Chewy Toffee Blondies with Skor

Blondies and cookie bars are made with the same basic ingredients as chocolate chip cookies, so you will need:

• butter, preferably unsalted butter because you will add salt to the cookie dough, but if you have salted butter, it will work. Just adjust the salt in the recipe accordingly, otherwise, your bars may be too salty. We will be browning the butter for this recipe!
• sugar, both granulated and brown sugar work here. I prefer using all (or mostly) brown sugar for the flavour and to balance out the egg in the cookie dough.
• large eggs, don't use smaller eggs because your cookie dough may be too dry and your brownies may be crumbly but don't use extra large eggs because they could cause the batter to separate
• vanilla extract—I use pure vanilla extract in this recipe though artificial could work (just use a little less because it's more potent)
• all-purpose flour is needed to bind all the ingredients together and give the blondies structure, contributing to the chewiness of the bars as well. If you don't use enough flour, your cookie bars may be overly fudgy and dense
• salt is really important to balance out the sweet chocolate flavour, especially since these brownies feature quite a bit of candy chocolate. Please don't skip it. I like to use Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but table salt will work, though the bars will be saltier and you may want to halve the salt in that case
• leavening agents—both baking soda and baking powder are added to the mix of dry ingredients to open up the crumb of the cookie leading to a lighter texture. People who like cakey cookies tend to favour recipes with baking powder. 
• chopped candy bars, like Crunchie bars or Skor bars (made of chocolate-coated crunchie toffee bars)

Please refer to the recipe card for exact quantities of ingredients.

Like with most cookies and brownies, the base recipe of the blondie is a blank canvas for adding in different flavour elements. In this recipe we added chopped Skor bars, but you can try different mix-ins:

• Sugar: I used a combination of granulated sugar (for those crispy edges) and brown sugar (to give a chewy texture), but you can also do all granulated sugar
• Flour: If you want to replace the all-purpose flour with an alternative flour, consider the following substitutions:
  • whole wheat flour: 190 grams (1.5 cups) of whole wheat flour to make whole wheat blondies
  • spelt flour: 220 grams–250 grams (1.75 cups to 2 cups) spelt flour to make spelt blondies. Use the lesser amount if you prefer your blondies that are more gooey or the higher amount if you prefer chewy cookie bars.
• Skor bars: If you want to replace the chopped Skor toffee bar, replace it with toffee bits and chocolate chips. Or use leftover chocolate candy bars from Halloween and lots of flaky sea salt. You could also replace the Skor bars with sea salt caramels or even butterscotch chips!
• replace the vanilla extract with a splash of bourbon or scotch, which will provide an interesting oak flavour to these blondies, or some vanilla bean paste
• Nuts: this recipe would be great with chopped toasted walnuts or pecans mixed into the cookie dough—when you add in the chocolate, also mix in 110 grams (1 cup) of chopped nuts
• If you want to add in something crazy: take inspiration from Christina Tosi's Milk Bar compost cookie recipe and her compost pound cake and throw in some salty potato chips, chopped pretzels, and coffee grinds!

Alternatively, you can top these bars with chopped chocolate and berries, like for these white chocolate and raspberry blondies.

Step 1: Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl (image 1) and brown the butter in a small saucepan (image 2). Transfer the browned butter to a large bowl and once it's cooled slightly, add in the sugars (image 3). Use an electric hand mixer (or a wooden spoon) to combine (image 4).

Step 2: Add the egg and vanilla to the mixer bowl (image 5) and beat them in until the mixture is light, fluffy and emulsified (image 6). Use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl down and make sure all the ingredients are well mixed (image 7).

Step 3: Mix in the whisked dry ingredients (image 8) to form a thick cookie dough. Meanwhile, chop the Skor bars into small pieces (image 9) and add them to the bowl with the cookie dough (image 10). Stir them in with a wooden spoon (image 11).

Step 4: Transfer the cookie dough to a greased baking pan (either 8x8 or 7x11 inches—20x20 or 18x28 cm). You can garnish it with a few more pieces of chopped chocolate bar and/or some flaky sea salt if you have any (image 12) and then bake it until the edges are golden brown and the bars are puffed (image 13).

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