These soft and chewy brown butter apple blondies combine cinnamon-spiced apples, brown sugar, and flavorful brown butter. We’ll top them with brown butter icing, a reader favorite icing that I also use for peach Bundt cake and pistachio cookies. If you love apple desserts like I do, these are a must-make!
Alternate title for this recipe: Butter
Let’s celebrate apples with immensely buttery blondies. We’re using 2 sticks of butter in these brown butter apple blondies and we definitely shouldn’t think twice about it!! The good news is that this recipe makes a large 9×13 inch pan, so there’s plenty to share.
But the bad news is… you have to share them.
These Brown Butter Apple Blondies Are:
- Cinnamon-spiced
- Soft and sweet
- Chewy, not cakey
- Flavored with brown sugar and brown butter
- Bursting with apples
- Totally not diet food. Oh well!
How to Make Brown Butter Apple Blondies
Listen up because there’s a few steps to conquer before we take that first bite.
- Brown the butter first. We’ll use brown butter in the blondies and in the icing. Pour the browned butter into a heat-proof bowl, then return the pan to the stove. No need to clean the pan because we’re using it in the next step.
- Peel, chop, and gently cook the apples. You *could* stir the apples right into the blondie batter, but the apples taste much better if they’re slightly softened first. Cook the chopped apples on the stove for only 3-5 minutes. We’ll cook them with a little maple syrup (or brown sugar) and cinnamon. IT’S ALL SO GOOD!
- Make the blondie batter. There’s no electric mixer required for this recipe! Whisk some of the brown butter with brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and the apples, then spread into a 9×13 inch pan.
- Bake until lightly browned on top. The blondies take about 35 minutes.
- As the blondies cool, prepare the icing. Mix the remaining brown butter with confectioners’ sugar, milk, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt.
Here are the gently cooked apples and the blondie batter:
The Magic of Brown Butter
Let’s talk about brown butter. I actually created a landing page for all things brown butter including the quick process, success tips, and a video tutorial. Brown butter is a one ingredient wonder and vasty improves the flavor in any dish where it’s used, including these blondies. (By the way, I highly recommend browning butter for butterscotch blondies too!) Brown butter by gently cooking and stirring it on the stove until its milk solids toast and it has a nutty aroma. This takes anywhere between 5-8 minutes, so it’s a pretty quick step.
And well worth every single second. In less than 10 minutes, you’ll have liquid gold:
How to Brown Butter Video Tutorial
Brown Butter Icing
The blondies don’t *need* icing, just like we don’t *need* to binge watch Netflix on a Sunday night. But we want it, so we’ll do it.
This is the same brown butter icing we use for pistachio cookies, skillet cornmeal cake, pecan sugar cookies, and brown butter pumpkin oatmeal cookies. It’s remarkable and readers have been raving about it on my peach Bundt cake. Try it on scones and cinnamon rolls too. (You won’t regret this icing, unlike the 4 hours of Netflix binge watching.)
More Apple Treats
- Homemade Apple Cider
- Apple Cinnamon Bread
- Apple Pie
- Apple Cinnamon Rolls
- Caramel Apple Scones
- Apple Hand Pies
- Glazed Apple Bundt Cake
- Fresh Apple Cake
Brown Butter Apple Blondies
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 24 blondies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These soft and chewy brown butter apple blondies combine cinnamon-spiced apples, brown sugar, and flavorful brown butter. For extra flavor, top with brown butter icing. Read recipe Notes prior to beginning.
Ingredients
Apples
- 2 cups (240g) peeled chopped apples (about 2 medium apples)
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) pure maple syrup (or brown sugar)
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Blondies
- 1 cup (2 sticks; 228g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces*
- 2 and 1/3 cups (291g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 and 2/3 cups (330g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Brown Butter Icing
- 1/4 cup (57g) unsalted butter
- 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) confectioners’ sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) milk
- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Important before you begin! I recommend browning the butter for the blondies and icing first. You can brown the butter for both the blondies AND the icing together. Once it’s all browned, set 4 Tablespoons (2 liquid ounces, or 60ml) aside for the icing in step 8. The rest (8 liquid ounces, or 240ml) is for the blondie batter, used in step 6.
- Brown the butter: Slice the butter into pieces and place in a light-colored skillet. (Light colored helps you determine when the butter begins browning.) Melt the butter over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once melted, the butter will begin to foam. Keep stirring. After 5–8 minutes, the butter will begin browning and you’ll notice lightly browned specks begin to form at the bottom of the pan. You will smell a nutty aroma. See photo and video above for a visual. Once browned, immediately remove from heat, pour into a heat-proof bowl, and set aside until ready to use.
