This recipe for Salted Caramel Blondies Bar is so rich and indulgent you’ll be making it over and over again!
Let me just start by saying that this recipe is one of my crowning glories! It is unbelievably delicious and since I created this recipe it has been shared over a million times!
I will warn you – these blondies are rich, but the salted caramel and the dark chocolate balances the sweetness perfectly. I think making these topped with milk chocolate would ruin that balance. If you love these blondies, why not try my Chocolate Chip Blondies recipe too?
Why This Recipe Works
- Melted butter in the base keeps it an easy recipe that doesn’t require a mixer.
- Using salted caramel offsets the sweet richness perfectly.
- The cream in the caramel keeps it smooth and emulsified.
- Using dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate helps balance the sweetness.
Making Perfect Caramel
For detailed information on making the perfect caramel, see my post for Homemade Caramel. It’s a step by step guide that turns out perfect every time!
How to Make Salted Caramel Blondies
- Sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.
- Mix butter and sugars in a separate bowl until fluffy.
- Add in eggs one at a time.
- Mix the flour into the wet ingredients.
- Fold in chocolate chips
- Bake for around 30 minutes.
- Make caramel, pour onto cooled blondies, allow to set.
- Melt chocolate, pour onto cooled blondies, allow to cool completely
- Serve and enjoy.
Step by Step Instructions
Add the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
Mix until combined and add the melted butter, vanilla, and eggs
Mix the flour into the wet ingredients until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Spread dough into a pan and bake for 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.
I use a silicone pan for this recipe because I find it’s the easiest way to remove the blondies from the pan. With a silicone pan, you just pop it out in one piece and there’s no breaking or sticking to the pan. You can one like mine from Amazon here. (#paidlink).
Make the Caramel (for detailed information on how this is done, see my post on how to make Homemade Caramel)
Pour the caramel over the blondies.
Allow to cool completely.
Melt chocolate (for more information on doing this well, see my post on how to melt chocolate) and pour over the blondies.
For detailed instructions see my post on How to Melt Chocolate.
Allow to cool completely before cutting.
Serve & enjoy!
Erren’s Top Tips
- You can line the pan with nonstick foil or baking paper. Just keep in mind, if you use a silicone pan that isn’t fitted with any sort of frame (which will be floppy when you hold it), make sure to put it on top of a cookie sheet before filling it to keep it stable and a avoid disaster when moving in and out of the oven.
- Please note that the caramel recipe uses golden syrup which is an amber-colored syrup with a rich, deep sweetness that you can buy here on Amazon. (#paidlink). I love golden syrup and use it a lot, but it could be substituted with corn syrup.
- When you are ready to slice the blondies, heat the knife before you cut it (be very careful not to touch it when slicing). The knife will easily go through the chocolate without cracking it and it will give the caramel that beautiful ooze. Your guests will love it!
Other Great Cookie Bars
FAQs
A higher fat to flour ratio keeps blondie brownies fudgy rather than cake-like, making them utterly delicious!
Your blondies are done when the edges are visibly baked through and the center is set and doesn’t wiggle when you shake the pan.
The difference between a blondie and a brownie is chocolate, it’s a simple as that, a blondie is the same consistency as a brownie but vanilla flavored.
Did you make this?
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Let’s Make Salted Caramel Blondies Bar
Ingredients
For the blondie base
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup butter melted
- ¾ cups light brown sugar packed
- 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
For The Caramel
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoons golden syrup or light corn syrup
- 6 tablespoons butter seperated
- ⅓ cup heavy cream or whipping cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
For The Topping
- 12 oz Dark Chocolate chopped
Instructions
For The Base
- Preheat the oven to 350 f/ 170c degrees.
- Grease a 9-inch silicone baking pan.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour bread flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together.
- Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla. Mix until combined. Mix in the chocolate chips.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, give the pan a little shake. If it jiggles in the middle, put the pan back in and try again every 5 minutes until there is no longer a jiggle.
- Set aside to cool.
For The Caramel
- Combine the sugar, brown sugar, and syrup in a medium saucepan on medium heat, stirring every few minutes to keep the sugar heating evenly, but don’t stir constantly. Cook until it becomes fluid and deep caramel color.
