After missing a very important holiday, National Butterscotch Brownie Day, I looked through Cookie Madness and found very few recipes for Butterscotch Brownies. There were plenty of Blondies, but only two really emphasized the butterscotch – a Whole Foods recipe and one from Cooking Light. I wanted to try something new, and pulled out Classic Home Desserts (#ad) by Richard Sax.
Richard Sax’s recipe calls for macadamia nuts and white chocolate — two excellent additions to any bar cookie! But being in butterscotch mode, I just used butterscotch chips and toasted pecans. Results were great! The bars are somewhere between cakey and chewy with a good blast of butterscotch flavor from the butterscotch chips. Pecans cut the sweetness, but you can leave them out if you need to.
Butterscotch Blondies Adapted from R. Sax
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons 100 grams sifted all-purpose flour**
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cup plus 2 T. packed 160 grams light brown sugar**
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup 114 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 3/4 cup 75 grams pecan halves, toasted at 350 for 10 minutes and chopped
- 1/3 cup butterscotch morsels
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line an 8 inch metal baking pan with foil. Spray bottom of pan (not sides) with cooking spray.
- Re-sift the flour with the salt, and baking soda onto a sheet of foil or waxed paper.
- Beat the egg and brown sugar in a medium bowl using high speed of electric mixer until light and frothy (2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract and then the melted butter. Add the flour mixture and stir by hand until it is mostly blended in, then add the pecans and butterscotch chips and stir until fully mixed.
- Pour the batter into the pan, smooth the top. Bake on center rack for 27-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Cool completely before cutting into squares.
Jennifer
I’m going to make these tonight, but I’m cheating (I love butterscotch, but don’t like butterscotch chips) and will use a mix of white chocolate chips and dark chocolate ones. Why? Well, everything is better with chocolate!
Bev
Yes, it was the Rather Sweet Bakery & Cafe! Have you been there?
Louise
Having blown off Coconut Cream Pie Day on May 8th, I hope you are busy preparing for National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day on May 15th. 😉
KAnn
They look fabulous, Anna! (I am wondering if Bev was at Rebecca Rather’s restaurant, too. She has a new book coming out this fall, btw.) I emailed you a recipe that made me think of you as it is a butterscotch recipe. I am enjoying these recipes a lot!
snookydoodle
these surely look good!
Anna
Hi Bev,
Was that place called “Rather Sweet”?
Bev
I had the best Butterscotch Blondie at a little place in Fredricksberg, TX last April when I was in Austin, visiting a favorite niece. It had some yummy brown sugary icing, too. It was so good.
Louise
The addition of dark brown sugar gives a nice color to these Blondies. The pale color is something I find unappealing for most Blondies. That’s probably not a bad thing as they are one less sweet I need to try. These, on the other hand, with pecans and butterscotch, look like something which would go well with coffee. 🙂
Katrina
Your pictures are gettin’ to me! 😉 By the way, I made your pumpkin pecan butterscotch scones yesterday. They are good. (Kevin hates butterscotch, so I did half with cc’s, and made them small–12) Weird thing is that two baking sheets and the second one burned–pretty badly with still 4 minutes left on the clock. A little too much parchment overhanging? Don’t know, but I was a little perturbed. Oh well, the ones that survived are good and now I can say I’ve made scones. They were super easy and tasty, but just slightly dry, so I probably overbaked them just a tad. Anyway, thanks.
redkimo
These look so yummy! I love butterscotch and am going to have to give these a try!
Emily
I love the Richard Sax Classic Home Desserts cookbook. I think that’s one that everyone should have. One of my favorites.
These blondies look amazing! I would want to eat them all.
Sue
These look great!! I hope to try them soon.