown in color – you can use a wooden spoon to move away the foam and see the color underneath.

So I probably could have gone more amber. But, like I said, browning butter terrifies me. Next time!

I basically stopped when Madison walked into the kitchen and said “Oh, that smells nutty.” Pour it immediately into a liquid measuring cup and set aside.

Pulse the white chocolate in a food processor until roughly chopped (or just chop it up yourself). Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Also set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the brown sugar and brown butter on medium low speed until wet sand in texture.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula.

Add the vanilla extract and beat in to incorporate.

With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Add the white chocolate all at once and beat to distribute.

Spread the batter into a 9×13 inch pan, lined with parchment paper.

Did I spend way too much time with an offset spatula to make this perfectly flat? Not the weirdest thing I’ve done with my quarantine time.

Bake at 350°F for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

When cooled, pull the blondies out of the pan by the parchment paper and transfer to a cutting board to cut into bars.

I started with squares and then decided to get fancy.

Store in an airtight container. I didn’t even try one of these, but can confirm the batter was good, and my friend said the end product also was.

For real, though – if you want to be one of my taste-testers that gets baked goods out of my kitchen in the near future, please reach out. I’ll make whatever you want.

Enjoy!

Brown Butter Blondies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 8 ounces white chocolate, chopped
• 2 cups (9 ounces) flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups (13.15 ounces) dark brown sugar, packed
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Chop the butter and put in a small light-colored saucepan over medium low heat. Swirl while it melts, and then continue to cook until amber brown in color. Immediately remove from heat and pour into a liquid measuring cup.
2. In a food processor, pulse the white chocolate to roughly chop.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
4. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the brown sugar and brown butter until the texture of wet sand.
5. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
6. Beat in the vanilla extract to incorporate.
7. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients until just combined.
8. Add all the white chocolate at once – beat until distributed.
9. Spread the batter into a 9×13 pan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
10. Cool in pan completely before slicing into bars.