Brown Butter Toffee Blondies ~ Barley & Sage

Name: Brown Butter Toffee Blondies
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 85 min
Ingredients: 1 cup unsalted brown butter (room temperature); 1 cup light brown sugar; 1/2 cup granulated sugar; 2 large eggs (room temperature ); 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 1/2 teaspoon almond extract; 2 cups all purpose flour; 1/2 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips; 1/2 cup toffee pieces; 2 cups dark chocolate chips; 2 teaspoons coconut oil; 2 full size Heath Bars (optional ); toffee pieces; flaky sea salt (optional)

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These brown butter toffee blondies are topped with a layer of dark chocolate, Heath bar toffee pieces, and flaky sea salt! They have crispy edges, chewy centers, and are super easy to make!

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Why You'll Love These Toffee Blondies
Ingredient Notes
How to Make Blondies
Tips for the Best Brownies!
Recipe FAQ's
Tips for Success!
More Recipes You Might Like!
Recipe Card
Comments

Why You'll Love These Toffee Blondies

Loaded with chocolate chips and toffee pieces!
Super easy to make and decorate!
Basically like eating a Heath Bar in blondie form.
Perfect for sharing or adding to a holiday cookie box!

You might also like these toffee chocolate chip cookies or these turtle blondies.

Ingredient Notes

You only need a few ingredients to make these brown butter toffee blondies!

labeled ingredients for toffee blondie bars.

Brown Butter - My favorite ingredient of all time is brown butter!! Brown butter is just unsalted butter that has been melted and gently cooked to bring out a toasty, nutty flavor. If you've never made brown butter before, you can check out this post with all my tips for how to make brown butter! But if you're trying to keep things simple, you can just use regular unsalted butter in the blondies!

Chocolate Chips - If you like dark chocolate, I highly recommend the Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate baking chips. The baking chips are slightly larger and flatter than normal chocolate chips and melt beautifully inside your blondies. Trader Joe's chocolate chips are also some of my faves!

Coconut Oil - This is optional, but adding a little bit of coconut oil helps the chocolate melt into an even layer for the top of the blondies! I prefer to use refined coconut oil so that it doesn't have any coconut flavor, but you can also use a neutral vegetable oil or shortening instead!

Almond Extract - The almond extract enhances the nutty flavor of the brown butter and toffee, but you can leave it out!

Toffee Pieces - I love using Heath Bar toffee pieces in these blondies, but you can use whatever kind of toffee you prefer. I also like getting some full size Heath Bars to cut into larger chunks to put on top of the blondies, but that's also optional.

Flaky Sea Salt - This is completely optional, but I love a little sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top of the chocolate toffee blondies!

The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.

How to Make Blondies

Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together the brown butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar until smooth and creamy.

Add in the eggs, vanilla, and almond extract and beat until the texture is light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes, it should look much paler than before).

Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until thoroughly combined. The dough should be wet and sticky.

Using a spoon or spatula, gently fold in the dark chocolate chips and toffee pieces.

adding dry ingredients to blondie dough.

adding chocolate chips and heath bar pieces to blondie dough.

Cut a parchment paper sling slightly smaller than the width of the cake pan and make sure it fits flatly in the bottom. Then lightly spray the bottom and sides of the pan with a vegetable oil based spray. Place you parchment paper sling in the bottom of the pan and smooth it out so that it sticks to the pan spray (you can use metal binder clips to secure it to the pan). After baking you’ll be able to just slide the Heath Bar blondies right out of the pan!

I love all of my USA Pan cake pans because they are extremely sturdy and truly nonstick. However, I still like to prepare my pans to ensure the blondies come out easily.

Scoop the dough into the bottom of your prepared pan and press down into a nice even layer (you can wet the tips of your fingers to easily flatten out the dough).

Place in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to firm up slightly before baking.

While the blondies are chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bake blondies at 350°F for 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean.

Remove from the oven and let fully cool in the pan.

Add the remaining dark chocolate chips and coconut oil to a microwave safe bowl. Melt in intervals of 20 seconds and stir in between each interval until fully melted and smooth.

While the toffee blondies are still in the pan, pour the melted dark chocolate over the top and smooth into an even layer. Let the chocolate cool slightly so that it's no longer hot to the touch (this is so the chocolate doesn't melt the toppings).

pouring melted chocolate onto heath blondies.

If desired, chop up a couple full size Heath Bars into large chunks and sprinkle over the melted chocolate. Then sprinkle with the smaller toffee pieces and flaky sea salt.

smoothing melted chocolate on top of toffee blondies.

adding chopped heath bars and toffee pieces to top of blondies.

Place in the fridge for 10-20 minutes to let the chocolate layer firm up.

Once the chocolate has hardened, use the edges of the parchment paper to slide the toffee blondies out of the pan.

toffee blondies before cutting into squares.

Tips for the Best Brownies!

(and blondies too!)

Use room temperature ingredients! Always make sure ingredients like butter, eggs, milk, etc. are at room temperature before baking (unless the recipe indicates otherwise)! This ensures they'll incorporate into the batter more easily and leads to overall better texture. Remove all ingredients from the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before baking for best results.

Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. Same goes for cocoa powder!

Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature.

Use a metal baking pan! Not all materials are created equal when it comes to baking. Metal cake pans conduct heat much better than other materials like glass or ceramic, so your baked goods will cook faster and more evenly!

It's better to undercook the brownies slightly, than overcook them! Brownies will dry out quick, so it's best to err on the side of caution when baking brownies! Bake just until an inserted toothpick comes out mostly clean but still a tad gooey. If you aren't sure, just go ahead and take them out because they'll continue to firm up as they cool. Note: the larger the pan, the less time the brownies will take to cook.

Be patient and let them cool. Warm brownies fresh out of the oven are delish, I know. But it's best to let them fully cool before digging in. The brownies will be less likely to crumble when you cut them and the center is more likely to be fully cooked while still being perfectly fudgy.

heath bar blondies with chocolate on top.

Recipe FAQ's

How long do these toffee blondies last?

Store blondies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

How do you cut blondies cleanly to get perfect edges?

To get clean slices of these heath bar blondies, run a super sharp knife under hot water until the blade is warm, then wipe it dry. Then cut a single slice and repeat. It's a bit tedious to clean the knife before every cut, but you get perfect slices every time!

Do I have to use brown butter in these toffee blondies?

No, you can use regular unsalted butter if you prefer!

Why do I have to add coconut oil to the melted chocolate?

Adding a little bit of oil (you can use coconut oil, vegetable oil, or shortening), helps the chocolate melt smoothly. It also makes the chocolate a little bit softer so that it's easier to cut and bite into once it sets.

tops of heath bar blondies cut into slices.

Tips for Success!

For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!

Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.

A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.