Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies
BROWN BUTTER! Another recipe with brown butter! Blondies with brown butter! And now I'll stop using exclamation points! Right after this!
Actually, I lied, I need to use two more exclamation points. Because Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies!! Or rather, brown butter chocolate chunk blondies. Because you know how I feel about chocolate chunks.
As many times as I talk about it, it will never be enough. Get a bar of chocolate. Chop it up. Use it in place of chocolate chips in everything you make from here on out. DO IT. I mean, be honest, are your chocolate chips ever gonna melt the way these chocolate chunky babies do?? No, they won't. Use chocolate chunks.
Big hunks of bittersweet chocolate chunks, hot and melting, dripping down from each blondie square, making a big mess everywhere, and making life that much more pleasant and enjoyable. I rest my case.
I've always felt a sort of affinity for blondies. Because I'm blonde. Also, because blondies are friggin' delicious.
I love brownies. They'll never get old. No, actually, they're getting old. Well, not really. Because they can't get old. They're too good. But they're getting old.
Blondies, on the other hand, really can't get old. Because there are SO many blondie variations. Blondies are one of the most customizable dessert bars out there. Every type of nut and chocolate and dried fruit can and has been added to blondies over the ages. But I kept these blondies simple and classic. Because sometimes simple and classic is best. Especially when 'simple' refers to chocolate chunks.
However, what makes these blondies more amazing than any other blondie recipe out there is the brown butter. Aside from the chocolate chunks, of course. Let's not forget the chocolate chunks.
The first cookies on Truffles and Trends to contain brown butter were The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever. In that recipe post, I explain what makes brown butter so incredible. If you don't mind, I'll just cite some of my words for you here again:
"Browned butter tastes like a combination of butterscotch and caramel and hazelnut. Browned butter also emits the most incredible toasty, nutty aroma (nothing like the pungent smell of regular butter when it's melting). And, let me just add that brown butter is super fun to make. And easy."
So there's your short synopsis on the virtues of brown butter. If you've never browned butter before, I also provided a video in that chocolate chip cookie post. Just click here if you'd like to watch it.
Like many of the recipes on this blog, these blondies are easy and quick to make. Just 10 minutes of your time. And these life-changing blondies will be assembled.
Brown the butter, mix it with the brown sugar, add in the egg and vanilla, stir in the dry ingredients, mix in your chocolate chunks (!!), and pop your pan into the oven. 20 minutes later, and you're biting into a brown butter chocolate chip blondie.
And when you bite into that blondie, it literally melts in your mouth. I'm pretty sure the term 'melt-in-your-mouth' was invented for these blondies. They're just so soft and tender. And so dense and gooey. And so richly flavored.
I guess I've narrowed the description down to this then: the most tender, dense, rich, flavorful, gooey, chewy, melt-in-your-mouth brown butter chocolate chunk blondies.
GAH. I need one now. Bye.
brown butter chocolate chip blondies
Yield: About 16 blondies
1 stick butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup packed flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips or chunks
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped nuts or dried fruit of choice
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8x8 square baking dish with parchment paper, leaving overhanging paper so you can lift the blondies out later.
In a light-colored (so you can observe the browning) skillet, brown the butter: chop up butter and place into skillet over a medium flame. First, the butter will melt. Once butter melts, it will foam and bubble. Make sure to stir the butter every few seconds with a rubber spatula. After a few minutes, the bubbling will subside and golden specks will appear on the bottom of the pan and the butter will start smelling nutty. This means your butter is browned! (Too see a video tutorial on how to brown butter from another blog post, click here.)
Remove skillet from flame right away and pour the browned butter into a mixing bowl to stop the cooking. Make sure to scrape in all the browned specks from the bottom of the pan. Warning: Butter should have golden/amber specks, not completely brown ones. If the butter is too browned, your blondies may have a burnt/bitter taste.
Let butter cool five minutes in the bowl and then stir in brown sugar and mix well.
Add in egg and vanilla extract and stir vigorously until smooth.
Mix in flour and salt till just combined. Stir in chocolate chips/chunks and other optional add-ins last.
Spread dough into prepared pan evenly. Sprinkle a few more pieces of chocolate on top if desired.
Bake for 20 minutes, until just set and a toothpick inserted comes out with a few gooey crumbs. Don't over-bake!
Let blondies cool before lifting them out of the pan by the parchment paper and slicing into 16 squares.
On a completely unrelated note, this accurately describes how I end up feeling:
photo from dump a day dot com
