Soft yet chewy and ultra-rich, these caramel blondies are the perfect decadent treat. With white chocolate chips and macadamias (or any nuts you like) these are out of this world and totally swoon-worthy.
- Buttery and caramel for days!
- One bowl and so easy to make.
- All kinds of soft and gooey.
These caramel blondies are epic. Rich, delicious and hard to stop at one, they have a little crunch from nuts (though you can certainly leave them out) which goes beautifully with the soft bar surrounding them. There is caramel mixed into the batter, swirled through the top and just a little drizzled over after baking for good measure. These truly are for the caramel lover!
Blondie lovers will love these Biscoff blondies too.
Never Miss a Recipe!
Get the latest recipes straight to your inbox!
Bars, in general, are a wonderful treat for fetes, bake sales and picnics because once they cool in the tin, you just cut them up into individual servings. No waste, no fuss. They’re easily portable and hold up perfectly in Summer or Winter without the need for refrigeration.
Brownies vs blondies
Blondies are the lighter cousin of brownies. While brownies have cocoa added to the batter, blondies do not. Brownies often have chocolate added to the mix too and while blondies will sometimes have white chocolate added, they don’t use any milk or dark chocolate so they maintain a much blonder appearance.
Ingredients you’ll need
With a grand total of 9 ingredients – some of which can be swapped – these caramel blondies take next to no time to prep.
Detailed quantities and instructions in the recipe card below.
- Caramel sauce: You can use store-bought caramel (I love Bonne Maman) or make your caramel sauce from scratch. If you make it from scratch, it must cool to at least room temperature before you make the blondies.
- Flour: Just plain flour (aka all purpose flour) is all you need. Don’t use self-raising flour unless you want more of a cakey texture.
- Sugar: There are two sugars here – white and brown. Both are for sweetness, though the brown sugar adds moisture and chewiness.
- Butter: You can use salted or unsalted butter. I use unsalted but salted is great too especially if you’re aiming for salted caramel blondies here.
- Eggs: I always use large free-range eggs in my baking. Make sure they’re at room temperature.
- Add-ins: I add a mixture of white chocolate chips and macadamias here. You can use all chocolate chips or all nuts. You can swap the nuts for others too like pecans, cashews, peanuts, walnuts – use your favourites.
Feel free to add some extra salt to create salted caramel blondies. It’s best to mix it slowly into the caramel sauce, tasting as you go, until it’s the saltiness you like, then use that caramel sauce in the blondies.
How to make caramel blondies (step-by-step)
You are going to love how easy these are. Literally, one mixing bowl and 10 minutes and they’re into the oven.
Detailed quantities and instructions in the recipe card below.
- Dry ingredients: Mix together the flour, salt and both sugars well, making sure there are no lumps left (photo 1).
- Wet ingredients: Add lightly beaten eggs, caramel sauce and melted butter then mix it all together (photo 2).
- The add-ins: Now add the white chocolate and macadamias and fold those through.
- Assemble: Tip the blondie batter into a lined pan and sprinkle a few more choc chips and nuts over the top. Now drizzle over more caramel (photo 3) and swirl it through with a knife (photo 4) or skewer.
- Bake: Bake the blondies for anywhere between 30-35 minutes. All ovens vary, but in mine, 30 minutes leaves them just slightly gooey in the middle without tasting raw. The sweet point for my oven is 33 minutes, where they’re soft and sticky but cooked. If you prefer them a little less gooey, just cook a few minutes longer.
Tips and tricks
- Don’t overbake your blondies. Like brownies, once they come out of the oven they continue to bake inside where they’re still very hot. You want to take them out when the toothpick comes out with some sticky crumbs attached.
- Salted caramel: You can replace the caramel with salted caramel (or just add salt to your caramel sauce to taste) then to make them extra special, sprinkle over some fleur de sel / flaky sea salt for serving.
FAQs
A brownie contains cocoa powder and, often dark chocolate. Blondies use neither of these ingredients which results in their blonde colour.
