Best Blondie Recipe
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Looking for the best blondie recipe? These rich, buttery blondies have chewy centers, crisp golden edges, and plenty of chocolate chips in every bite.
Blondies are rich, buttery bar cookies with a rich caramel flavor and chewy texture. Often described as the vanilla version of a brownie, they’re made with brown sugar instead of cocoa and studded with chocolate chips (plus optional pecans for crunch).
I’ve baked countless batches of blondies over the years, but I always come back to this recipe. they have the perfect balance of crisp edges, chewy centers, and gooey pockets of melted chocolate. It’s the kind of foolproof recipe you’ll bake again and again.
Perfect for bake sales, potlucks, holiday cookie trays, lunch boxes, or after-school treats, these blondies also freeze beautifully, making them an easy make-ahead dessert.
“Best blondie recipe I have made and my go-to for a quick and delicious dessert.”
Blondie Ingredients
- Melted Butter: Provides a rich, creamy base for the batter. Melted butter creates a denser, chewier blondie. You can also use browned butter for a nuttier flavor or swap it for coconut oil or non-dairy butter alternative if you need to make this without any dairy.
- Brown Sugar & Granulated Sugar: Brown sugar adds moisture and a deep, caramel-like flavor, while granulated sugar sweetens and gives the blondies crisp edges and soft center. (Be sure to pack the brown sugar tightly.)
- Egg & Vanilla Extract: The egg binds everything together, while vanilla adds warm, aromatic flavor.
- All-Purpose Flour: Provides structure for the blondies. For the most accurate measurement, use the spoon-and-level method: spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off with a straight edge—don’t scoop directly from the bag, which can pack in too much flour.
- Semisweet Chocolate Chips & Chopped Pecans: These mix-ins add texture and flavor—melty chocolate in every bite and a subtle crunch from the pecans.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
How to Make Blondies
Step 1: Mix the butter and sugars. Beat the melted butter with both sugars until the mixture looks smooth—this is what helps create that shiny, crackly top later on.
Step 2: Add the egg and vanilla. Beat until the batter looks smooth and cohesive.
Step 3: Mix in the dry ingredients. Add the flour and salt on low speed, stopping the moment you no longer see dry streaks. This is the step where it’s easiest to overdo it; extra mixing here develops more gluten and pushes the texture toward tough or cakey instead of dense and chewy.
Step 4: Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts. The batter will be quite thick at this point — that’s normal. If you’re skipping the nuts, a few extra chocolate chips in their place works well.
Step 5: Spread into the pan and bake. Transfer the batter to a greased pan and spread evenly. Bake until the top looks set and lightly golden, with edges just starting to darken. The center may still look a little soft—that’s exactly what you want
Step 7: Cool, then slice. Using the parchment overhang, lift the blondie brownies from the pan and transfer it to a cutting board. Cut into squares and serve warm or room temperature. The bars will keep nicely for a few days stored in an airtight container at room temperature; freeze for longer storage.
Pro Tips And blondie Variations
- Swap the mix-ins: Swap all or half the chocolate chips with white chocolate chips, change the nuts or leave them out, or even add some dried cranberries. Just keep the amount of mix-ins you add to 1¼ cups.
- Line your pan with parchment paper: It makes removing the blondies a breeze and ensures cleaner slices. Be sure to leave an overhang on two sides so you can lift the whole slab out of the pan once cooled.
- Don’t be tempted to add baking powder or baking soda. This recipe is designed to bake up dense and chewy with crisp edges. Adding a leavener will give the blondies a lighter, more cake-like texture.
- Don’t overbake. It’s better to slightly underbake blondies than overbake them. Remove them from the oven as soon as the center is set; they’ll continue to cook from the residual heat as they cool.
- Want to double the recipe? This blondie recipe works great doubled and baked in a 9 x 13 pan. You may need to add a few minutes to the bake time.
For more chocolate chip treats, don’t miss my classic chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate chip ricotta cake.
