Can´t choose between brownies vs. blondies? You don´t have to! This Brownie Blondies recipe might become your favorite, the perfect combination of chewy chocolate brownies and fudge blondies! It is rich, yet very well balanced in sweetness! Absolutely out of this world, a must-try recipe for brownie and blondie lovers!
My Blondie Brownies bars recipe has the most amazing texture AND taste at the same time with the benefit of both brownies and white chocolate blondies. Imagine a brownie blondie swirl that is effectively a chewy blondie enhanced with chocolate chips and layered with the most amazing chocolate brownie.
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Why this is the best Brownie Blondies recipe
- Crinkly top – During baking a crinkly skin should form on top of the Brownie blondies similar to when you make chocolate brownies. Please note that if you are changing the recipe eg. reducing sugar, you won´t get the iconic crinkly top
- Dense texture – Brownies and Blondies should rise only a tiny bit due to the eggs, but they should stay rather dense. Having said that, dense does not mean flat. If you have been experiencing “flat” brownies before, probably you either have to increase the quantity of the brownie batter or choose a smaller pan
- Fudge center – The chocolate chip Blondies has the most amazing fudge, gooey texture. There is nothing worse than over-baked brownies with crumbly texture! I suggest rather under bake than over bake the brownie blondies. Besides over baking, reducing the fat content (butter) also results in cake texture as opposed to gooey so make sure you follow the recipe
- Intense chocolate and butterscotch taste – The brownie part of the Brownie Blondies has a wonderful, deep chocolate flavor and color that is achieved by the combination of good quality dark chocolate and high-quality unsweetened dark cocoa powder. The blondie part has more of a deep brown sugar aka butterscotch taste that works wonderfully with the brownie part. An important tip here is not to leave the salt out the salt. Salt is always an important ingredient to balance the sweetness.
5 reasons you should make this recipe
- It is extremely easy – No fancy ingredients are needed, the Blondie Brownies recipe comes together really easily, no stand mixer is required, totally doable from scratch. Both the mixing process of the batter as well as the baking process are very simple, the perfect choice even if you are a beginner in the kitchen!
- It is super quick – Making Brownie blondies is not just easy, but quick as well, does not require dough chilling time, etc. This recipe is the perfect choice if you want something quick and impressive that is literally ready in an hour
- It is super delicious – I never compromise on taste! Imagine the intense chocolate taste that is very well balanced with the blondies' deep brown sugar flavor profile all balanced with added sea salt.
- No special equipment is needed – All you need is a brownie tin that you probably already have at home and you are good to go!
- It is super versatile – The Brownie blondies recipe can be made using different spices in the brownie or blondie batter eg. cinnamon, cardamom, etc. You can use nuts on top eg. pecans, walnuts, or even fruits eg. raspberries. Feel free to experiment!
Difference between blondies vs brownies
Well, the main difference is the chocolate obviously! That is also the reason why brownie is brown, while blondie as the name indicates, is blonde!
Technically, blondies and brownies are both classified as cookie bars. They both contain eggs, flour, sugar, and butter. Both brownies and blondies have a fudge texture and are typically cut into bar shapes. They are both super delicious if you ask me!
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The difference between brownies and blondies is mainly the color and one ingredient, which is chocolate. Chocolate is used in a melted format in the brownie recipes, while white chocolate chips is added to the blondie recipe without melting it. While brownies have a super deep and delicious chocolate flavor, blondies are famous for their molasses, butterscotch flavor. One might even call blondies butterscotch brownies!
This Brownie Blondies recipe is literally the best of both!
Ingredient notes
In this Brownie Blondies recipe, the brownie and blondie part ingredients are almost identical with the exception of cocoa powder and the way how chocolate is used.
- Butter: Use always unsalted butter as you want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. I am using 82% fat content European-style butter in all my recipes
- Sugar: I use a combination of white and brown sugar. Regarding brown sugar; light or dark brown sugar can both work. If you had baked my recipes before you probably realized that usually, I don´t use a huge amount of sugar. However, in the case of Brownie Blondies, sugar has a huge impact on the texture and the iconic crackly top. If you want to learn about the different types of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my article here
- Egg: Room temperature as always
- Flour: I use simple All-purpose flour. If you want to be a pro when it comes to deciding what type of flour to use in your baking, please read my article here
- No baking powder: Having no chemical leavening agent in the recipe (like baking powder) will ensure fudge, gooey Blondies brownies!