- Prepare the apples: Meanwhile, return the pan to the stove. (No need to rinse out!) Add the apples, maple syrup/brown sugar, and cinnamon. Stir and cook over medium heat until apples have slightly softened, about 3–5 minutes. Set apples aside.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line the bottom and sides of a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the sides to lift the finished blondies out (makes cutting easier!). Set aside.
- Make the blondies: Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a large bowl.
- In a medium bowl, whisk 1 cup browned butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the apples. Batter will be thick.
- Evenly spread batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out *mostly* clean. Remove from the oven and allow the blondies to cool completely in the pan set on a wire rack.
- Brown butter icing: Heat the remaining 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons) of brown butter in the microwave for a few seconds since it has likely solidified by now. Whisk in confectioners’ sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. If needed, add more confectioners’ sugar to thicken or more milk to thin out. Drizzle over cooled blondies, then cut into squares.
- Cover and store leftover iced blondies at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Iced or plain blondies freeze well up to 3 months. Arrange in even layers in a large freezer container between sheets of parchment. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then allow to come to room temperature before icing and/or serving.
- Apples: Use your favorite variety of apples. I prefer tart Granny Smith apples because the blondies are pretty sweet. Peel and chop into bite-sized pieces before using.
Keywords: apples, bars
This is my favorite recipe here and I make these more often than I’d like to admit I’ve subbed the apple for pear a few times recently… DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Sally!!!
★★★★★
I followed the recipe but mine ended up so gooey that they crumbled when cutting them
★★★★
Hi Angelina, blondies can be quite moist and chewy, but if they seemed excessively gooey it’s possible that they were a bit under baked. Some additional time in the oven should help for next time. Thank you for giving these a try!
These are amazing!! I didn’t have nutmeg so I left it out. But otherwise followed the directions. I did make the apple pieces smaller because of picky eaters.
★★★★★
Your recipes are amazing! Could I incorporate ripe bananas in this somehow? Thanks! Or do you have an apple banana bread recipe?
Hi Sheena, we haven’t tried adding bananas to this recipe. It would require some tweaking of the other ingredients, since you’d be adding a wet ingredient with the addition of bananas. We do have these baby apple banana oat muffins that include banana and apples (delicious for adults, too!), this apple bread, or this banana bread.
Over the weekend I bought some Linzer Bar Cookies from a local bakery and they were the best cookie I’ve ever eaten. I was wondering if I could substitute homemade raspberry for the apples and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Maybe you would consider creating a recipe like this.
Thank you.
Hi Gail, those sound delicious! Raspberries can be a bit tricky with the amount of liquid they create when baking, but you can certainly give it a try. It may take some tweaking of the recipe, but let us know if you do any experimenting. You enjoy these raspberry streusel bars, too!
These are absolutely amazing. I brought them into work and my coworkers would not stop raving about how delicious they are. Definitely keeping these in the apple baking rotation! Absolutely perfect
★★★★★
one of my favorite recipes!! i used a pre-made apple pie filling instead of chopping whole apples to save some time and it came out amazing!! highly reccomend if you want to save some time on the prep! i also added cloves to add to the autumnal vibes and absolutely loved it. i’ll be trying the recipe out with monk fruit for thanksgiving this week!!
★★★★★
When using pre-made apple pie filling, do you cut back on the amount of sugar and cinnamon you add?
My college aged son reminded me that I made these for Thanksgiving Eve dinner last year when we had overnight guests. That was his subtle hint to make them again! These bars are really delicious and a nice fall dessert that’s easier than pie.
★★★★★
I have made these many times and always received extremely positive reviews. They take a bit of time with chopping the apples and browning the butter, but they’re not super hard and they are WELL worth it. The texture is just fabulous, and the flavors are so autumnal and gorgeous. I usually add just a smidge of cardamom to make the other flavors pop.
★★★★★
Made today they came out great
Does anyone know if the butter had to be cooled or if you can use at warm
Hi Cathleen, you can use the butter slightly warm, you just don’t want it so hot that it scrambles the eggs in the batter.
Amazing recipe as usual Sally! Had friends over for dinner and served these for dessert. Everyone raved about them!
★★★★★
Recipe tasted wonderful, but 35 minutes is WAY too long. I did my second batch for 25 and they turned out fine.
★★★★
bake time is too long and you can taste the baking powder
★★
Half gone and I haven’t made the icing yet.