- Add the butter off the heat (The mixture will bubble rapidly so be careful) stirring constantly with a whisk until combined completely into the sugar mixture. There should be no visible butter so whisk quickly to combine and keep whisking until it is thoroughly combined (This can take 3 or 4 minutes).
- Very slowly stir in the heavy cream, vanilla, and salt until combines. Allow to cool before pouring over the cooled blondie base. Allow to cool completely.
Foe the chocolate topping
- Melt the chocolate melt chocolate in a microwaveable bowl for 30 seconds at a time (stirring in between) until the chocolate is smooth and fluid.
- Pour the melted chocolate over the caramel and set aside until the chocolate has cooled completely.
- Cut into squares and serve.
Tips + Notes
- You can line the pan with nonstick foil or baking paper, but I haven’t tried these methods and can’t guarantee you won’t run into problems. Just keep in mind, if you use a silicone pan that isn’t fitted with any sort of frame (which will be floppy when you hold it), make sure to put it on top of a cookie sheet before filling it to keep it stable and to avoid disaster when moving in and out of the oven.
- Please note that the caramel recipe uses golden syrup which is an amber-colored syrup with a rich, deep sweetness that you can buy here on Amazon. (#paidlink). I love golden syrup and use it a lot, but it could be substituted with corn syrup.
- When you are ready to slice the blondies, heat the knife before you cut it (be very careful not to touch it when slicing). The knife will easily go through the chocolate without cracking it and it will give the caramel that beautiful ooze. Your guests will love it!
Nutrition Information:
Are you making this recipe? I love to see your creations so please tag @ErrensKitchen on Instagram and hashtag it #ErrensKitchen
Ben says
This is a good recipe but the instructions for the caramel are really insufficient. You really gotta be using a candy thermometer if you want consistent results. I recommend the following:
* Double the cream (you want enough to quench the caramel) and make sure it is measured and ready to go
* Cook the butter and sugar mixture to about 330F to get the dark caramel color (be careful not to go above 350 or it will burn)
* Quench with the cream (watch your hands, it will steam)
* Bring the temperature back to between 220F – 240F depending on if you want it more runny or chewy
This should get much more consistent results.
Also this never specifies whether to use salted or unsalted butter.
Alison says
I made these today for my parent’s dinner party. They were simple and truly amazing!
Erren's Kitchen says
Thank you so much, Alison, lovely to hear and I’m glad they were a hit!
Molly says
This was insanely delicious but incredibly rich. I cut back the sugar slightly but would probably decrease it more (by about 1/3 in the blondie recipe – leaving the same amount in the caramel). I doubled the recipe. Turns out, you don’t need double the caramel or chocolate. I ended up having way too much when I doubled the caramel so I just did the original amount for the chocolate and that was more than enough. For me also, the blondies browned very quickly but were incredible jiggly. I came back and looked at the pics and read the comments… realized that in the pics the blondies are very undercooked. I’m all about cookie dough, so that’s cool. I still left them in for about an additional 10 minutes at which point they were still jiggly but less so. They ended up undercooked, but again, in the good cookie-dough sort of way. I had no problem with the caramel. That said, I have made caramel about 1,000 times and thrown out about 750 of those… it’s just hard. I find the hardest part is learning how your pan retains heat. It may look light caramel in color and then in a matter of seconds it turns to burnt. It took a long time for me to incorporate all of the butter, which makes me think you really do need to follow the instructions as written so that it stays over the heat while you incorporate the butter and cream. Anyway, I will definitely be making these again. They were a total hit at a party I took them to.
Brenda says
I’m a little late to the game here but I just found this recipe. It is currently cooling only counter. I thought I might be able to help some of the people who were having problems with their caramel. I have baking and making candy for 20 years and I’ve never been great at getting candy/caramel right without the use of a candy thermometer, I suspect that might help others as well. To do this mix the sugar, corn syrup, AND butter together in the beginning and melt over medium heat. Place your candy thermometer in the pan and cook at a rolling boil until the temperature reaches between 240 and 250 degrees, this is hard ball stage. Then remove the pan from the heat and add the remaining ingredients. This gives you a nice thick caramel without it being too hard or too soft. I hope this helps some of you out.