More Bar Cookie Recipes You’LL Love
Blondies
Ingredients
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup (packed) dark brown sugar
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup chopped pecans (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line an 8-inch (20-cm) square baking pan with an 8 x 11-inch (20 x 28-cm) piece of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch (5-cm) overhang on two sides. You'll have to create seams in the corners and along the edges of the pan to get it to stay put (you can always add a few dots of butter underneath if necessary).
- In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the melted butter with the brown sugar and granulated sugar until well combined, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla. On low speed, mix in the flour and salt until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly with a rubber spatula.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is set and lightly golden. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool. Using the parchment overhang, lift the blondie "cake" from the pan and transfer it to a cutting board; cut into 16 squares. Store the blondies in an airtight container at room temperature or freeze for longer storage.
Notes
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Bottom line: this is a recipe I am adding to my favorites. I needed to attend two gatherings last weekend, so I made two “blondies” recipes, to test them out. The ingredients were similar in type, just differing amounts. This one was far superior in flavor and texture.
I’ve made this blondie recipe twice. Both times I substituted 1/4 white chocolate, 1/4 butterscotch, and 1/4 milk chocolate chips for the 3/4 cup semi-sweet chips. I loved the flavor the first time I made, but in my oven 30 min was not enough to set the center and even in increments I ended up burning the top. The second time I cooked at 300 degrees for 55 min and it came out perfectly-lightly browned, slightly glossy on top like a good brownie and a bit chewy. Delicious.
This recipe needs to be doubled to make a brownie of “standard” thickness. The recipe as only makes a brownie about 1/4 inch high. Please fix your recipe-we don’t need more poor recipes on the internet.
I feel like this could be said in a more positive way. What we absolutely don’t need is more negativity on the internet!
Did you make it in a pan that was too large? They worked out well for me!
I glossed over the detail that the pan used is to be an 8-inch square because my eyes fixed on the “8X11-inch parchment paper” and I mistakenly assumed I needed a larger pan. The blondies were thin, and I think you may also have made the same error I did by using a 9×13” pan! Still delicious though, but next time I’ll use my smaller dish to achieve that chewier blonde texture! Thanks for another outstanding recipe Jenn!
Very harsh. What size pan did you use? Jenn’s recipes have been my go to for many years and I have never been disappointed by the things I’ve tried.
Amazing, just like all Jen’s recipes and I own both her cookbooks and regularly check this website for new and delicious recipes. Thank you Jen for all your hard work, this is by far the most trustworthy food blog out there!
These are so easy abd delicious.
I will make these again for sure and just the right amount for two. Since we don’t want to waste or have alot. I did use white chocolate chips and I used pastry flour.
Thank you for another wonderful recipe.
Just wanted to add to my review that my family loved them so much they were gone the next day. I’m going to double the recipe this weekend since I saw other reviewers did that and it worked perfectly. I have high hopes they will last a couple of days.
I made these tonight and followed the recipe exactly. My friends call me the sugar chef but these were a sugar overkill. Way too sweet! Disappointing.
Her recipes are always perfect. If you’re Keto or don’t eat sugar very much it’s gonna taste sweet. You’d be better off getting recipes from a Keto website then. For the rest of us (I’m a bodybuilder and eat normally ), this recipe is perfect like the rest of her tested-multiple-times recipes. Thanks.
I made these for the first-time last week. I got rave reviews from everyone! They were soft and chewy and just the right amount of chocolate and sweetness. I will definitely be making again!
I just made these and they are delicious and so easy to make BUT I overcooked mine. Silly me. At 25 minutes, the center didn’t seem to be set so I let them go an additional 5 minutes which was a mistake. My oven is accurate so I am suggesting a cook time of 25 minutes. These are great with vanilla ice cream. BTW Jenn, thank you for all these wonderful recipes and the way that you present them.
I made these using GF flour and they turned out perfectly – chewy and moist! I was able to easily cut them in to beautiful squares; they looked so pretty on the plate. I will be making these again! Thank you for another great recipe, Jenn!
I made these over the weekend, and they were so good. Thanks for the recipe.