The BEST Blondie Recipe
This blondie recipe is chewy, rich, and studded with white chocolate chips! They have the same texture as brownies, but are flavored with vanilla rather than chocolate. This is an easy, one-bowl recipe that’s perfect for weeknight baking!
*Post and pictures updated October 2022*
What Is a Blondie?
If you’ve never tried blondie bars before, you’re in for a real treat! They’re essentially “blonde brownies,” aka brownies that are vanilla flavored rather than chocolatey.
This blondie recipe delivers the same fudgy texture of classic brownies, just with a strong vanilla flavor. I even managed to recreate the same crackly top that brownies have!
You can make this easy blondie recipe any time of year, for any occasion. The blondies can be customized with any mix-ins you’d like as well!
Ingredients for This Recipe
This truly is the best recipe for blondies, both because the flavor and texture is spot on, but also because the ingredients list is minimal and everything can be whisked together in one bowl!
I’ve given detailed instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the end of this post, but here’s an overview of the key ingredients needed for this recipe:
- Unsalted Butter: As always, it’s best to stick with unsalted butter in your recipes so that you can control the amount of salt. If you only have salted butter on hand, then just reduce the salt to 1/8 teaspoon or a tiny pinch.
- Brown & Granulated Sugar: I love to use a mix of sugars in these blondies. The brown sugar adds flavor, moisture, and makes these bars chewier.
- Flour: When measuring your flour, make sure to use the spoon and level method. This will ensure that they end up dense like a blondie should be and not too cakey.
- Baking Powder: I don’t use any baking powder in my classic brownies, but I do in these blondies. It adds a little lift, but not too much.
- White Chocolate Chips: An optional mix-in, but I love the flavor and texture they add to the bars. If desired, you can swap out the white chocolate chips for another baking chip.
How to Make Blondies
I love that the batter for this blondie recipe comes together in one bowl. The fewer dishes I have to clean after baking, the better! Let’s quickly go over how this recipe comes together:
- Prep the baking pan: Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper. I prefer leaving a bit of overhang to make removing the bars easier.
- Whisk together the wet ingredients: Combine the melted butter and both types of sugar in a large mixing bowl, then whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add the dry ingredients: In the same bowl, add the flour, baking powder, and salt, followed by the white chocolate chips.
- Bake the blondies: Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and spread it into an even layer. Bake until the top is set and lightly browned.
- Cool completely: Remove the bars from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. The bars need time to set up before they can be sliced!
Recipe Variations
You can easily swap out the white chocolate chips for your favorite mix-ins. Here are a few variations you can try:
- Chocolate Chip: Use 1 cup semi-sweet, milk, or dark chocolate chips
- Butterscotch: Use 1 cup butterscotch baking chips
- Peanut Butter: Use 1 cup peanut butter baking chips
- Chocolate Pecan: Use 3/4 cup of your favorite chocolate chips and 3/4 cup chopped pecans
- M&M Chocolate Chip: Use 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 3/4 cup M&M’s candies
Should This Recipe Be Made in a Glass or Metal Baking Dish?
Either will work! If using a glass pan, you shouldn’t have to increase the bake time of these blondies at all. I’ve made this recipe in a glass 9×13-inch pan a few times and never had any issues.
If using a metal pan, I recommend choosing a light metal pan rather than a dark one. Light metal pans reflect heat whereas dark metal pans tend to absorb it, which can cause the edges of your blondies to brown more quickly (and possibly burn them).
What Causes Blondies to Sink in the Middle?
If your blondies look perfect around the edges but the middle sunk down after being pulled from the oven, it could be for a couple of reasons.
- Over mixing the eggs: If you over mix the eggs, that can incorporate more air into the batter and cause them to sink.
- Underbaking the bars: Pulling the blondies out of the oven before the center has had time to bake through can also cause them to sink in the middle. Try baking them for a couple extra minutes next time!
Can This Recipe Be Made in Advance?
Absolutely! I don’t recommend making the batter in advance (i.e. preparing the batter and then refrigerating it to bake at a later date). However, you can certainly bake the bars to enjoy throughout the week!
Can This Blondie Recipe Be Halved?
Yes, you can halve the ingredients and bake the blondies in an 8×8-inch pan. The bake time should remain roughly the same, but use your best judgement!
Baking Tips
- Be sure to line your baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Leave some overhang to make removing the blondies from the pan easier.
- Spoon and level the flour when measuring it; do NOT scoop the flour straight from the bag with your measuring cup. This will compact the flour, causing you to measure out too much by mistake.
