Brown Butter Blondies

I seem to gravitate towards baking bar cookies in the Fall. For some reason I tend to make more comfort food during the Fall season, and the rough-edged, rustic look and flavor of a bar cookie is the perfect sweet ending to a savory home-cooked meal like a pot roast and mashed potatoes.

To me, the ultimate bar cookie is definitely a brownie – fudgy or otherwise. I enjoy them so much that I definitely make those year around. But at certain times of the year – Fall especially – I start craving blondies: brownies without the chocolate.

Yes, it may seem wrong to remove the chocolate from a brownie, but believe me, one taste of these slightly-savory-yet-sweet blondies, and you’ll be hooked. I have a batch in the oven right now, and the smell is simply heavenly. I browned the butter and toasted the walnuts before mixing the batter, and the butter and nuts baking up with the salted brown sugar batter smells amazing.

Speaking of nuts – I think the amount of nuts in this recipe is perfect. I’m not a huge nuts-in-my-brownies fan, though. (In a regular brownie recipe, I usually just omit them altogether.) But the quarter cup of nuts in this recipe is just enough to provide a great walnutty flavor, plus a little crunch and texture, without being overly chunky. If you’re not a big fan of nuts, I encourage you to leave them in anyway – just chop them on the smaller side. (By the way, any extra nuts from a partially-used bag will stay fresh much longer if you freeze them!)

The browned butter and dark brown sugar makes a beautiful dark golden-colored blondie. In fact, its so deeply colored for a blondie, it almost looks like a light-colored brownie. Don’t be confused by the pictures shown here – I promise there’s no chocolate present in that pan!

Brown Butter Blondies
Makes 16 two-inch bar cookies

4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease an 8” square baking pan.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, stirring often, until the butter is foamy and the solids are beginning to brown. Use caution during this step – it takes awhile for the butter to begin to brown, but once it starts changing color, it goes from beautifully browned to burnt in what seems like point-six seconds. As soon as the butter solids have started to brown (the foam will stay light colored), remove it from the heat and pour it into a medium mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet over medium-high heat, toast the nuts until they become lightly browned, shaking or stirring the pan frequently to prevent burnt spots. Turn the nuts out onto a small cutting board and chop the biggest pieces to create uniform pea-sized nuts. Set the nuts aside.

Add the brown sugar to the browned butter; mix to combine. Add the egg and vanilla and mix it until it is incorporated. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix it until it is nearly combined – white streaks of flour should remain. The dough will seem overly dry. Add the chopped toasted nuts and mix them in until the remaining flour streaks are incorporated and the nuts are evenly distributed. The batter is very crumbly – much more like cookie dough than like a liquidy batter.

Scrape the batter into the greased pan and use your fingers to pat it into the corners of the pan, distributing the batter as evenly as possible.

Bake at 375 degrees F. for 20-22 minutes or until the blondies are golden brown. Let them cool on a rack, then cut them into two-inch squares.

Chocolate Chip Brownies

These are my go-to brownies for when I have company over to visit. They are not too fudgy, not too cakey, and shouldn’t turn out dry, as long as you don’t over bake them (that’s entirely up to you!). The brownies still pack a chocolaty punch, and shouldn’t disappoint chocolate lovers.

The recipe was originally a back-of-the-flour-bag KA recipe (their all-purpose flour bag, if you’ve got one around), but you can also find a very similar version of the recipe online. I can’t leave well enough alone, so I usually make it as I’ve written it below.

This recipe calls for a full two cups of chocolate chips. The cheapest way to accomplish this is to buy your chocolate chips in a giant 72-ounce bag:




For the ultimate in brownie decadence, make them into brownie sundaes with some ice cream and homemade caramel sauce!

If you like nuts, add a handful of walnuts – toasted! – at the same time the chocolate chips are stirred in. Or, I've substituted butterscotch chips for the chocolate chips with great results.

Chocolate Chip Brownies
Makes one 9x13 pan

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose Flour
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 pan.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and sugar, stirring to combine. The mixture will become shiny-looking.




Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and add the cocoa, stirring until smooth.

Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. Then stir in the vanilla.

Add the salt, baking powder, and flour, stirring only until barely smooth - a few traces of flour should be left, like this:




Then stir in the chocolate chips.




Spread the batter into a lightly greased 9x13 pan




Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs.

Cool the pan on a wire rack before serving.

The Fudgiest Brownies You'll Ever Eat...

Here it is...[drumroll]

A recipe that actually calls for 99% cacao chocolate. (If you're a fan of the stuff, you'll know most recipes want sweetened chocolate.)

This is The Very Recipe that was the inspiration for this blog's name.

If you like fudgy brownies, these are the best. They're so fudgy that they're almost like candy. They aren't leavened, so they're not going to be very thick. They're rich and chocolatey, and absolutely must be served with a tall, cold glass of milk.

If you prefer a cakey brownie, this might not be your new favorite brownie recipe. But do not fear, I have another great brownie recipe that isn't so fudgy, which you should try instead.

Meanwhile, fudgy brownie goodness:




Now, a couple of things about this recipe. First of all, be sure you use a metal 8-inch square pan. This is very important because the method of cooling the brownies calls for a ice water bath. If you use a glass pan, you'll crack the pan, ruining it, not to mention that the brownies will be trash.

Second of all, be sure you don't overcook the brownies. Yeah, that's a basic instruction...but it's especially important here due to the combination of ingredients (the sugar). The brownies are so fudgy that they're almost like candy, and they'll turn hard if they're overcooked.

This recipe is adapted from Cookies and Brownies, by Alice Medrich (Warner Books, 1999).

New Classic Brownies
Makes an 8" pan of brownies, which you could cut into 9-16 pieces

4 ounces 99% Cacao Unsweetened Chocolate (I use Scharffen Berger chocolate)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Prepare an 8-inch square metal baking pan. It is important in this recipe to only use metal. Line the pan with either aluminum foil or parchment paper so that it comes up all four sides.




Break up the chocolate. Melt the butter together with the chocolate in the top of a double boiler. Stir to smoothly integrate. Remove the top half of the pan from the heat.




With a wooden spoon or heavy spatula, mix in the sugar, vanilla and salt. I do all my mixing in the top of the double boiler - it all fits, so it's a convenient one-"bowl" recipe.




Add the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each addition.




Mix in the flour. Stir the mixture only until the flour is incorporated into the batter - do not overmix.




Scrape the batter into the prepared 8-inch pan.




Bake the brownies at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. (Caution: don't overbake! If a knife tests clean, take them out right away.)

While the brownies are baking, prepare an ice water bath for cooling. Using a roaster pan or a larger baking pan, fill it with cold water and ice cubes




When you remove the brownies from the oven, cool the pan completely in the ice bath. Be careful to not get water on the brownies. (If you had used a pyrex pan, the glass would break at this point and your brownies would be ruined.)




Cut the brownies into 9-16 squares. Serve at room temperature.