Rich and fudgy with just the right amount of chew . . .
I’ve tackled some challenging baking on the blog—mint chocolate mini rolls, pavlova with mango curd, pumpkin rum cream torte—but I was not expecting blondies to be my most challenging recipe yet.
Blondies, for god’s sake. Chewy, fudgy brown sugar tahini bars baked in an 8x8 pan. How hard could they be?
They weren’t difficult to make . . . once I had figured out the right combination of ingredients and method for making them. But getting to that point? That was the challenge.
I’ll spare you the saga of my various failures and all the mistakes I made before I arrived at the recipe below. Here’s a few things I learned along the way:
Tahini is NOT a one-for-one substitute for peanut butter. Think you can just take a peanut butter blondie recipe and throw in equal quantities of peanut butter instead? Think again. Tahini is a lot thinner and oilier than peanut butter. Also, you can’t just cream it in with brown sugar and butter, like you would do with any other nut butter: it will split, and you will wind up with clumps of tahini-sugar sludge in your beaters and a moat of greasy tahini oil in the bottom of your bowl. Gross.
All 8x8 baking pans are NOT identical. The first time I baked the blondies, I used a glass pan that claimed to be 8x8, and wound up with blondies that were too thick and raw in the center. Turns out the pan was actually smaller than it claimed to be—it actually measured 7x7. The next time I baked, I used a light-colored metal pan that was actually 8x8. The blondies were just the right height and cooked much more evenly, thanks to the metal which conducted heat to the center much better than the glass. The moral of the story? Be intentional about what you’re baking in—and actually measure your pans!
When baking anything fudgy, low and slow is the way to go. This tip actually came from Jeanette, one of the pastry chefs who works at my restaurant. When I told her I was struggling with blondies that were overbaked on the outside and raw in the center, she suggested I try lowering the temperature and baking them for longer. I changed my oven temperature from 350 to 325 degrees and increased my bake time to 45 minutes, and this made ALL the difference! The blondies cooked through—though still definitely fudgy in the center—while staying deliciously soft and chewy around the edges.
In the end, the result of all that learning was these beauties:
Dense, rich, and fudgy with just the right amount of chew, these Tahini Blackberry Blondies are insanely addictive. The rich nutty tahini perfectly balances the caramel notes of the brown sugar, while the white chocolate chips add pops of unexpected sweetness and that ribbon of tart blackberry jam brings a zing that holds all that richness in check.
I could write forever about these blondies, but I’ll just say this: after tasting these, I abandoned my plans to bake myself a birthday cake, and decided to just make a pan of these instead. They are that delicious.
Enjoy!
Tahini Blackberry Blondies
Makes 12-16 bars
250 grams light brown sugar (1 1/4 cups packed)
2 eggs
113 grams unsalted butter, melted (8 tablespoons)
1 tsp vanilla
187.5 grams all-purpose flour (1 ½ cups)
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
113 grams tahini (½ cup)
4 oz white chocolate chips (¾ cup), plus more for sprinkling
¼ cup blackberry jam
1 cup blackberries, halved
Special equipment: 8x8 inch metal baking pan (preferably light-colored); parchment paper.
Method
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8 x 8 inch metal baking pan and line bottom and sides with parchment paper, allowing the paper to overhang the sides for easy removal.
In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat together brown sugar and eggs until thick and lightened in color (you can also use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment for this if you like). Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in melted butter and vanilla until combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold into the brown sugar batter just until no traces of flour remain. Fold in tahini and white chocolate chips.
In a small bowl, whisk blackberry jam until smooth (if the mixture is too tight, heat in the microwave at 10 second increments, stirring in between, to loosen it, but not too much! You don’t want it runny.) Stir in halved blackberries.
Pour blondie batter into prepared baking pan. Dollop jammy blackberries on top and swirl with a clean knife to ripple throughout the batter. Sprinkle additional white chocolate chips on top.
Bake in preheated oven for 42-48 minutes or until puffed, golden brown, and set around the edges but still a bit wobbly the middle. They will set up more as they cool, and while you don’t want them raw, you want to keep them slightly fudgy in the center!
Remove and let cool completely before lifting from the tin by the paper and slicing into bars.
Originally posted October 2, 2021.
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