Caramel Blondies

These caramel blondies are chewy, soft and the perfect balance of salty and sweet. The browned butter blondie is swirled with salted caramel and filled with chocolate chips!

These caramel blondies hit every textural note I want in a bar: fudgy interior, slightly crisp edges, and ribbons of caramel that stay soft. Brown butter, chocolate chip, and caramel, who could ask for anything more!

I am a sucker for an easy bar that delivers flavor and satisfies all the cravings! I mean, haven’t you ever had the need for a dessert late at night!? There, one bowl brownies and peanut butter blondies(coming soon!) are my go-to late-night treats, along with these caramel blondies!

Ingredients & Substitutions

• All-Purpose Flour
• Baking Powder: Gives just enough lift to keep the bars from being completely flat while still preserving that dense, fudgy interior.
• Kosher Salt
• Unsalted Butter: Brown the butter until the milk solids turn deep golden and the foam settles, then let it cool slightly before mixing. Once you’ve mastered browning butter you can make these brown butter chocolate chip cookies!
• Light Brown Sugar: The high molasses content in brown sugar is what gives blondies their characteristic chew and caramel undertone, even before any caramel is added.
• Eggs
• Vanilla Extract:
• Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips: Mini chips distribute more evenly through the batter than standard chips, so you get chocolate in every bite rather than clusters. Semi-sweet keeps the bars from reading as overly sweet against the brown sugar base.
• Caramel Sauce: I use my salted caramel sauce, which has the right consistency and the best flavor! A store-bought sauce can substitute, but look for one that is thick.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Variations on This Caramel Chocolate Chip Blondies

• Change the chocolate. Yes, you could make these with bittersweet, milk, or even white chocolate like with these gingerbread blondies. You can even chop up a chocolate bar or use chocolate pistols!
• Change the swirl. I know they won’t be caramel anymore, but you could swirl with jam, Nutella, or peanut butter! Might I suggest making these peanut butter brownies next(coming soon!)
• Different Mix-ins: In my professional opinion, chopped Snickers would be perfect in this blondie just like these caramel stuffed brown butter snickers chocolate chip cookies! But you could add peanut, walnut, M&M’s, or Reese’s Pieces! The world is your oyster.

Professional Tips

• Use the jiggle test, not a toothpick. The caramel and chocolate chips mean a toothpick will never come out clean, even when the bars are perfectly baked. Pull them at 20 to 25 minutes when the center no longer jiggles when you gently shake the pan.
• Let them cool. The bars need to cool completely in the pan before you cut them just like with this carmelita recipe. Cutting early pulls the caramel and compresses the crumb while it is still soft, which gives you unclean edges and a gummy interior.
• Use a metal pan. Metal conducts heat better in the oven. Helping the blondies cook more evenly and rise better. Pyrex or ceramic will work. Just keep an eye on the bake time. They will bake a little bit longer.

How to Make Caramel Chocolate Chip Blondies

Start by making your brown butter and letting it cool slightly before building the batter, since it needs a few minutes to come down in temperature before you add the eggs.

Step 1: Preheat the oven and prepare the pan. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Generously butter a 13×9-inch baking pan, making sure to coat the corners well.

I like to use criss-cross parchment or easy removal, but it’s not necessary.

Step 2: Whisk the dry ingredients. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.

Step 3: Brown the butter. Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat, swirling the pan several times a minute. It will foam, then the foam will subside, and you will start to see golden-brown bits collecting at the bottom of the pan. That nutty, toasty aroma is your cue. Transfer the brown butter immediately to a medium bowl, scraping in every last bit from the pan, which is what I always do because those browned solids carry all the flavor.

If your butter goes from golden to dark very quickly, your heat is too high. Medium heat gives you control. The butter can continue cooking in the pan’s residual heat if you are not careful, so transferring it promptly is important.

Step 4: Beat in the brown sugar. Add the brown sugar to the warm brown butter and beat with an electric mixer until well combined and resembles wet sand, 2 to 3 minutes. The mixture will feel dense and heavy, which is completely normal at this stage.

You can also make this blondie by hand! It’s very similar to my maple pecan blondies, made by hand in one bowl!

Step 5: Add eggs and vanilla, then the dry ingredients. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until the batter is emulsified. Add the dry ingredients and fold in until smooth. The batter will be very thick, almost like a stiff cookie dough.

Step 6: Fold in the chocolate chips. Add the mini chocolate chips and fold them in with a spatula until evenly distributed. Then pour your batter into your prepared pan.

Step 7: Spread the batter evenly. Use an offset spatula to spread the batter into an even layer across the pan. Because the batter is thick, you will need to press it into the corners with an offset spatula.

Step 8: Swirl in the caramel. Pour the caramel over the batter and use an offset spatula to swirl it in. You can dollop it in with a spoon or pipe lines across with a piping bag!

If your caramel is too thick to swirl easily at room temperature, microwave it for 10 to 15 seconds to loosen it slightly before pouring. You want it fluid enough to drag through the batter with the spatula, but not so warm that it melts down into the crumb.

Step 9: Bake until set and golden. Bake at 350°F until the top is golden brown and the center no longer jiggles when you gently shake the pan, 20 to 25 minutes. Start checking at 20 minutes. The caramel and chocolate chips will coat the toothpick regardless of whether the blondie is done, which makes it completely unreliable.

Step 10: Cool completely before cutting. Let the blondies cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before cutting. The caramel swirl needs time to firm back up, and cutting too early will give you blurry layers and a gummy texture, which is a shame after all that careful swirling.

Recipe FAQs

Before You Go

These blondies hit that specific sweet spot where chewy brown sugar base, melted chocolate chips, and ribbons of caramel all show up in the same bite. If you want more recipes like this one, browse the full brownies and bars recipe collection or head right over to these lemon blondies!