Blondies are meant to be soft, moist, dense, fudgy and very rich. Whether you make them gooey or not is a personal preference and just comes down to baking time. Experiment to find your favourite.
Use a toothpick to test if your blondies are done. It should come out with some sticky crumbs but not wet batter.
There are a few things that can cause cakey blondies. You may have overmixed the batter, baked them too long or added too much flour.
First up, a little gooeyness is fine, as long as it’s not runny or raw tasting. Blondies bake quicker around the edges where the tin is hot and take longer to heat up in the middle, hence taking longer to cook in the middle. If they are underbaked in the centre, it just means they needed to be cooked a little longer. You can also use ceramic or glass dishes which will make them cook slightly more evenly but the blondies may take a little longer to cook overall.
Yield and storage
This caramel blondies recipe makes 16 small but very rich blondie squares.
These stay good for 4-5 days at room temperature in an airtight container.
Blondies can be frozen too for up to 2 months in an airtight container. Cut them into portions first so that you can just thaw what you need.
Did you try this caramel blondies recipe?
Leaving a rating and comment below the recipe is so helpful!
Hungry for more? Subscribe to the newsletter for free recipes straight to your inbox. Also, follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.
Ingredients
- ½ cup caramel sauce (divided ¼:¼ cup)
- 130 g plain flour (all-purp flour) (1 cup / 4.6oz)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100g / 3.5oz)
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed (100g / 3.5oz)
- 113 g unsalted butter, melted (½ cup / 1 stick / 4oz)
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup macadamias (large ones chopped in half) (75g / 2.7oz)
- ½ cup white chocolate chips (90g / 3.2oz)
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- Medium mixing bowl
- balloon whisk and spatula
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180C / 350F / 160C fan forced. Line an 8×8 inch square baking pan with baking paper
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt and both sugars in a bowl and mix well until there are no lumps left.
- Lightly beat the eggs and add them to the dry ingredients. Add the melted butter and ¼ cup of caramel too then mix until just combined.
- Finally add most of the macadamias and white chocolate (reserve a small handful for the top). Mix until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the tin and spread out evenly. Scatter the remaining nuts and choc chips over the top. Drizzle over most of the remaining caramel, leaving just a little for drizzling over after baking.
- Bake for 30 -35 minutes until the top is dry and golden. It should be soft to touch but no wobble left when you shake it.
- Cool in the tin for at least 15-20 minutes before removing to cool a little more. Can be served warm or fully cooled but hold togetehr best cooled. Drizzle the remaining caramel over the top to serve.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- *Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- For best results, you should always weigh ingredients like flour and sugar. Kitchen scales are relatively cheap but if you can’t weigh the ingredients, use the spoon and level method (don’t scoop).
- All ovens vary – always test for doneness 3-5 minutes before the recipe suggests.
- Feel free to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract for a more butterscotch flavour.
- These caramel blondies keep well at room temperature in an airtight container for 4-5 days.
- They can be served as is and are perfect for picnics and fetes, or serve them topped with vanilla ice cream for decadent mini desserts. More Information These links will take you up to the post – just scroll down to get back to the recipe card.
This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission for my referral, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting Sugar Salt Magic.
6 Comments on “Caramel Blondies”
I have made these several times for get togethers with friends and they are always a hit and I never have any left. I left of the macadamia nuts because I personally do not like them but these were excellent without them.
I’m so happy you love them, Sherry. Thanks so much for dropping back to leave a review – so appreciated 🙂
I’m all about the macadamia nuts, these blondies are my kinda of cookie bars!
Thanks so much Trang 🙂
Interestingly, while I always have excellent brownies, I have failed blondies many times – they just didn’t get chewy enough. These bars look and sound impeccable though. No wonder – loaded with macadamia and caramel, they must be luscious and decadent. Well done!
Brown sugar is your best friend with Blondies. The caramel in these ones certainly helps the chewy factor too ?