- Chocolate: The quality of the chocolate along with the quality of cocoa powder will determine the overall taste of your dessert therefore I recommend using the best quality you can access. I suggest using dark or at least semi-sweet chocolate as with milk this blondie recipe would become way too sweet. The chocolate I am using is Callebaut Dark Chocolate (callets). In the blondie part, the chocolate will stay in chips format, again try to use a high-quality one. The one I am using is Callebaut WhiteChocolate (callets)
- Cocoa powder: Generally always use unsweetened, 100% cocoa powder in baking. I use dutch-process cocoa powder for the brownie part for lovely dark color and it is lower in acidity
Exact Ingredient quantities can be found in the RECIPE CARD, at the bottom of this page.
5 Expert Baking tips
1. How to melt chocolate without burning it
Have you ever wasted chocolate due to incorrectly melting it and burning it? Never again!
For the brownie part, you will need to melt the chocolate. The double boiler is a common method for melting chocolate without burning it. You might have to play around with combinations of pans and bowls to find the perfect fit, but it works perfectly fine.
While melting chocolate, make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Remove chocolate from the heat as soon as it is melted, it is possible to overheat the chocolate, and in that case, it will break. Never ever try to melt chocolate directly on the stove as you will burn it in seconds.
Another option to melt the chocolate is the microwave technique - strictly stirring every 30 seconds. If choosing the microwave option, I suggest placing chocolate into a plastic container. It is much easier to burn it in a glass container.
Either way, aim to use good quality chocolate with high cocoa content eg. Callebaut Dark Chocolate (callets) both in terms of texture also taste point of view. Low-quality chocolate might already break at the melting stage and becomes greasy.
2. Process of making Brownie Blondies
Making this recipe is easy but there are a couple of key steps you have to get right to achieve the right texture.
For the brownie part:
- Melt butter and chocolate in a bowl over simmering water
- In another bowl beat together the eggs with sugar with the help of an Electric hand mixer until pale this might take 5-7 minutes
- Pour the melted butter and chocolate mixture into the egg-sugar mixture, mix well with a Rubber spatula. Do not use a mixer at this point
- Sift in flour, salt, and cocoa powder together (this will be your dry ingredients). Sifting is necessary to avoid lumps later in the brownie mixture
- Fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Make sure you fold it with a Rubber spatula only until the mixture comes together, literally 30 seconds. Do not use a mixer and do not over mix the brownie batter. Over mixing, ingredients would result in incorporating too much air and gluten into the mixture. Too much air might result in a crumbly, cake-like texture and we do not want that!
- Pour the brownie batter into the prepared 7 inch /18 cm square brownie pan, smooth the top with an Offset spatula then quickly move on making the blondie part
For the blondie part:
- Melt butter in the microwave. Be careful not to leave it for too long or on too high temp as butter can easily explode in the microwave
- In another bowl beat together the eggs with sugar with the help of an Electric hand mixer again for 5-7 minutes until it gets really fluffy
- Pour melted butter into the egg-sugar mixture, mix well with a Rubber spatula
- Sift in flour and salt together (this will be your dry ingredients)
- Fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Make sure you fold it with a Rubber spatula only until the mixture comes together, literally 30 seconds.
- Fold in Callebaut WhiteChocolate (callets) or your white preferred chocolate chips
- Pour the blondie batter on top of the brownie batter
- Make the brownie blondie swirl by slightly swirling the two batter together. Make sure, that you do not fully melt the two together, as that might result in the blondie part disappearing in the brownies batter.
You will find that the blondie batter is thicker than the brownie batter it is because the brownie batter contains the chocolate in a melted format. Once baked, they will be equally gooey and delicious.
3. How to bake
Baking the Brownie Blondies is a super delicate matter, the most important part of this recipe!
First of all, never bake any dessert without properly pre-heating your oven first, so start with that. The brownie blondies will be baked at 180 C / 356 F. Preheat the oven +20C / 68F as the oven temp drops when you open the door. Always use Digital oven thermometer to avoid over- baked crumbly or under-baked desserts.
Each oven is different so you might need to adjust the time slightly but in my oven, I bake the brownie blondies for 35 minutes. It is ready when the edge looks sort of baked, and the middle slightly gooey but not raw. Do not over-bake your blondie brownies! Usually, recipes state "bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean", however, in this case, the toothpick should be gooey. If it is clean, it means you sadly over-baked your dessert.
Let the brownie blondies cool in the 7 inch /18 cm square brownie pan, then carefully cut it into 9 squares. Do not take the blondies out of the baking pan while it is still hot, as it will further set as it cools. Also do not attempt to cut it while it is still hot as it will be way too sticky.
