Valentine’s Blondies

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This is the best recipe for classic blondies (adapted from Cooks Illustrated blondies) that are easy, no mixer required, and utterly delicious. Valentine’s Blondies are the perfect gift for your loved one!

What’s so good about these Valentine’s Day Blondies?

These blondies are adapted off of a very popular Cook’s Illustrated Blondie recipe, which means they have the perfect ratio of ingredients to give the perfect blondies.

The recipe itself is so simple and comes together so quickly. There’s no stand mixer required, no browning of butter, just a few ingredients you whisk together and pour into a pan.

The texture is the perfect blondie texture! Chewy and soft in the center and crispier around the edges. They also have that signature butterscotch flavor, which the mix ins complement and don’t overwhelm.

Also, Valentine’s day themed blondies are adorable. Heart shaped and covered with pink and white sprinkles, they couldn’t get more festive!

What’s the difference between brownies and blondies?

Blondies are made without melted chocolate and cocoa powder, and with extra vanilla extract and brown sugar to give a butterscotch tasting.

Brownies are usually made with primarily white sugar, without vanilla or with much less vanilla, and with melted chocolate or cocoa to give the base of the bar a rich chocolate flavor.

Both are delicious! If you’d like to try my go to brownie recipe, it’s this one here.

What ingredients do I need to make the perfect blondies?

The dry ingredients:

Flour: regular all purpose or plain flour

Baking powder: Some blondie recipes don’t put any leavening agents, but a little baking powder lightens these so they aren’t too heavy and gooey.

Salt: Always important in baking recipes to offset the sweetness.

The wet ingredients:

Melted butter: unsalted butter that has been melted then cooled to room temperature

Brown sugar: light brown sugar, packed. These are sweet, but not overly so. You could reduce the sugar by 1/4 cup if you prefer.

Eggs: room temperature eggs

Vanilla extract. This recipe uses plenty of vanilla to really enhance the flavor (3 tsp) but that’s still less than the original Cook’s Illustrated recipe that uses a whopping 4 tsp.

Mix-ins:

Chocolate Chips: I wanted plenty of chocolate since it’s so emblematic of Valentine’s Day. I used a mixture of semi-sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips. You can definitely do all of one type of chocolate chip or substitute with milk chocolate chips.

Toppings: I topped these with a little bit of Nutella (so good) and sprinkles. The Nutella helps the sprinkles to stick, and of course tastes delicious. You can also use any chocolate ganache or ready made frosting of choice.

What are other good blondie mix-ins?

This is the perfect base blondie recipe, I’ll use it anytime I

You could do all white chocolate chips, and add some freeze dried raspberries OR swirl raspberry jam throughout the batter for white chocolate raspberry blondies.

Toasted nuts would be delicious in this, either pecans, walnuts or hazelnuts would be my preference.

Try using a mix of chocolate and peanut butter or butterscotch chips. Another take would be chocolate covered toffee bits like Heath bar or daim mixed in.

How to make the best Valentine’s blondies:

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1. Start off by preheating your oven so that it’s hot when blondies are ready to go in. Lightly grease a 13×9 pan and line with parchment paper so that there’s extra parchment paper forming a sling that’ll allow you to easily lift out blondies once cool.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl and set aside.
3. Whisk melted butter and brown sugar together in medium bowl until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
4. Using a spatula, fold dry ingredients into egg mixture until just combined; do not over mix. Fold in chocolate and then smooth into prepared pan.
5. Bake until top is shiny, cracked, and light golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes; do not over bake, toothpick will come out clean.
6. Cool completely before lifting out of pan and cutting out heart shapes with a cookie cutter. lightly spread with Nutella or frosting of choice, and top with sprinkles. Enjoy!

How do I know when blondies are done baking?

You’ll know blondies are done baking when they start to pull away from the sides of the pan and the edges will be light brown. The top will be shiny and lightly cracked. Be sure not to overcook your blondies or they might turn out overly hard and dry. You can use a toothpick into the middle of your pan to test for doneness, it’ll come out clean and blondies will harden more as they set.

Storing leftover blondies:

Blondies will last tightly covered at room temperature for up to 5 days, or refrigerated for the same amount of time. They also freeze beautifully, for up to 3 months tightly wrapped with plastic to avoid freezer burn. You can either wrap the whole block of blondies uncut, or individual squares.

FAQS:

If you liked this recipe, you might like:

Chocolate Chip Brownies

Heaven Bars

Chocolate Tiffin