Browned Butter Vanilla Bean Blondies are soft and fluffy, chewy blondies with a rich buttery, caramel flavour with delicate vanilla bean undertones.
Browned butter vanilla bean blondies. Let me tell you that real vanilla beans make all the difference in these blondies! The smell that comes out the kitchen when baking these vanilla bean blondies is heavenly.
If you haven’t worked with real vanilla beans yet, don’t worry, it’s really easy!
As I don’t use vanilla bean all that often, I may make a few more vanilla bean recipes and turn the rest into vanilla extract. (Would you be interested in seeing this process?)
On to the browned butter vanilla bean blondies. The blondies are based on my classic Triple Chocolate Chip Blondies. A few adjustments have been made to account for the browning of the butter and the vanilla bean. As you can see these are light and fluffy but don’t be fooled into thinking these blondies are cake like. No sir! As soon as you take a bite, the blondies are chewy and slightly gooey. To make them even more on the gooey side, slightly under-bake them by taking them out of the oven 5 minutes early.
Browning The Butter
The process of browning butter is simple but you must watch it as it can turn very quickly. To brown butter, place the butter in a pot on a medium to high heat. Allow it to melt and start to bubble. Continue to let it boil and the bubbles will start turn more translucent and bigger , rather than small and frothy. Be sure to stir the butter as this process is happening and keep an eye on the colour of the butter. We want it a rich amber not black and burnt.
The reason for browned butter is depth-of-flavour. The butter turns rich and almost caramel like with a touch of nuttiness. It sounds weird but the browned butter will smell of roasted nuts! (I have explained this before in my Browned Butter Double Chocolate Chip Cookies post.)
Vanilla Bean
Vanilla bean and browned butter goes so well together! The browned butter gives a rich, caramel and deep flavour where the vanilla bean gives a delicate and subtle flavour and the two just marry together as one.
To really get the most out of your vanilla bean, we scrape the vanilla seeds out of the vanilla pod and put those in some milk on a low heat on the stove. Toss in the vanilla pod and allow the milk to very slowly come close to boiling. The vanilla pod will infuse in the milk to really get all the vanilla flavour (and smell) you can. Toss the vanilla pod once you have finished infusing but leave the seeds.
To really finish these blondies off, I added white chocolate chips as white chocolate is sweet and delicate and works so well with vanilla and caramel flavours.
Also watch the video below to see all the steps in creating these browned butter vanilla bean blondies.
If you make these blondies, please be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I love hearing from you all and hearing you love my recipes. Remember if you make this or any of my other recipes to #lightscamerabake on Instagram for a chance to be featured!
Browned Butter Vanilla Bean Blondies
Ingredients
- 2/3 Cups Butter, Browned (150g)
- 1 and 1/2 Cups Brown Sugar (290g)
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 Vanilla Bean
- 1/4 Cup Milk
- 1 and 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour (210g)
- 1 tsp Baking Power
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 3/4 Cup White Chocolate Chips (135g)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line an 9"x9" baking tin.
- Brown the butter by placing the butter in a pot on a medium to high heat. Allow it to melt and start to bubble. Continue to let it boil and the bubbles will start turn more translucent and bigger , rather than small and frothy. Be sure to stir the butter as this process is happening and keep an eye on the colour of the butter. We want it a rich amber not black and burnt. (Around 5-10 minutes)
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool while you prepare the vanilla bean.
- Place the milk in a small saucepan.
- Slice the vanilla bean down the middle and using the back of the knife, scrape out the vanilla seeds on each side and place in the milk. Toss in the empty vanilla pod too.
- On a low heat, slowly bring the milk to boiling point but not boiling to infuse the vanilla into the milk. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean but leave the seeds.
- Place the brown sugar and browned butter in a bowl and beat together.
- Add the eggs and vanilla infused milk and beat in.
- Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt until all combined.
- Stir in all the white chocolate chips and then pour into the prepared tin.
- Bake for 25 minutes until the skewer inserted comes out with crumbs attached.
- Will be slightly under baked but that's how it should be.
- Store in an airtight container for a week and then freeze if you still have some left!
Video
Nutrition
Leslie
So I wanted to point out in the recipe the first direction is to mix the butter with the brown sugar – before the butter is browned. This will make caramel if you try to brown the butter afterwards. It also says to add the brown sugar later after the butter is browned.
I found this batter to be a little dry as written, and added an extra egg. I also like my blondies a little less cakey, so I reduced the leavening agents to 1/2 tsp each of baking soda and baking powder. I found I needed to bake about 40 minutes until they were fully cooked in the middle. I covered with aluminum foil for the last five minutes so the top wouldn’t get too brown. Thanks for this recipe, it made the kitchen smell divine and it was delicious.
Emma Burton
Great catch, apologies for the confusion in the directions, I have fixed those and I agree these are a cakier Blondie but reducing the leavening is a great way of fixing this.
Kathleen Cregg
HOLY MOLY! These look amazing! I will definitely be making these soon!
Emma Burton
Thank you for your kind words! I hope you love them 🙂