4. How to get crinkle top on these blondi brownie bars
Everyone is crazy about crackly brownie surfaces, let me tell you that I was not very good with that for a long time, due to I always tried to bake brownies with less sugar than I should. Please do not change this recipe, it is perfect with the right amount of sugar to give you that lovely crackly surface. Reducing sugar will have an impact on the overall texture of the brownie as well as the crackly top, of course, you are free to do that for health reasons, but expect that the texture will change.
If worried about the sweetness of this brownie, instead of reducing sugar, make sure you use high-quality dark chocolate that will offset the sweetness of the sugar and do not forget the salt. Brown sugar also brings beautiful molasses flavor to dessert besides the sweetness so make sure you do not skip that.
If, for some reason, the crackly surface would not develop on your Brownie blondies, bang the tray on the kitchen counter a few times (5-10 minutes before the baking time ends), that will encourage cracks forming on top! Easy peasy!
5. How to get gooey center
For gooey brownies, first of all, you need a brownie recipe that has the right ratio of ingredients eg. high enough fat content (butter) vs flour, good news is that this easy recipe perfectly delivers on that!
Secondly, you must measure your ingredients with a digital scale, a little bit too much of this, not enough of that can majorly change this recipe eg. adding a little bit too much flour might ruin the gooey center you strive for.
Thirdly, do not over-bake the blondie brownies! In fact, it is like making cookies, you have to take them out of the oven when they do not look properly baked yet... It is better to under bake your brownies than to over-bake them.
Equipment notes
What baking pan is the best to make Brownie blondies? Honestly almost any pan can be used however my preference is a 7 inch /18 cm square brownie pan that makes 9 wonderful large brownie slices! What is a more important topic is how you prepare your pan before baking!
Remember, the brownie will be gooey, fudge so you want to make sure that you can remove it from the pan in one piece without breaking it. How to prepare the 7-inch pan before baking? With the help of a pastry brush (or your fingers), brush the inside of the cake pan with a very tiny bit of oil or melted butter, then use parchment paper on the bottom and side as well.
The oil is only needed for the parchment to stick to the pan. What I love about this pan preparation is that even though this Brownie Blondies recipe is super fudge, with the help of the parchment paper it is incredibly easy to remove the baked dessert from the pan, it won´t stick to it whatsoever.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can, however, you will need to adjust the ingredient quantities and baking time accordingly.
Most probably yes, you can, however, you can´t just leave out / change an ingredient without reformulating the entire recipe. When one ingredient changes, some other ingredients need to be changed too in order to keep the balance in the texture and flavor. Sadly, I am not able to provide substitutes for all sorts of allergies and diets.
There are a couple of reasons why your dessert can turn out to be raw, and fixing it requires different actions.
First of all, make sure that you let the tray cool completely. The Brownie Blondie bars are meant to be way too gooey while they are hot, but they will set as they cool.
If the dessert seems raw even after chilled, you most probably underbaked it. Under baking can happen for two reasons: either because of incorrect oven temperature (lower than stated in the recipe) or simply the blondies would need a bit more time in the oven. Make sure you invest in an inexpensive Digital oven thermometer if you tend to struggle with the baking part.
Another issue that can cause raw texture is measuring the ingredients inappropriately eg. adding less flour to the recipe. Make sure you use a Digital scale during baking, cups are not an accurate way of measuring for consistent results.
Similar to the raw texture there are a couple of issues that might have happened.
You most probably over-baked your blondie bars, either because of incorrect oven temperature (higher than stated in the recipe) or simply you baked the Brownie blondies for too long. Make sure you invest in an inexpensive Digital oven thermometer as suggested above.
Another issue that can cause too cakey texture as opposed to gooey texture is measuring the flour incorrectly, eg. adding too much flour, or measuring the fat incorrectly, eg. too little butter. Make sure you use a Digital scale during baking. Over mixing the ingredients can also cause a cakey texture on your brownies. You have to incorporate the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula and don´t use the mixer at this point.
Probably you swirled the batters together too much, and the brownie part entire blended into the blondie layer.
Once the Brownie blondies are baked, make sure you let it cool (as it is further set) before cutting. Any leftover can be stored in an air-tight container either at room temperature or in the fridge for 3-4 days. I suggest you cover the dessert so it does not absorb any smell from the fridge or from the kitchen.
Technically you can freeze these Blondie brownies in an airtight container however the gooey texture might change slightly. I personally never freezer brownies since they stay fresh for a few days or they are gone quickly!
More Brownie recipes
Fudge Pecan brownies - This Pecan brownies recipe is thick, fudge & gooey in the middle, crinkly and crispy on top with intense chocolate taste, crunchy pecans, and a pinch of cinnamon… absolutely out of this world!
