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. 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
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-safe 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 the brown butter with brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients, and the pre-cooked apples, then spread the batter into a lined 9×13-inch pan.
- Bake until lightly browned on top. The blondies take about 35 minutes.
- As the blondies cool, prepare the icing. Mix a little more brown butter with confectioners’ sugar, milk, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt.
Here are the gently cooked apples and the blondie batter:
Success Tip: Lining the pan with parchment paper makes it much easier to remove the apple blondies before slicing and serving. I use the same tip when making rice krispie treats and M&M cookie bars, too.
Best Apples for Brown Butter Apple Blondies
You can use your favorite variety of apples. I prefer tart Granny Smith apples because the blondies are pretty sweet. For a complete list of my favorite apple varieties to bake with, with a description of each, you can visit my post, The Best Apples for Baking.
The Magic of Brown Butter
Let’s talk about brown butter. I actually created a 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. 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:
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
- Classic Apple Pie
- Homemade Apple Cider
- Apple Cinnamon Bread
- Apple Cinnamon Rolls
- Caramel Apple Scones
- Apple Hand Pies
- Apple Bundt Cake
- Fresh Apple Cake
- Honeycrisp Apple Sangria
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 (30g/ml) pure maple syrup (or brown sugar)
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Blondies
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
- 2 and 1/3 cups (291g) all-purpose flour (spooned & 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 (4 Tbsp; 56g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
- 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) confectioners’ sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (30g/ml) milk
- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Brown the butter for the blondies and the icing: Place all 20 Tablespoons of butter in a light-colored skillet over medium heat. (Light-colored helps you determine when the butter begins browning.) Stir or whisk the butter constantly as it melts. Once melted, the butter will begin to foam. Keep stirring. After 5–8 minutes, the butter will begin browning—you’ll notice lightly browned specks begin to form at the bottom of the pan and it will have a nutty aroma. As soon as the butter has browned, immediately remove from heat and pour it into a heat-safe glass bowl or liquid measuring cup. Be sure to scrape out all the browned solids at the bottom of the skillet and include them as well. Transfer 3 Tbsp (43g) of the browned butter to a small bowl and reserve for the icing in step 7. The rest will go into the blondie batter in step 5. Because of moisture lost during the browning process, you will now have less butter than you started with—this is expected. Allow brown butter to slightly cool while you continue.
- 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 out the cooled blondies (makes cutting easier!). Set aside.
- Make the blondies: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the brown butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the apples. Batter will be thick.
- Spread batter evenly into the 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 cooling rack.
- Make the icing: If the brown butter you set aside for the icing has solidified, warm it in the microwave for a few seconds to melt it back into liquid, then whisk together with the confectioners’ sugar, milk, vanilla extract, and salt. If needed, add more confectioners’ sugar to thicken, or more milk to thin out. Drizzle or spread over cooled blondies.
- Lift the blondies out of the pan by gripping the parchment paper overhang; transfer to a cutting board and cut into squares. Store tightly covered 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.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Light-Colored Skillet or Stainless Steel Skillet (for browning butter) | 9×13-inch Baking Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Rubber Spatula
- 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Made these but forgot to set aside 3 tablespoons of brown butter after I put them in the oven. Am I doomed?
Hi Elena, your blondies may seem a bit greasier with the added butter in the blondies, but you can certainly go ahead and continue baking to see how they turn out. You can brown some additional butter for the icing. Hope they’re a hit!
This is the first “Sally’s Baking” recipe that I have made, and these turned out fantastic. It’s definitely going to be a keeper recipe. They were super easy to prepare (love not having to use my mixer), and this was the first time that I attempted to make brown butter, which I discovered is actually quite easy! They taste fantastic, and actually remind me of a bar that I used to purchase at a bakery where I previously lived. Needless to say, I am thrilled that I can create my own version now. I can’t wait to try more of Sally’s recipes!
Would there be any issue with using the same amount of sugar as specified for the blondies, but skipping any sugar when cooking the apples?
Should be fine, Elle!
These might’ve actually changed my life. I’m not usually one to leave reviews but these are simply too good not to. Definitely gonna start making these every year. Perfectly moist with lovely, warm fall flavors. If you’re thinking of making them, DO IT. Very easy to make as well, even if you’ve never browned butter before.
I have made these twice so far this fall season and they are delicious. The apple pairs so well with the brown butter.
So soft, full of warming spices and everyone who tries them loves them! These are a must make for fall baking.
These are crazy good. The texture is so similar to a brownie but with rich brown butter flavor and a nice tart bite of apple. I had some leftover cream cheese frosting that I mixed brown butter and maple syrup into. I would make this recipe over and over again!
Just made these this week and it may be the best thing I’ve made this entire year (and that’s saying something because I bake A LOT). Five stars from everyone I gave them too as well. Moist (ew ), delicious, autumny, relatively easy, definitely my new go-to gotta use up crappy apples quick recipe. The only thing I did different was I replaced 1/3 cup of the brown sugar with maple sugar (because Wisconsin, we love maple almost as much as Vermont) and I’m sure it’s still great as written. (Also didn’t measure apples but used two small/medium honey crisp that had seen better days and one medium Granny Smith.) The browned butter almost gives it a butterscotch flavor, but subtle. I’ll for sure make these again.
These were very tasty. I was a bit confused with the directions. It says save 3T for the frosting after browning the butter , but when I looked below it says 4T for frosting in the lower directions. I did put 4T aside and with the moisture taken out from the browning I still had a cup. Thank you for a new delicious apple recipe, Sally.
Sally!! The Brown Butter Apple Blondie’s are completely
***INCREDIBLE***
Thank you for all your efforts and talent!! I’m a believer!!
