Salted Caramel Bourbon Blondies

I found this recipe for Salted Caramel Blondies in The Cookie Book and decided that I needed to make them because a) brown butter is my love language, b) salted caramel is dreamy and c) obviously bourbon makes everything better.  

This is a “no mixer” recipe! Hooray! All you need is a bowl, a whisk and spatula to mix the batter of brown butter salted caramel blondies. The most complicated part of this recipe is browning the butter.

This batch disappeared from the container in a matter of days– the people that live in my house are suckers for chocolate chip anything.  These blondies are crunchy on the edges and the perfect amount of gooey on the inside.  We are doing the literal most using bourbon, salted caramel and browned butter. 

What are Blondies?

Blondies are a dessert bar cousin on the Brownie. Basically, blondies are brownies without cocoa powder.  The naming convention is incredibly clever.  The other major difference is that most blondies feature brown sugar along with the vanilla to create the base for a myriad of customizations. 

Ingredients

• Unsalted butter
• All purpose flour
• Salt
• Baking powder
• Brown sugar
• Granulated Sugar 
• Eggs 
• Bourbon
• Vanilla extract
• Chocolate chips
• Salted caramel 

Ingredient Notes: 

• Store bought caramel is perfectly fine.  I love the Ghirardelli Salted Caramel for lattes, so that’s what I used. 
• The bourbon. We are “bourbon” people, so I spent a few minutes smelling a couple of bottles.  Sounds crazy, but the nose knows.  To pair with the brown butter, but not overwhelm, I used a tablespoon of Smoke Wagon bourbon.
• Chocolate Chips.  The photographed blondies feature a 60/40 combination of 60% dark chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips

Kitchen Tools

• 8x11 pan
• Parchment paper
• Heavy bottom pan
• Mixing bowls (medium and large) 
• Spatulas
• Measuring cups and spoon
• A butter knife 
• Cooking Spray 

How to Make Salted Caramel Bourbon Blondies

First Brown the Butter. 

Put the butter in a medium pan on the stove, and turn the heat on medium.  The butter will first melt, then clarify and then brown.  This process takes about 5-8 minutes.  You don’t have to do anything, but watch the pot.  You can use three of your senses to know when the brown butter is done: 

1. The pot is no longer making any popping noises 
2. The aroma of a strong nutty flavor and 
3. You can see the brown butter flakes. 

Pour the brown butter into a bowl or measuring cup to cool while you gather and prep the rest of the ingredients. 

Mise En Place

Go ahead and measure all of the ingredients and have them ready on the counter.  Measure the flour, salt and baking powder into one bowl and blend it all together.  Go ahead and measure the sugar and crack those eggs, without the egg shells.  Most importantly take time to choose the bourbon you want for this recipe.  Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line an 8x11 baking pan with parchment paper.   Make sure to leave some overhang of parchment paper to pull the blondies out of the pan once they are cooled. 

Whisk it all together. 

• First whisk the browned butter and sugars together.  
• Stir in the eggs. 
• Add the splash of bourbon and vanilla extract. 

• Whisk in the browned butter and sugars together
• Stir in the eggs, bourbon and vanilla extract.

• Stir in the flour

• Stir in the chocolate chips

• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer. 

• Squeeze even dollops of the Salted Caramel onto the Blondies. 
• Use a butter knife to swirl the caramel into the tops of the blondies. 

• Bake for 25-30 minutes. The blondies edges should be set and the blondies should have a thin crinkle top. 

Baker’s Tip 

The easiest way to remove blondies from the pan is to line the pan with parchment paper that has enough overhang to use as handles to lift the entire dessert out of the pan.  From there, place the blondies on a cutting board before slicing. 

Variations/Substitutions

Melted Butter. Instead of brown butter, just use melted butter.  The Brown Butter gives the blondies a nice nutty flavor, but you can skip this step if you don’t have time. 

Caramel Sauce.  Instead of Sea Salted Caramel Sauce, swirl in plain caramel sauce. 

Mix In Options: 

• Sea Salt Chips from Trader Joe’s 
• Toffee Bits 
• Chopped Dark Chocolate or White Chocolate

Storage

Blondies should be kept in an airtight container at room temperature and will last up to a week. 

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