Coffee brownies - My ultimate gooey, fudge brownie for coffee lovers with a light and fluffy coffee whipped ganache frosting
Raspberry brownies - If you like brownies, you will love this version with raspberries that are perfectly balancing the sweetness of the chocolate brownie. Gooey, dreamy center, crinkly top sprinkled with freezed dried raspberries
RECIPE CARD
ULTIMATE Brownie Blondies (VIDEO)
Equipment
Ingredients
For the brownie part
- 100 g Chocolate use semi sweet quality chocolate eg. Callebaut Dark Chocolate (callets)
- 100 g Unsalted butter
- 2 Eggs room temperature
- 100 g Granulated sugar
- 100 g Brown sugar light or brown
- 20 g Cocoa powder unsweetened Dutch processed
- 50 g All purpose
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the blondie part
- 100 g Chocolate use white chocolate chips eg. Callebaut WhiteChocolate (callets)
- 100 g Unsalted butter
- 1 Egg
- 1 Egg yolk
- 80 g Granulated sugar
- 80 g Brown sugar light or brown
- 160 g All purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
US customary cup measurement is an indicative figure only. Measure the ingredients with a digital scale by weight (gram). Baking is art but also science which requires precision and accuracy.
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 180 C / 356 F
- Prepare a 7 inch /18 cm square brownie pan. Brush the inside of the cake pan with a tiny bit of oil then use parchment paper on the bottom and side as well. Set aside
Start with the brownie part
- Melt butter and chocolate in a bowl over simmering water
- In another bowl whip the eggs with sugar with the help of an Electric hand mixer until pale, for about 5-7 minutes
- Pour the melted butter and chocolate mixture into the egg sugar mixture, combine with a Rubber spatula. Do not use a mixer at this point
- Sift in flour, salt and cocoa powder and fold the mixture together. Do not over mix
- Pour the batter into the prepared 7 inch /18 cm square brownie pan , smooth the top with an Offset spatula
Continue with the blondie part
- Melt butter in the microwave
- In another bowl whip the eggs with sugar with the help of an Electric hand mixer until pale, for about 5-7 minutes
- Pour the melted butter into the egg sugar mixture, combine with a Rubber spatula. Do not use a mixer at this point
- Sift in flour and salt, and fold the mixture together. Do not over mix
- Last, fold in white chocolate chips
- Pour the blondie batter on top of the brownie batter
- Make the brownie blondie swirl by gently swirling the two batter together. Make sure that you do not fully melt the two together
- Bake for 35 minutes. The dessert is ready when the edge looks baked and the middle looks slightly gooey but not raw. Do not over bake! It will further set as it cools
- Let it cool in the 7 inch /18 cm square brownie pan then carefully cut
- Any leftover can be stored in an air-tight container either on room temperature or in the fridge for 3-4 days
Notes
- Use always unsalted butter in dessert recipes, but also make sure you add the salt stated in the recipe as that will balance the sweetness
- Use combination of white and (light or dark) brown sugar for the best texture and beautiful butterscotch flavor
- Egg should be used at room temp
- Baking powder is not included in this recipe intentionally, so ýour Brownie blondies will turn out wonderfully fudge and gooey
- The quality of the chocolate chips along with the quality of cocoa powder will define the taste of your brownie blondies so try to use high quality ingredients
- Digital scale is required for consistent, happy baking experience:)
- Melt chocolate over double boiler so you won´t burn it
- While making the brownie blondie swirl make sure that you do not fully melt the two together, as that might results in the blondie part disappearing in the brownies batter
- Always pre-heat your oven and consider using a digital oven thermometer for the best results
- Each oven is different so you might need to adjust the baking time slightly but in my oven I bake the brownie blondies for 35 minutes. It is ready when the edge looks sort of baked, and the middle slightly gooey but not raw.
- For the best fudge brownie experience consider rather slightly under bake your dessert
- Do not attempt to cut the blondie bar while it is still hot, as it further sets as it cools
Aetam
Perfect recipe, the crackly top and goey center...this is pure perfection!
Demi
AMAZING!!!
Super delicious and easy to make!
I couldn’t resist and ate a little to much at once, but who cares right! 🙂
Sarah Alsulaiman
I made this brownie blondies so so delicious..I will make it again and again.😋
At first I thought it will be very sweet because it's two layers but it's exceeded expectations
Sally
Brownies and blondies in one recipe omg I had to try this, and it did not disappoint! Highly recommend this recipe, thanks so much for explaining all the important science behind the technique!
Sciamarina
Best rasperry brownie recipe…a must try.