- Let the melted butter cool for a couple of minutes before adding it to the mixing bowl. If the butter is still piping hot when you stir it in, you may end up scrambling the eggs!
More Easy Dessert Bar Recipes to Try!
Recipe Video
Blondie Recipe
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter melted and slightly cooled (170 grams)
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar (200 grams)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (150 grams)
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour spooned & leveled (250 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white chocolate chips optional (190 grams)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil, leaving some overhang for easy removal, and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until well combined. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract until fully combined.
- Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until just combined, then fold in the white chocolate chips.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared 9x13 pan and spread it around into one even layer.
- Bake for 28 to 32 minutes or until the top is set and lightly browned. Remove from the oven and transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing into bars.
Hi Danielle, I love this recipe. The only thing is that I cooked it for around 29mins. The top was browned and set but it seemed that the middle might not have been set. Is this normal, or should I put it back in for longer? Thanks, Danuiel.
The middle will be a little soft when you first take it out of the oven, but it will continue to set up as it cools.
As usual, Danielle delivers a perfection recipe. Made it with peanut butter chips as that is what was in the pantry and they were delicious. It never amazes me, I have yet to find a problem or not have a wonderful recipe by Danielle. A tip of my hat to you fine lady.
Hi, I would like to know how tall your baking pan are, cause I have 0.78 and 0.81 inch (2 and 3cm) high. Can I make blondes with any of these? Or brondies get higher?
Thank u
The pans that I use are 2-inches tall. The blondies don’t fill up the whole pan though, they probably come up about half the way up the pan. I’d recommend using one that’s at least 1-inch deep.
Fabulous. Made them exactly as written. This will be my only blondie recipe.
It turned out great. I used peanut butter chips instead of white chocolate. Big hit!!!
These are delish. Perfect texture. Crispie outside and chewy inside! Will def make again.
First of all, these are really good! I went by weight given for ingredients. I am wondering, though, if they came out too oily. They are dense and chewy but pretty oily. Is thaat how they should be?
They shouldn’t be oily. Did you spray or grease your pan quite a bit? Under baking them slightly could cause that to happen as well.
Hey, can I use honey instead of the sugar?
I don’t recommend it for this recipe.
Thanks so much! I made this recipe exactly according to your tips and suggestions, except I substituted Bob’s Gluten Free flour for ordinary flour, and added 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts. I cooked them in a 9×13 glass pan lined with parchment paper. They browned evenly top and bottom, the texture was chewy-perfect, and everyone loved them.
Easy to follow directions. product looked just the way it was suppose to. I gave it 3 stars becuase I found it to be way to sweet. Next time I will reduce the white sugar to 1/2 a cup.
I don’t recommend reducing the sugar that much, it will change the texture of the bars. You can omit the white chocolate chips though.
Can you add peanut butter instead of chips?
If you’re wanting to add peanut butter, I’d recommend using my peanut butter blondie recipe here.
Excelente recipe. I love how chewy they are yet the edges are crispy. My only problem is that it’s a little too sweet for me. Will it work with less sugar?
You could probably reduce the sugar by 1/4 to 1/3 cup. I wouldn’t recommend reducing it much more than that though or it will change the taste and texture of the blondies.
Wow!! So easy and SOOOOO good!! They turned out perfectly!! I would have taken a picture but, less than 2 hours after they came out of the oven, they were all gone!! I’ll be baking another batch tomorrow!! Definitely holding on to this recipe! I didn’t put in the white chocolate chips because I used dark brown sugar so they were sweet enough without them. I may put in some pecans next time though. Thank you!!
What temperature for a fan assisted oven please?
I would reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
Made half the ingredients and they came out very oily. Any ideas where i went wrong please?
Did you make sure you halved all the ingredients correctly? If so, they may have just needed to bake longer.
Delicious! But learn from my mistakes. If using one of those individual brownie trays, lower the oven temp to about 325F. The edges browned long before the middle was done.
This recipe is perfect! The extra tips are appreciated. Very moist.
Tried these today. I swapped one if the teaspoons of vanilla with a teaspoon of caramel extract. I added butterscotch chipits. Perfect texture. Love the flavour. Definitely a recipe keeper. Thank you ❤️
When I make blondies they seem to rise like a sponge. I follow the recipe exact why does this happen ?
They seem to be light rather then flat and chewy.
Are you over mixing your eggs? If you’re mixing them too much, that can incorporate too much air and cause them to rise more.