Brownie Blondies (VIDEO)

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.

Jump to:

• Why this is the best Brownie Blondies recipe
• 5 reasons you should make this recipe
• Difference between blondies vs brownies
• Ingredient notes
• 5 Expert Baking tips
• Equipment notes
• Recipe FAQs
• More Brownie recipes
• RECIPE CARD
• ULTIMATE Brownie Blondies (VIDEO)

Why this is the best Brownie Blondies recipe

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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

1. 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!
2. 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
3. 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.
4. 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!
5. 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!

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:

1. Melt butter and chocolate in a bowl over simmering water
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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!
6. 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:

1. 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
2. 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
3. Pour melted butter into the egg-sugar mixture, mix well with a Rubber spatula
4. Sift in flour and salt together (this will be your dry ingredients)
5. 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.
6. Fold in Callebaut WhiteChocolate (callets) or your white preferred chocolate chips
7. Pour the blondie batter on top of the brownie batter
8. 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

More Brownie recipes

RECIPE CARD