Recipe: Dorie Greenspan’s Blondies
Dorie offers three ways to make blondies: as drop cookies, as a more traditional bar cookie, and in a muffin tin for crispy, chewy edges.
Makesabout 30
Leave it up to Dorie Greenspan, the doyenne of cookies, to come up with a new way to get your blondie fix. She starts with a classic dough — full of butter, more brown sugar than white, and a handful of mix-ins — that make this recipe distinctly her own.
The real trick with these blondies, however, is how you bake them. Hold off on your trusty baking pan because a muffin tin is truly the better way for this classic cookie treat.
Three Ways to Make Blondies
Dorie offers three ways to make these blondies: as drop cookies, as a more traditional bar cookie, and finally in a muffin tin. We’re fans of the muffin tin method best since it turns out a perfect few dozen cookies with crispy, chewy edges. If you’re the person always clamoring for a corner piece of the brownie pan, this method is for you.
Being the versatile dough that it is, you can try these as a more standard bar cookie or even as a drop cookie. Dorie discovered how scoopable this dough was during her days running her cookie shop, Beurre & Sel. Unlike the bar cookies, this method won’t give you as much chew, but according to Dorie, “there’s plenty of pleasure in each bite.”
Blondie Drops
To make the blondies as traditional cookies, position two racks to divide the oven into thirds and heat it to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop level portions of dough or use a teaspoon to get rounded spoonfuls, dropping them onto the sheets, leaving a generous two inches between them — these are spreaders.
Bake for nine to 11 minutes, rotating the sheets top to bottom and front to back after six minutes, or until the cookies are deeply golden around the edges; the centers will still be soft. Let rest on the sheets for three minutes, then transfer to racks to finish cooling.
Blondie Bars
To make bars, double the recipe and scrape the dough into a buttered 9×13-inch baking dish. Bake on the center rack of a 325°F oven for about 40 minutes, until the edges of the blondies are golden and just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan; a tester poked into the center will come out clean. Let the blondies cool to room temperature on a rack before cutting them into squares.
A Word from Dorie on Blondie Add-Ins
I’ve given you my favorites, but they’re not the only possibilities for great blondies. Change the milk chocolate to white chocolate or butterscotch bits and the pecans to walnuts or peanuts, if you’d like. But I hope you’ll keep the coconut, because it’s a major contributor to the cookie’s wonderful texture.
Dorie Greenspan's Blondies
Dorie offers three ways to make blondies: as drop cookies, as a more traditional bar cookie, and in a muffin tin for crispy, chewy edges.
Makes about 30
Nutritional Info
Ingredients
Cooking spray or butter, for coating the pan
- 1/2 cup
coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
- 2 ounces
best-quality milk chocolate, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup
shredded sweetened coconut
- 8 tablespoons
(4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into chunks, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup
packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup
granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon
salt
- 1
large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon
vanilla extract
- 1 cup
all-purpose flour
Instructions
Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 325°F. Butter or spray a 24-well mini-muffin tin.
Stir the pecans, chocolate, and coconut together in a medium bowl; set aside.
Place the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and salt in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. (Alternatively, use a large bowl and electric hand mixer.) Add the egg and beat on low, scraping the bowl as needed, until you have a smooth, creamy mixture. Beat in the vanilla.
Turn the mixer off, add the flour all at once, and pulse a few times to start incorporating it. Mix on low speed until the flour is almost fully blended into the dough. Add the pecan mixture, mixing just until they're evenly distributed; if you'd like, you can do the last few turns by hand with a sturdy rubber spatula.
Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out level portions of dough or use a teaspoon to make rounded spoonfuls and place one in each mini-muffin well. When each well has dough (you will use about half the dough), press each mound of dough down very lightly with moistened fingertips.
Bake until the cookies are firmly set around the edges and golden-brown in the center, 14 to 16 minutes. A tester inserted in the center of a blondie should come out clean.
Place the tin on a cooling rack and let the blondies rest for 3 minutes. Unmold the blondies either by turning the tin over and rapping them against the counter or popping the blondies out with table knife. Transfer the blondies to the rack and and let cool to room temperature, about 10 minutes.
Let the mini-muffin tin cool and and repeat baking the remaining dough.
Recipe Notes
Make ahead: You can scoop the dough out onto a lined baking sheet, pat it down, freeze until firm, and then pack the pucks in an airtight container and freeze for up to 2 months. Leave the pucks at room temperature while you heat the oven before baking.
Storage: The blondies are best eaten soon after they're baked, but they can be kept in a covered container at room temperature for up to 1 day. They can also be frozen, wrapped airtight, for up to 2 months.
Reprinted with permission from Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan, copyright (c) 2016. Published by Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