Evelyn Cotto says
Thank you for the recipe. I just made this in a half sheet pan so I had to triple the recipe and use parchment paper, leaving ears on the side to pull it out. The caramel is a pain to make but is totally worth it! My advice for people having problems with the caramel is just be patient, stir non stop, measure all ingredients ahead and have them ready to add. I follow your steps to the T and it turn out great.
Elisabeth Hagen Smith says
I think I had the opposite problem of most people; I didn’t cook the caramel long enough. The problem, which I realized right away, is that when using golden syrup like I did, the mixtures starts out light caramel in color! So I just had to guess how long to cook it. It looked similar to yours, but when I tasted it on the spatula, it was still grainy. I don’t know if it’s ever going to set up. If possible, can you please temp your caramel so we know how long to cook it?
As for the blondies, mine were very golden brown after 25 minutes, but the middle was still jiggly. I pulled the out because I was afraid they were going to get too brown if I left them any longer. As they cooled, the center caved A LOT. But I guess it’s okay because it gave a trench for the caramel to rest in. Haven’t tasted them yet.
Erren says
Hi Elizabeth, I’m sorry to hear you has so much trouble! I hope it turned out ok. Please let me know!
Michelle Mutschler says
Hey there! I hate to say it as well but my caramel went wrong from the beginning and I used white sugar and light corn syrup. I stirred constantly until a very hard ball of gritty sugar formed. But all was not lost….the blonde brownie is absolutely perfect! I was confused by the two different butter amounts but realizing that here in Canada, “one stick” of butter is one 1/2 cup square so I used 1/2 cup butter for the brownies and its now my most favorite brownie recipe! For the caramel, thankfully I had one can of Eagle Brand “Dulche Leche” caramel flavoured condensed milk in my pantry so I poured it into a pot, added 1/2 tsp course sea salt and cooked, stirring till bubbly and removed from heat. I let the brownie bake for only 25 mins and then poured the caramel over and sprinkled semi sweet chocolate chips over top because that’s all I had and popped it back in the oven for 10 mins till topping was bubbly! I let it cool for only 15 mins before jumping in and I’m soooo happy right now on this quiet drizzly May Day while I indulge in a cup of coffee and one of these incredible brownies! Thank you so much for a perfect treat even if I had to switch it up a bit!
Erren says
Hi Michelle, The sign of a good cook is someone who can switch it up to make it work even when it goes wrong! 🙂 I’m sorry to hear you had trouble with the recipe but you were able to make it work and loved it just the same! Thanks so much for letting me know! 🙂
Maureen says
I love the gooey salted caramel! It’s something to look forward to in this Salted Caramel and Dark Chocolate Blondies.
Judy blume says
I agree About caramel layer. Very difficult. I suggest melting caramels with a little cream to use as caramel layer. Caramels contain same ingredients as recipe.
Erren says
I’m sorry you had trouble with it. Caramel isn’t always easy to make. I’d agree that melting caramels would work for anyone who doesn’t want to make their own.
Kelly H says
I am a low-carber, but believe that some things must be created from sugar to get the right consistency and mouth feel. While I drooled over your blondie recipe, I made a low-carb version (almond flour and such) BUT I did steal your caramel recipe. It is absolutely fantastic and, for someone who’s occasionally had problems getting caramel to set-up…it worked perfectly on my very first try. I used cold butter and stirred relentlessly until the caramel had cooled (I have had trouble with them separating in the past). I was ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED with the results. Am treating my family to low carb blondies with your caramel sauce and dark chocolate drizzle for my birthday dinner tonight. Frankly, it’ll be a miracle if the caramel makes it onto the (still baking) blondies. Thanks for a great and easy caramel recipe. Have pinned, so someday I’ll make entire delectable treat for big occasion. Thanks for sharing!
Erren says
Sounds great Kelly! So glad you found a way to make it work for you!