Salted Toffee Blondies are one bowl easy with gooey chunks of chocolate and a sprinkling of flaked sea salt.
I love Autumn... it brings such fond memories of baking and sharing and with Autumn now rapidly approaching, I had always planned to create a toffee blondie. Certain foods seem to remind me of particular seasons and toffee always reminds me of autumn. Maybe it is from dreams of past Halloween candies... or puddings and treats on crisp November evenings. But a toffee flavored bar is and always will be a Fall treat to me.
What is a blondie?
The blondie is a bar cookie like a brownie without melted chocolate or cocoa incorporated into the batter. Like brownies, blondies can be cake style or “candy bar” style. Cake style has less sugar and butter. Candy bar style is loaded with twice the sugar and butter as cake style and also has just a little less flour. (Yes, a chart is coming!)
I decided to make these blondies straddle the two styles. The center is more set and less gooey than straight up candy bar style, which I like. It’s still rich and decadent, but less cloying. You know I like to double down on flavor, so I added both toffee bits and coffee to the batter to boost the brown sugar and butter flavors.
But these bars needed a little something extra. Milk Chocolate!
Yes! They needed chunks of milk chocolate ev-er-y-where!
Luckily, Hershey’s makes a 7-ounce extra-large milk chocolate bar just the right size for this recipe. I hand cut the large milk chocolate into quarter to third inch chunks. Even though you can buy milk chocolate already in bags “chunk” style instead of “chips” or morsels, I prefer cutting the chocolate myself. You get all these little jagged bits of chocolate that melt beautifully inside the bars.
The last piece of puzzling out this recipe was the flaked sea salt. It doesn’t take much but a sprinkling of flaked sea salt to transform the toffee, coffee, and chocolate flavors in your mouth to something “more”.
Once baked and cooled, these blondies cut into perfect squares. I hope you enjoy!
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Salted Toffee Blondies
Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup Butter
- 3/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar
- 2 Large Eggs
- 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1 1/3 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 2 Tablespoons Instant Espresso Coffee
- 1 ½ Teaspoons Baking Powder
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Cup Toffee Bits
- 7 Ounces Milk Chocolate, Cut into Chunks, Reserve 2 Ounces for Top of Blondies
- ½ Teaspoon Flaked Sea Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 9 x 9 x 3-inch baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl beat together, butter and brown sugar until color is lightened and mixture is fluffy. Scrape down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add eggs and vanilla extract. Continue to beat until all is well combined.
- Sift together flour, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture and beat until it is incorporated.
- With a rubber spatula fold in toffee bits and 5 ounces of the chocolate chunks.
- Spread mixture in prepared pan and scatter reserved chocolate chunks over top of blondies. Lightly press chunks of chocolate into top, sprinkle with flaked sea salt, and bake for 30 minutes. This is a timed bake. The top of the blondies will feel set, but a toothpick might not come out clean.
- Cool blondies completely in the pan. Using the parchment paper lift the blondies from the pan and place them on a cutting board. Cut them into squares or bars. If not eaten immediately, wrap individually and store in an airtight container.
- If desired, warm blondies very gently in oven or microwave before serving to get gooey chocolate.
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