Brown Butter Blondies with Macadamia Nuts, Caramel, and Dark Chocolate

Brown Butter Blondies with Macadamia Nuts, Caramel, and Dark Chocolate | Once Upon a Recipe

Alright alright, so I’ve been real well-behaved over the past month, sharing healthy recipes and all that jazz. But it’s time to get back to the good stuff. The sweet, buttery, chocolate-laden stuff.

And I’m not sure that there are words for these little squares of delight. At least, no words that will do them justice.

Brown Butter Blondies with Macadamia Nuts, Caramel, and Dark Chocolate | Once Upon a Recipe

Every so often, I try to do a clean-out of my cupboard. I always seem to have half-bags of a variety of chocolate, nuts, and other baking mix-ins hanging around. I had leftover dark chocolate and caramel left over from making my salted caramel bark over the holidays. I was very tempted to make another batch of the bark, but the previous batch had been a little too hard to resist, even from the depths of my freezer. I tend to lack willpower around frozen chocolate, what can I say?

Brown Butter Blondies with Macadamia Nuts, Caramel, and Dark Chocolate | Once Upon a Recipe

Therefore, I was on the hunt for a new recipe. When I came across Deb’s recipe for blondies and realized that I’d never made blondies before, it was a no-brainer. The base recipe is great, and provides lots of room for switching up the flavors and mix-ins.

Brown Butter Blondies with Macadamia Nuts, Caramel, and Dark Chocolate | Once Upon a Recipe

Brown Butter Blondies with Macadamia Nuts, Caramel, and Dark Chocolate | Once Upon a Recipe

Friends, I have not been this excited about a cookie in a while. But these little things are AMAZING. First of all, we’ve got brown butter, which just seems to make everything a little bit better. Then we add in some toasted macadamia nuts for a little buttery crunch, chunks of caramel for a little chew, and some dark chocolate, just because. Oh, and then we add a sprinkle of coarse sea salt on top, just because I’m obsessed with that sweet/salty combo. #cantstopwontstop

Brown Butter Blondies with Macadamia Nuts, Caramel, and Dark Chocolate | Once Upon a Recipe

Brown Butter Blondies with Macadamia Nuts, Caramel, and Dark Chocolate | Once Upon a Recipe

It’s true what they say, blondies have more fun! But don’t take my word for it!

Brown Butter Blondies with Macadamia Nuts, Caramel, and Dark Chocolate (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

These blondies are so adaptable to whatever mix-ins you’ve got on hand. Basically, you need one cup of mix-ins, so change it up and try out different combinations. Please note that I’ve also added the metric measurements for some of the ingredients. I have been using my kitchen scale more often in baking, simply because I find that it helps me to produce more consistent results. I recommend using a scale if you have one. 

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter

1 cup (238 grams) dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla

Pinch of sea salt

1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour

1/3 cup toasted macadamia nuts, chopped

1/3 cup caramel pieces (I used 8 Kraft caramels, chopped)

1/3 cup dark chocolate, chopped

Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 8 x 8 pan with non-stick spray.

Toast your macadamia nuts – spread the nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake at 350°F for about 5 minutes. Check frequently to ensure they don’t burn.

Brown your butter! Combine brown butter and brown sugar and beat together. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Stir in the sea salt, flour, and mix-ins. Press the cookie dough into the pan. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt (I used about half a teaspoon). Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to brown and the center is set. Do not overbake! Allow the blondies to cool in the pan, then slice into squares. Nosh!

Brown Butter Blondies with Macadamia Nuts, Caramel, and Dark Chocolate | Once Upon a Recipe

And if you want to be downright gluttonous, do what I did, and add a little drizzle of salted caramel. This is living, friends!

Comments

  1. THis IS Awesome Amanda!!! Ill Definitely have to try these… I am going to share as well- Please Check out My FB @ http://www.facebook.com/hospitableme

  2. Oh my god. I am speechless!

  3. Yes please! I feel as though crushed pretzels would also be amazing mixed in to these!

  4. Brown butter, dark chocolate, macadamias, and caramel make all things wonderful!

  5. These look absolutely amazing! I could eat one or three of these right about now.

  6. Yes, it is time to get back to the good stuff in life! I dread blogs during January. Healthy this, healthy that. Gimme chocolate! 🙂

  7. Yummy! This would test my will power. Great mix in choices!

  8. Brown butter blondies with caramel and chocolate- this is ticking all the boxes for me! 🙂 I really must try these soon!

  9. Yesss!! Blondies from a blondie 😉 I make these so rarely.. and each time I make them I’m all WHY DID i WAIT SO LONG? Please mail me one with salted caramel on top. thnx.

    • That is exactly how I feel…why did I wait so long to try making them?! Must make up for lost time.
      PS. The one with salted caramel on top is yours. 😉

  10. I personally like the addition of salted caramel on top- YUM!

  11. These. Look. AMAZING! I am hungry just looking at them!

  12. These look dangerous…

  13. These blondies look awesome, wishing I had a couple of them on a plate in front of me right now! 😉

  14. My mouth is literally gaping open in awe. I love blondies. I love them more than brownies. They are like buttery bites of heaven.

  15. I made something similar a few posts ago and now I just can’t stop making them. So easy to impress people with! Love the combination of ingredients you’ve used!

  16. I always have half opened bags of so much stuff in my pantry! What a great way to use things up – these blondes look absolutely amazing!

  17. Say whaaat?! I have to make these.

  18. Wow! These look unbelievable!!!!

  19. Oh. My. God. These look totally over the top delicious! A must try very soon! Tfs.

  20. To good to be true! I want one right now!

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: