You’ve defo heard of brownies, but you might be wondering… what is a blondie? I’m sure this is a question that keeps you up at night so I want to explain (and help you get some sleep 😉).
Blondies are the Yin and Yang of the brownie world. The light and dark. They go together in perfect harmony, both visually and in terms of flavour.
You could say that blondies are the opposite of brownies, which is actually pretty accurate if you look at it literally. Blondies are well… blonde in colour whereas a brownie is, well… brown. But is that it? Is that their only difference? It’s only the tip of the ice(ing) berg!
In this blog I’m going to tell you not only what makes brownies and blondies different, but how we make them at the bakery, what the perfect blondie should be, and some tips on how you can make the perfect blondies at home too!
Blondies VS Brownies
‘Always Fudgy Never Cakey’ is the promise we make to our customers when they receive beautifully wrapped brownies or blondies from us, we literally have that printed (sustainably) on the (recycled) paper sleeve around the box. However, if we are being really accurate, perhaps what it should say is ‘Brownies are always fudgy like soft fudge and blondies are fudgy in a chewy way that’s more like a cookie… but neither should ever EVER be cakey’…. Not quite so catchy though is it!! 😄
The ingredients we use to make our blondies and brownies are similar – locally sourced unsalted butter, organic cake and pastry flour from Shipton Mill up the road, and free range eggs from our grocer. But there are two ingredients that make a big difference:
The first one is sugar. A blondie calls for brown sugar for a rich caramel like flavour and a chewy cookie-like texture, whereas a brownie is made with caster sugar. This creates a softer texture (we always use golden, we think it gives a better flavour). A blondie has no cocoa or chocolate added to its mix, whereas the brownie is literally all about the chocolate goodness, and lots of it!
Blondie recipes can be super varied though, instead of chocolate being the star of the show, other ingredients like nuts, fudge pieces, dried fruit and caramel for example, can give your blondie a real flavour punch. Because a blondie is buttery instead of chocolatey, it can carry completely different flavours which come through more without a hefty chocolate companion.
We often put a few chocolate chips in our blondies because we cannot resist, who doesn’t love a chocolate chip?! But the important difference is, it’s not melted chocolate into the batter itself. A good example is our lemon curd and white chocolate blondie – incredibly moreish and one of our popular blondies.
So, contrary to popular belief, blondies are NOT made using white chocolate 😱.
Fun fact: The first published recipe for ‘brownies’ appeared in The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook in 1896 and it didn’t include chocolate either! So you could argue that the first brownie to appear in a cookbook was in fact a blondie! I know right… WHOLE WORLD TURNS UPSIDE DOWN, what is even real anymore?! 🤯 That’s got to be a winning answer in a pub quiz right there.
Our tips for making the best blondies…
We are so passionate about creating the perfect blondie, that we want to share our insider tips with you… the world needs more awesome blondies! Through lots of trials, testing and customer feedback, we believe we’ve nailed the perfect combo of flavour and texture and this is how you can do the same at home:
- Use brown sugar. This creates a richer flavour and a texture that’s more like a cookie, which is the texture sweet spot when it comes to blondies
- Use real butter. Margarine has no place in our kitchen, if you want your blondies to taste like ours, they NEED to be made with butter. Full fat, full flavour, no messing about.
- Don’t over cook them. Blondies are much more prone to drying out than brownies as they have more flour and their goal texture is more cookie-like than a wet fudgy brownie. So, just like cookies, you need to take them out when they’re still soft to touch in the middle. Not when the batter is still jiggly or mousey as that’s not cooked yet, it needs to be cooked through, but still with moisture, sunken slightly and soft when you poke its belly.
- Add a little salt! The richness of that brown sugar works so well when balanced out with a little salt. So add a generous pinch for that salty sweet goodness.
Sounds like a lot of work?? Well…. Order a box online and we’ll do all the hard work for you! A customer fave is the double choc hazelnut cream blondie. They feature the same divine brown sugar base mix that defines the blondie, but also generous amounts of milk and white chocolate buttons with crunchy toasted hazelnut pieces. Muy Bueno!!
