Maple Walnut Blondies
Today is part three of Lemon & Mocha’s holiday brownie extravaganza series! After this we are going to take a minor break from the brownies, but they will be back soon, I promise!
When I was looking over my brownies that I had dipped, drizzled, dunked and doused in chocolate I realized the brownies were missing their tasty counterpart: the blondie. A blondie is basically a chocolate-less brownie and I love them equally. Ok, maybe the chocolate lover in me likes brownies more, but blondies are also extremely tasty. Especially when they have chocolate chips.
But I am excited to say that these 100% chocolate-free blondies were one of my favorites from my brownie baking bonanza. Maple walnut blondies. They are chewy, with a bit of crunch from the walnuts, and have a very subtle maple flavor.
The recipe I used mentioned that using real maple syrup would have a more mild maple taste, while using maple flavored syrup would produce a pronounced maple blondie. I only had the real stuff in my fridge so that’s what I went with and a lot of people told me that they were pleasantly surprised by the subtly of the maple. So step away from the chocolate and make these delicious maple walnut blondies!
- 11 tablespoons unsalted butter, half melted
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup, divided
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ¾ cups walnuts, chopped and divided
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9x9” baking pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl combine the butter, brown sugar and salt.
- Add ½ cup of the maple syrup and the egg, then stir to combine.
- Add the flour and baking soda, then stir to combine. Once completely combined, stir in 1 ½ cups of the walnuts.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan and use a spatula to smooth the top. Drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of maple syrup over the batter then swirl into the batter with the spatula. Evenly sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of walnuts onto the top.
- Bake about 30 minutes, or until the blondies are golden and just set in the center. Be sure not to overbake. Let blondies cool in the pan completely on a wire rack. Cut and serve.
Recipe from Serious Eats.