These Salted Caramel Blondies are over-the-top and OH. SO. GOOD! The blondies have a Nutella and salted caramel sauce layer sandwiched and baked right in between the chewy, moist blondie layers. And to finish this dessert in style, caramel shards are sprinkled and baked on top. Need I say more?
The Ultimate Sandwich
Definitely the ultimate, most delicious dessert-sandwich you’ll eat this year. Trust me. The blondie batter tastes like baked, chewy cookie dough with a small hint of coffee, and it has a whole visible layer of Nutella and salted caramel baked right into the middle. The whole thing is topped off with homemade caramel shards and sea salt – IT’S SOOOO GOOD!
I took lots of photos, so please do take a look to read through the whole post – I promise I won’t talk much!! 😉
The recipe is also fairly easy – maybe just a teeny-weeny bit time-consuming. Of course, you can leave the caramel shards out on top (just note that you’ll be missing out on some countertop-bashing & -smashing), and you can definitely use store-bought salted caramel sauce. In this post here, I walk you through how to make the salted caramel sauce. It’s simple and nothing to be afraid of, but you do need to be careful when you make it 🙂
You can leave the Nutella out, but I do recommend adding in some sort of chocolate then. Chopping up that good ol’ Easter bunny and sprinkling it in the middle will do. These blondies are moist and delicious on their own, but that surprise layer just adds some umpf.
Caramel Shards
They’re really easy, but as always when working with sugar, you need to be careful not to burn yourself.
All you do is melt the sugar in a small pot, stir a few times, and then you pour it on a silicone mat or baking paper. It will firm up quite quickly (and it is HOT!), so make sure to sprinkle on the salt the second you have poured out all the caramel. Fill the pot with hot water to simplify the clean-up later-on – the remaining caramel also hardens in the pot itself, so if you add hot water, it starts to dissolve.
When the caramel layer has been cooling at room temperature for about 15 minutes, you can place the whole pan in the fridge for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 10. This speeds up the hardening process, as it is definitely easier (and more fun!) breaking/smashing hard caramel.
As soon as the caramel has fully hardened, put the whole caramel layer in a Ziploc-bag, bash it with a rolling pin, and then you have your shards (or break into big shards by hand).
Blondie Batter
There isn’t much to say about the blondie batter. It tastes like cookie dough, because you use brown and white/granulated sugar, and it has a secret ingredient: A little bit of coffee!
You can’t taste the coffee itself, but it pairs really well with the Nutella and generally elevates the flavour of this beautiful and delicious dessert. Trust me, you’ll love it. You won’t even know it’s there. And in case you are really sceptical, leave it out or use half the amount.
In this post here, I explain really deeply about why “Making caramel is hard!” is a myth. It ain’t hard – you just have to be careful, that’s all!
Cutting & keeping
You can cut the blondie-block into whatever size you like. I went for 16 square bars + additional offcuts, but you can easily refrigerate the whole blondie-layer, and then cut up into rectangular “fingers”, or make the squares even smaller.
To store: Put in an airtight container and keep up to 3 days. Or refrigerate in an airtight container and the blondies will keep up to 5 days 😀 But I think you and I both know there won’t be a need for storing these bars … 😉
Different flavours
Instead of using Nutella, you could also spread on a layer of Biscoff cookie butter. Or, even better, chop up your favourite chocolate bar (for instance Twix, Mars, Snickers – be generous!) and place the chocolate pieces evenly on the first half of the blondie batter. As a fruity option, opt for a layer of apricot jam – I suggest omitting the caramel though 😉
We’re already at the end of this post, so here are some more photos. Enjoy!
If you make these Salted Caramel Nutella Blondies, do leave me a comment and rate the recipe! 😀 And don’t forget to tag me on Instagram and Facebook.
You might also like …
- My no-bake Biscoff Cheesecake Bars … because everyone loves bars!
- The world’s best Brown Butter Brownies … because brownies are a hit too!
Salted Caramel Nutella Blondies
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Yield: 16 blondies 1x
- Category: Blondies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Blondies are over-the-top. Nutella and salted caramel sauce are sandwiched in between two layers of chewy, moist blondies, and caramel shards are baked right into the top. Decorated with even more caramel and sea salt, this recipe is a true crowd-pleaser.
Ingredients
Caramel Shards
- 100 g white sugar
- 1 tsp sea salt
Blondies
- 115 g butter, room temperature
- 150 g brown sugar
- 50 g white sugar
- 2 eggs, each about 58 g
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar or extract
- 2 tbsp of freshly brewed espresso
- Or: 2 tbsp hot water & 2 tsp espresso powder
- 190 g flour
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 tbsp Nutella (approx. 150 g of Nutella)
- Caramel sauce
- ¼ tsp flaky sea salt
Salted Caramel Sauce
- ½ a recipe of my Salted Caramel Sauce (make the whole amount, and use leftovers for ice cream. Store in refrigerator)
Instructions
Caramel Shards
- Prepare a baking tray with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- In a small pot, melt the sugar. Stir a few times and use a wet pastry brush to dissolve the sugar on the edge of the pot.
- When it has reached an amber, orange-red colour, quickly and carefully pour the caramel onto the prepared baking tray. It is hot! The caramel should spread by itself.
- Immediately pour hot water into the pot to make cleaning up easier, and sprinkle the sea salt on to the hardening caramel.
- Let cool at room temperature for about 20 minutes, and then transfer to the fridge to harden for 30 minutes.
- When the caramel has set, break it up into shards. Break it by hand or place the block into a Ziploc bag and crush it with a rolling pin.
Blondies
- Preheat oven to 170°C fan-assisted/convection (190°C non-convection, 240°F). Prepare an 18 x 18 cm (7 x 7 inch) baking pan with parchment paper. Make sure there is an overhang so you can lift the baked blondie block out after baking. Grease the paper well.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the sugars, vanilla, and butter until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs one by one (it might look curdled, but when we add the flour it will mix together again).
- Add in the freshly brewed espresso, or dissolve espresso powder in the hot water, stir, and add. Mix well.
- Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until there are a few streaks of flour left, and then finish mixing with a spatula.
- Place the jar of Nutella into a bowl filled with warm water. The warmth will make the Nutella a little bit runnier.
- Pour half of the blondie batter into the pan and spread it out evenly.
- Place a few tablespoons (in total about 100 g) of the runny Nutella on top, and drizzle on about 5 tablespoons of the salted caramel sauce. Use a knife to very gently spread and swirl it around. Don’t mix it thoroughly, as you do want a visible layer of Nutella.
- Pour on the second half of the batter and spread it evenly.
- Drizzle on some more caramel sauce, and then sprinkle on some caramel shards and some sea salt. Reserve some shards for serving.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes. Use a toothpick to check for doneness.
- Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then lift out the whole block and let cool to room temperature (about 2 hours).
- Sprinkle on some sea salt and some more of the caramel shards. Use a serrated knife to cut the block into bite-size pieces.
- Optional: before serving, drizzle on some more salted caramel sauce. Enjoy!
Notes
- You can omit the caramel-shards and caramel sauce if you like.
- You can use store-bought caramel sauce.
- Instead of Nutella, use 75 g of chocolate, chop it up, and sprinkle on the first blondie layer.
This is an important correction for non-metric bakers: 190C is not 240 F. It’s 375F.
I enjoyed making these a lot! And they are definitely very delicious 🙂 especially the caramel shards!