Chocolate Chunk Butterscotch Blondies

Soft and chewy blondie bars loaded with dark chocolate chunks and ribbons of gooey, rich, homemade salted butterscotch.

If you’re reading this the date it posted (April 2nd), that means I am currently in Las Vegas trying to win back the money we just put down upon closing on our new home.

Okay, fine – that’s not actually why we’re in Vegas, but that would be pretty freaking great, wouldn’t it? We’re actually out there to visit family, with a side of people watching.

… and a little gambling. I mean, it’s Vegas. I can’t not try at least one hand.

Aaaaaaanyway. We closed on the house last Wednesday, and then left the next day for Vegas. This trip’s been planned for a long time, and the timing of the house closing was not ideal. We’d originally planned to close the day we got back from Vegas, but it turns out that someone missed a little bit of math during the mortgage-planning and our interest rate would have no longer been locked by closing day. Meaning, the interest rate would have jumped way up and that’s an incredibly expensive (and long term!) price to pay for not wanting to be slightly rushed by a week. So, the day before vacation it was.

Due to the timing, I figured we could call any Vegas winnings us winning some of our house expenses back, and it’ll help lessen the sting of that big ole check we just had to throw down.

House buying is no joke, my friends.

Now – let’s talk chocolate chunk butterscotch blondies. I wanted to make a pan of something other than fudgy chocolate brownies (which is the boyfriend’s usual treat of choice), and realized I hadn’t tried my hand at butterscotch bars yet. The boyfriend is a big fan of toffee and butterscotch, so it was the next logical progression in my baking adventures.

These bars are soft and chewy, which is basically the only way I like a good blondie bar. They’re filled with chunks of dark chocolate, because I just can’t help myself and have to add chocolate to just about everything. These are also lousy with ribbons of rich, gooey, homemade salted butterscotch sauce.

OMG WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE.

It’s thick, sweet buttery perfection with just enough salt to complement the sauce’s sugary nature. Even better? It’s easy. You don’t need to be intimidated by it, and I’m not asking you to use a candy thermometer to make it happen.

It’s totally doable, and I believe in you.

It’s also going to make enough for you to have leftovers, and this is the kind of leftovers I can totally get on board with. Use it for another batch of these bars, or to drizzle on some ice cream. I highly recommend it as a topping for my no churn homemade Americone Dream ice cream or this chocolate ice cream. Or… really anything at all. Pour it directly in your mouth if you want.

I don’t judge.

Also, quick aside – when I was shooting these pictures, it was in the middle of one of the six billion nor’easters we got last month, and the backdrop was snow, overturned furniture and six foot flood waters:

There’s not supposed to be water there… at all. Good lord, am I glad that’s over.

So, yeah. These are great and you should make them. I could babble on about them more, but quite frankly I need to go back for Vegas and I don’t have anything else interesting to say.

Don’t you just love (read: kinda hate) my honesty?

It’s not that I don’t care about what goes into the post – it’s that I want you to have this recipe available to you ASAP and my lack of being interesting in a social sense shouldn’t prevent you from the joy that is a pan of these butterscotch blondies.

So you see? It’s because I care that I’m going to shut up and let you get to bakin’.

Enjoy a few more pictures, if you so desire.

Can’t get enough butterscotch? ME EITHER.

• I highly recommend this butterscotch pudding from Bowl of Delicious – it’s not just homemade from scratch, it has a built in arm workout ?
• How about butterscotch with your breakfast? This banana bread from Six Sister’s Stuff has butterscotch added to it, and banana bread is breakfast, sooooooo totally acceptable for 7AM.
• You can’t go wrong with butterscotch cookies. You just can’t. This recipe from The Salty Marshmallow is proof.
• Orrrrrr this no churn salted butterscotch ice cream from Plating Pixels. I don’t care that it’s 12° outside, I want this NOW.

After you’ve made this recipe, please consider coming back to share your experience with others by leaving a comment below with a star rating!

Chocolate Chunk Butterscotch Blondies

5 from 1 vote

Soft and chewy butterscotch blondie bars loaded with dark chocolate chunks and ribbons of gooey, rich, salted homemade butterscotch.

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Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 12 to 16 bars

Ingredients

  

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Butterscotch sauce

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ½ cup heavy cream
• ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt, preferably flake sea salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Blonde bars

• 1.33 cups all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2-3/4 cup dark chocolate chunks
• 3-4 tablespoons of your prepared butterscotch sauce
• Flake sea salt for topping, optional

Instructions

 

Butterscotch Sauce

• In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.
• Melt the butter in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan (not non-stick) over medium heat.
• Add heavy cream, brown sugar and salt and stir constantly over medium heat until combined. Bring to a boil and let boil for 4 minutes.
• Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract until combined. Transfer to a heat-proof container to cool completely at room temperature. Once the container is no longer hot to the touch, set aside 1/4 cup (you'll be using this for the blondies), cover the rest and store in the fridge. Use it as a topping for ice cream later!

Blondie bars

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8x8 inch baking dish with parchment paper and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk to combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine melted butter and brown sugar and beat on medium speed until combined.
• Add egg and vanilla and beat to combine.
• Add dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients and mix on low speed until completely combined. As the batter thickens, you may need to turn it up to a higher speed.
• Add chocolate chunks (save a handful for topping) and stir until just combined.
• In your prepared baking dish, spread batter in an even layer.
• Drizzle your prepared butterscotch sauce over the top of the batter and gently swirl with a knife (see notes for more details). Press your reserved chocolate chunks into the top and top with flake salt (if desired).
• Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center (try to aim for a non-butterscotch sauce spot) comes out mostly clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then left them out of the pan with the parchment paper and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Cut into 12-16 bars, serve and enjoy!

Notes

For the butterscotch sauce swirls:

Drizzle sauce over the batter in 4 evenly spaced parallel lines that run the length of the pan. Turn your pan 90°. Start at the top of one of the rows and with the end of a butter knife, drag it across the lines of sauce, and repeat 4 more times down the length of the pan.

Nutrition

Calories: 321kcal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 53mg | Sodium: 327mg | Potassium: 108mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 461IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 51mg | Iron: 1mg

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Leslie Kiszka

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