Blondies are great all on their own. Why add caramel, white chocolate chips, and cookie butter? Because we can. A creative cookie butter recipe worth every calorie.
I know. I have a problem with cookie butter recently. That's kind of not my fault though. Can you blame me? You open up the jar and you just can't stop! I blame Trader Joe's for offering such a habit-forming product.
Pretzel Coated Cookie Butter Truffles. Check.
Cookie Butter Puppy Chow. Check.
Although I technically made this Crack Pie with Speculoos (which is the same as Cookie Butter) last year, I'm counting it as part of my recent cookie butter obsession because I actually made it this past weekend for a Christmas Party Asheley and I went to at a friend's house. It was attacked and enthusiastically devoured through no merit of my own. It's the cookie butter.
And just as I finished up all the cookie butter in the house with these recent baking projects, something within me forced my fingers to frantically respond to Asheley's text the other day when she asked me if I wanted anything from Trader Joes ... "get four jars of cookie butter".
I'm typically not a fan of white chocolate. I rarely enjoy it, and it's even more rare for me to reach for it in baking. But for some reason, they were calling out to me from their home in the pantry.
And caramel, I love caramel in pretty much everything. Heck, my favorite ice cream combination is mint chocolate chip with caramel. And if you just made an ewww face, don't knock it 'till you try it. Trust me.
Just look for those chewy, soft caramels at your local grocery store. I think I got Werthers chewy caramels and used about 8 or 9 of them (each one cut up into 3's).
And that, my friends, is the hero of my kitchen lately. Cookie Butter. It's something you NEED (that's right... all caps. I don't often resort to such a brute tactic, but it's effective when necessary. And it's necessary) to try immediately.
You can get cookie butter exclusively at Trader Joe's, or marked up at three times the price on Amazon. You can also feel free to use authenic Belgian speculoos (the spread, not the cookie) or Biscoff Spread, which my friend told me she actually found at our local grocery store the other day. I was pleasantly shocked.
Okay, so I'm going to be completely honest. I made these blondies, which I adapted from Smitten Kitchen (who adapted from Mark Bittman), and I wrote all my changes to the recipe on a piece of paper in the kitchen. And now, magically, that piece of paper vanished. That's what I get for trying to clean up. I'm 99% sure I remembered the changes. But next time I make up these blondies, I'll double check for you 🙂
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Caramel and White Chocolate Chip Cookie Butter Blondies
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 12 - 16 Blondies 1x
Ingredients
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup cookie butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch kosher salt
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup store-bought soft chewy caramels, chopped
- ⅓ cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter the bottom and sides of an 8×8 baking pan. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a medium mixing bowl with an electic mixer, beat the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in egg, cookie butter, and vanilla extract until fully incorporated. On low speed, stir in salt and flour, then the caramels and white chocolate chips.
- Pour into buttered baking pan and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes, until golden brown on top and set in the middle.** Let cool in pan on a cooling rack, then cut and serve warm.
- **Smitten Kitchen recommended only cooking these blondies about 25 minutes, but that didn't quite work for me. I suggest start checking on your blondies around the 25 minute mark and checking in every 5 or so minutes.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
Cate
Cookie butter is SO addicting. I bought it for the first time a few months ago - I had to hide the jar from myself after a few days! These blondies look delicious - what a great combo of flavors!
Chris
I think I need to start hiding the cookie butter in my house. Better yet, I'll have Asheley hid it, because I can't know where it is!
Taylor
Ok, I get it...I have to pick myself up some cookie butter! These seriously look amazing Chris! Between these and the puppy chow I am gonna be one cookie butter lovin' little lady! Except maybe not so little after all of that. Worth it.
Chris
Yes, you totally do Taylor! Just be forewarned... this could start an addictive future for you and cookie butter 🙂
Ashley
haha you're killing me with all the cookie butter recipes! I had to stop myself from buying more when I was at Trader Joes last week!
But no really, these blondies look all kinds of amazing. Especially with the caramel.
Chris
I wish I had your self control! When I see cookie butter on the shelves, I go into "must have" mode. I mean really, what if tomorrow we wake up and all the cookie butter in the world is gone... at least I have my stockpile in the pantry 😉
Pamela
When I see cookie butter in a picture I am clicking into the post! these blondies look delicious, save me one!
Chris
Cookie butter can have that mind-controlling effect on people 😉 I see it... I must click on it. Haha, happens to me every time!
Anne ~ Uni Homemaker
Cookie butter is so addicting! I can eat it straight out of a jar and that's why I have to have so many jars in reserve. 😀 Caramel and white chocolate with cookie butter in blondies? Delicious! They probably won't be safe around me. I'll probably eat the entire batch --haha! Have a great week Chris.
Chris
You are so right Anne! It's always good to have a few back-up jars waiting on reserve! Cookie butter is never safe in our home 🙂
Sandra
I think it might be time for an intervention Chris. Although I would actually like to see if you can take this cookie butter thing to the next level 😉 Keep them coming!!!
Erin
I'm with you... white chocolate isn't my favorite (at all!) but a few of my recent recipes feature it. Hmm, great minds think alike? These look delicious! So moist. And you can't go wrong with cookie butter. I can only imagine the look on your wife's face when you asked her for 4 jars. Funny! Hope you're week is going well!
Chris
Yea, she has completely cut me off from near-future cookie butter purchases. I need to ration these last 4 precious jars!