I accidentally switched the measurements of brown sugar for the batter and the apples— so I cooked my apples in 1 and 1/3rd cup of brown sugar. However, I think they turned out spectacularly this way. They needed to be baked for about 8 or 9 minutes, but they are very soft because of it.
I did the same thing as you. I sauteed the apples with the larger amount of brown sugar & added the lesser amount to the dry ingredients. : (
Fortunately I only made 1/2 the recipe.
However, they ended up tasting good enough for my husband & me (would never toss them out), but I’d make a new batch for company.
I gave them 5* because with “MY” flub up they were quite good, although a little dry.
These are tasty. Made as instructed. I find the 9×13 makes a thin bar. Next time I’ll use my 9×9 pan.
Sorry this is unrelated to this recipe but can I make your apple pie bars in cupcake liners?
We’re unsure without testing it ourselves. Let us know if you try, Georgina!
Can this recipe be doubled?
Hi Georgina! We recommend making two batches rather than doubling.
Delicious! The only downside to this recipe, I think, is that the icing made way more than needed and I ended up discarding what I didn’t use. I would definitely make these again with 1/2 the icing.
Loved this recipe! Will definitely be making again!
One question, when I weighed out the flour, 2 cups came out to around 300g alone, way over the 291g listed, so I decided to manually measure out without the scale. Am I doing something wrong?
Hi Natacha, how are you measuring your flour in the cups? Be sure to spoon and level, rather than scoop and level, to ensure the cups aren’t packed with flour. But when in doubt, measuring by weight with a scale is always the most accurate option!
This was fantastic! No changes, and no notes. The brown butter is such a delicious taste and the crumb was perfect. More moist and less chewy than a typical blondie, but that’s to be expected with the apples. You won’t regret making these!
Can the recipe be doubled to make a thicker blonder?
Hi Dara, yes, you can double this recipe. Just make sure your pans and mixing bowls are big enough to hold the doubled ingredients. Enjoy!
SO DELICIOUS!!!!!! I went apple picking and got a bunch of honeycrisp apples, and this was the perfect recipe to use them for!! The blondies turned out perfectly and the icing is incredible. I love all of your brown butter recipes!
First of Sally’s recipes I have made and they were amazing! I added white chocolate chips and pecans, worked great. I cooked them for 25 mins, my oven seems to cook quicker than some, and left in with oven off for 5 mins. I am so impressed with the recipe. I have done a full deep dive into her website and ordered her book. Thank you Sally
I made this today, and wow! I liked that it was an easy recipe with an extra step, so it was a great one to keep my brain busy.
The only thing that I’ll do next time is add nuts!
These were popular with my friend. Im sure they would taste great but I hadn’t eaten sugar foods in about 6 months and decided to bake but for me after this time without any sugar they were just too sweet to eat, otherwise really good recipe.
Hi there, general question about blondies – would it be okay to make the batter and put it in the pan, then refrigerate it for just under two days, and then bake? Would that change the texture of the blondie?
Hi Kelly, we don’t recommend it. The baking powder is activated once the wet and dry ingredients are incorporated, so the rise will be compromised if not baked right away.
So let me start by saying another amazing recipe and, in the end it was delicious.
So here’s my question.
You call for 16tbls, 1 cup browned butter.
Remove 4tbls, 1/4 cup for the icing.
That Leaves now 3/4 cup for the batter.
But the recipe says add 1 cup Browned butter in the batter. See my issue.
So I added the full cup of browned butter to the batter. And then browned another 1/4 cup for the icing.
Did I miss something with the measurements? Again, it was delicious.
Hi Joann! The blondies use 1 cup butter, and the icing an additional 1/4 cup. We recommend browning all the butter together, then saving 1/4 for the icing so you only need to brown butter once. This is detailed in step 1!
I always worry about a dessert with icing made with milk left at room temp to store ?
How is this food safe? The icing was not fully cooked?
Hi Lisa, sugar is a preservative, but you can certainly store the bars in the fridge if you’re more comfortable with that.
Are ENVY apples good for baking?
Hi Debbie, yes they should work well!
I don’t usually bake or eat blondies but this recipe is really delicious. Everybody I’ve made them for gobble them up.
What happened to the salted caramel blondie recipe? I loved those blondies!
Hi Lori, Are you looking for the salted butterscotch blondies? We were no longer satisfied with the outcome of that older recipe, so we unpublished it. We still have it, so send us an email and we can forward it to you. sally@sallysbakingaddiction.com
This recipe is delicious! Gorgeous flavour, and reasonably easy to do. Next time is personally chop the apples smaller than I did today, or possible look at thin slices instead, and I’d reduce the baking time, as mine was a tad overdone for my liking after 32 mins (that is entirely on me, ovens obviously bake differently). I did omit the frosting, as I just didn’t think it would need it, and I have no regrets.
I found these quite flavorful – as I was expecting, but contrary to the explanation, they were cakey and very moist – not chewy at all (not sure how they could be both “soft and chewy”). The second day, they were actually wet. Not sure what the problem was, perhaps I didn’t bake them long enough? As I have some on hand, I’m tempted to try making them with dehydrated apples.
Thanks so much for trying the recipe and for the feedback. It definitely sounds like they may have been slightly underbaked—especially since they turned wet by the second day. The center should be soft and moist, but still set and chewy around the edges. Dehydrated apples could be a fun variation to try, and they’d add a different texture too. I haven’t tested it. If you give the recipe another try as written, try extending the bake time just a bit. Let me know if you try the dehydrated apples!
Sally, do you have any recommendations for a non dairy version? My son is allergic.
Same experience! I basically cooked them again
First time to brown butter. It’s amazing!
Theseare really delicious