These chocolate chip cookie butter blondies take your typical bar dessert to the next level. Cookie butter gives these bars a subtle spicy flavor that mixes perfectly with the mini chocolate chips. These blondies are wonderfully chewy and will melt in your mouth. They are the perfect dessert for a party, a potluck, or for game day!
I've had a container of cookie butter sitting in my cupboard for weeks. I keep sneaking little bites because... well, it's cookie butter! One day while I was munching, inspiration hit me. I wanted to incorporate my cookie butter into one of my recipes. This idea was the inception of this recipe.
If you're in the mood for something sweeter, I recommend my Fruity Pebbles Treats. They are another excellent bar dessert made from a classic cereal treat!
Why you'll love this recipe
Taste & Texture: These chocolate chip cookie butter blondies are chewy and moist and delicious (kind of like my deliciously moist Starbucks Cake Pops). They are full of chocolate and Biscoff cookie butter goodness. They are a sweet treat that is sure to please a crowd.
Level of Difficulty: This recipe ranks as relatively easy. Only two bowls with 10 minutes of preparation. One pan in the oven and you're done. It's a pretty sweet deal!
Key ingredients and why we use them
- Cookie Butter: I used Biscoff cookie butter in this recipe, but there are other brands. Trader Joe's sells a cookie butter that is pretty fantastic. As I mentioned above, it's very similar to peanut butter... except, better!
- Flour: Use all-purpose flour in this recipe. You'll be fine with either bleached or unbleached.
- Brown Sugar: Feel free to use dark or light brown sugar in this recipe.
- Melted Butter: Using melted butter gives these bars a soft and dense texture. Remember to let your melted butter cool before incorporating it with the other ingredients.
Frequently asked questions
Cookie butter is a spread made up of crushed speculoos cookies butter, flour, and sugar. If you've ever flown Delta, you know those delicious Biscoff cookies they hand out mid-flight? Those are an example of speculoos cookies—which are very popular in European bakeries. Cookie butter can be used much like peanut butter in most baking recipes. If you've never tried it, you are seriously missing out!
Tough and dry blondies can usually be attributed to one of two different things: (1) You caked them in the oven for too long. Blondies should be taken out of the oven when they are slightly underdone. They will continue to bake in the pan afterward. (2) You mixed your batter too much and over-developed the gluten. This will cause your blondies to be tough instead of chewy. Make sure you mix the ingredients with a very light touch.
Are you baking for a crowd? You can absolutely double this recipe! Simply double all the ingredients and bake in a 9x13-inch pan. Keep an eye on the oven as these brownies will take about 5 additional minutes to cook.
Heather's helpful hints
Melted butter in this recipe ensures that your blondies will be dense and chewy. Make sure you let your melted butter cool to room temperature before incorporating it with the other ingredients.
Step-by-step instructions
1. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine melted butter and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined.
2. Stir in the cookie butter and mix until smooth. Fold in the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
3. Add chocolate chips and mix them into the batter. Be careful not to overmix the batter at this point—it will be very thick. Spoon batter into your prepared pan.
4. Press the batter down into the pan and smooth with a spatula.
Recipe variations
There are a number of different ways to switch up this recipe according to your taste!
- You could easily swap out peanut butter for the cookie butter in the recipe. Both are very similar, and you can't go wrong with either one!
- If you're not a fan of chocolate chips, try swapping in milk chocolate or butterscotch chips in this recipe.
- I'm a fan of this s'mores brownie recipe! Packed with graham crackers, milk chocolate, and marshmallows, you literally can't go wrong!
- If you want a heavier dose of chocolate, check out my copycat brownies from Chick-fil-A!
Make ahead and storage
Make-Ahead: Feel free to make these brownies ahead of time and freeze them. Check out my article on freezing brownies for tips on how to freeze (and defrost) your brownies with success!
Storage: Brownies will last on the counter at room temperature for 3-4 days. We also have a great article on how long brownies are good for—definitely check this out!
Try these other bar desserts
If you're in the mood for more delicious bar desserts, check out the recipes below! Also, look at our recipe index for inspiration!
Recipe
Chocolate Chip Cookie Butter Blondies
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅕ cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 egg large
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup cookie butter spread
- ½ cup miniature chocolate chips
Instructions
- Place a rack in the center of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit 20 minutes before baking your blondies. Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper, allowing an overhang on each side. Spray pan with baking spray and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine melted butter and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Stir in the cookie butter and mix until smooth.
- Fold in the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add chocolate chips and mix them into the batter. Be careful not to overmix the batter at this point—it will be very thick.
- Spoon batter into your prepared pan. Press batter down into pan and smooth with a spatula. Bake blondies for 23-26 minutes. They will look underdone when you remove them from the oven—they will set up in the pan. Allow bars to cool in the pan for 1 hour. Remove from pan using the parchment overhang and allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.
Notes and Tips
- There are several brands of "cookie butter" but my favorite is Biscoff. You can find this in the peanut butter aisle of your grocery store.
- It's important to remove your blondies from the oven before they look "set" and baked thoroughly. They will continue to bake in the pan after removing them from the oven.
- Similar to muffin batter, you want to be extra careful not to overmix your wet and dry ingredients. This will make for a tough, dense batter and not the moist and chewy blondies that we all know and love.
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