A stack of brown butter blondies.

After a month of abstaining from serious dessert (inordinate amounts of dark chocolate, providing heaps of antioxidants, don’t count), a sugar craving and a magazine blurb had me unearthing baking pans and once again scribbling down butter, chocolate and brown sugar on my grocery list.

The blurb described a treat offered at San Francisco’s Black Jet Baking Co — brown butter blondies made with Maldon sea salt — which I needed to have in my mouth immediately. Sorry, but I did.

While no recipe accompanied the blurb, the ever-so-giving interweb provided more than a handful of brown butter blondie recipes for me to compare and contrast, many of which had similar butter-to-flour-to-sugar ratios.

After creating a crude comparison table, I ultimately just altered the blondie recipe I always make, substituting brown butter for the butter and a teaspoon of Maldon sea salt for the salt. And, perhaps because the sea salt enhances the flavors of all of the elements including the brown sugar, after making a few batches, I reduced the amount of brown sugar by a quarter cup.

To me, these are heaven, a perfect balance of sweet and salty, impossible not to nibble on all day long. The brown butter, which I had yet to experiment with in baking, provides all of the nuttiness and deliciousness promised by its many fans. These are particularly good with a glass of milk, but I can’t pretend I haven’t enjoyed them aside morning coffee and afternoon tea as well.

ingredients for blondies with brown butter and sea salt

white chocolate

unbaked blondies

brown butter and sea salt blondies, just baked

Cut brown butter blondies on a board.

brown butter pan

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Brown Butter Blondies with Sea Salt

Brown Butter Blondies


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Description

Adapted from Simply Recipes’ blondie recipe

Notes: As mentioned above, the original recipe, which is delicious, calls for melted butter not browned, much less salt, and 1/4 cup more brown sugar. I double the recipe (reflected below) and bake it in a 9×9-inch pan, and although I have not tried it, a few of you have had success using an 8×8-inch pan with the double recipe, too.


Ingredients

  • 1 cup (227 g) unsalted or salted butter (I always use salted)
  • 2 cups (255 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon (1.4 g) baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon (5 g) Maldon sea salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups (300 g) packed light or dark brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon (11 g) vanilla extract
  • 2/3 cup white chocolate (11o g)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×9-inch pan baking pan with parchment paper. (Alternatively, grease with butter.)
  2. Brown the butter: Place butter in a saucepan and bring to a bubble over medium heat. Let the butter gently bubble, swirling the pan occasionally, until the mixture smells nutty and starts turning brown. Before the mixture starts turning brown, the bubbles at the surface of the butter will get really small and will be moving rapidly — be careful at this point as the mixture can quickly turn from brown butter to burnt butter. The whole process should take about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat and let cool slightly before using.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
  4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Whisk in the brown sugar, browned butter, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
  5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir together until just combined. Stir in your mix-ins of choice.
  6. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 – 35 minutes.
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American