Killer Salty-Expresso-Chocolate Blondies

Other blondie dough tastes like butter and sugar with a touch of saltiness — good but in my book is better eaten with chocolate chips.

This blondie batter is a candy bar in itself. You cook together butter and brown sugar, ergo caramel, and then add instant expresso powder. It's salty like caramel with a hint of coffee, and then of course you must add chocolate chips to complete the soft, thick bar of decadence.

So if you are feeling lugubrious and torpid, bringing down your physiognomy to those around you, these will make you jocose, a reprieve from the phantasmagoria of life.* And you might not be able to resist eating a huge chunk straight out of the oven; evidence of why I should not be allowed to engage in late night baking alone is pictured. (That missing chunk? All eaten by yours truly.)

The recipe I based it off of also calls for adding more chocolate and caramel on top of the cooked blondies. I skipped that step the second time I made these; it wasn't worth the effort for that much more uber-richness but it does add flair to the top.

*Remember in school when you had to write sentences with vocab words? The nerd in me just took over, because that happened with the words I looked from reading Les Miserables, getting ready for the movie (!!).

Killer Salty-Expresso-Chocolate Blondies

Adapted from Jennifer Rau via The Kitchn

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter

1 cup brown sugar



1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt



2 large eggs

4 teaspoons instant expresso, optional


1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract


1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan; add sugar and whisk until combined and sugar is melted, about 5 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and let cool slightly. 

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. 

Whisk the eggs, vanilla and instant expresso into the butter-sugar mixture  until combined. Add the flour and whisk until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips. Transfer to a greased 8x8-inch pan.

Bake 28-35 minutes or until the top cracks slightly and is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the center comes out with moist pieces clinging to it.

Optional Topping of Decadence
½ stick (1/4 cup) butter

¼ cup brown sugar

3 oz. chocolate bar with nuts, chopped

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together ½ stick butter and 1/4 cup brown sugar, stirring constantly until bubbly. Once it starts bubbling cook and stir for 1 minute.

 Scatter the chopped chocolate bar over warm blondies.

 Pour the butter and sugar mixture evenly over the bars pan. Make sure not to get too close to the edges of the pan or it will burn to the sides.