Gingerbread Blondies  Recipe (2024)

By Melissa Clark

Updated Dec. 7, 2023

Gingerbread Blondies Recipe (1)

Total Time
45 minutes, plus cooling
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes, plus cooling
Rating
5(1,594)
Notes
Read community notes

With the chewy texture of the best fudgy brownie and all the festive flavors of your favorite gingerbread cookies, these spicy bars make a bold statement for the holidays. Browning the butter gives them a deep, caramelized flavor, which rounds out the warming brown sugar and fragrant spices. The white chocolate drizzle on top is purely for looks, so feel free to leave it out if you’re short on time. These bars taste just as good without it.

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Ingredients

Yield:12 to 16 squares

  • 1cup/225 grams unsalted butter, plus more for preparing the pan
  • packed cups/330 grams dark brown sugar
  • 2tablespoons molasses
  • 1tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
  • 2large eggs
  • 2tablespoons vanilla extract (or bourbon or espresso)
  • 2cups/255 grams all-purpose flour
  • 2teaspoons baking powder
  • 2teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¾teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
  • ¼teaspoon ground allspice
  • ¼teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • Pinch of ground cloves
  • ¾cup chopped toasted walnuts or pecans (optional)
  • 2ounces white or dark chocolate, melted, for decorating (optional)

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Nutritional analysis per serving (14 servings)

363 calories; 20 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 43 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 27 grams sugars; 4 grams protein; 174 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Gingerbread Blondies Recipe (2)

Preparation

Make the recipe with us

  1. Step

    1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-9-inch pan and line with parchment paper.

  2. In a small saucepan, heat the butter over medium until melted and flecked with darker brown bits, 5 to 7 minutes. Pour brown butter into a large bowl and add brown sugar, molasses and grated ginger. Whisk until combined (it won't look smooth) and let cool for a few minutes.

  3. Step

    3

    Add eggs and vanilla extract, and whisk until smooth and glossy.

  4. Step

    4

    Add the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, salt, allspice, black pepper and cloves. Whisk well to combine. Stir in nuts, if using.

  5. Step

    5

    Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until the edges are firm but the center is still slightly damp, 18 to 25 minutes (add about 5 to 10 minutes if using a glass or ceramic pan). Do not overbake. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool. Let blondies cool completely in the pan.

  6. Step

    6

    Once blondies are completely cool, use a fork, spoon or filled parchment cone to decorate the top of the blondies with melted white or dark chocolate if you like. Let chocolate set for at least 2 hours before cutting into bars.

Tip

  • Blondies will keep in a closed container for up to 5 days at room temperature.

Ratings

5

out of 5

1,594

user ratings

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Kelsie

If you add the dry spices to the browned butter (even before adding the sugar and molasses), they will bloom and you'll end up with an intensified aroma and better impact of the spices overall.

qwerty

Drizzle with a sharp lemon icing instead of chocolate.

Laura

Another trick with parchment: If you line the pan with 2 strips at right angles, you dont need to grease the pan to hold them in place. Just use clothes pins, document clips, or chip clis to fasten the strips to the sides of your pan. Remove the clips after you sread the batter. The weight of the batter will keep the parch in place, and you may not need to wash the pan at all.

Claudia

These turned out okay. The "whisk until smooth" in step 2 was a fail. 10 minutes with a handheld whisk yielded a black sludge of the consistency of unrefined crude. Specks of sludge scattered everywhere. I wanted to throw the whole thing out, but my husband urged me to continue. Adding the eggs and flour/spice mixture did yield a smoothly-whisked batter, which baked up fine. But the cooking time should be increased to reflect time spent mopping the kitchen and hand washing my sweater.

Renee

For every 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger, use 1 tablespoon of fresh-grated ginger in recipes. This works in the opposite direction as well. If you don't have any fresh ginger, you can substitute dried ground ginger using the same ratio.

Maker-Baker

Based on other cooks' notes, I ...Melted (boiled) the butter on the stove (it never browned). Whisked the butter/brown sugar mixture in my KitchenAid with success. Added the vanilla at this step. Was impatient about waiting for the batter to cool, so added in half the flour/spice mixture before adding the eggs. Continued whisking and made a nice, smooth batter. Lined a 9x13 with parchment and baked it for 30 minutes. Drizzled w/dark chocolate.Delicious!

Tim

Swap the 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper for cayenne pepper. Trust me, it works.

Mary

Absolutely delicious! They reminded me of the gingersnaps I make at the holidays, so I sprinkled the top with Demerara sugar before baking and skipped the chocolate decor step. Just a bit sparkly with a nice little crunch. A great recipe to add to my rotation. Thanks!

PH

D Barker: I've also never understood the direction to both line with parchment paper and grease. I just do the paper and have never had any sticking issues. Cheers!

Charlie

I’m with Claudia. The whisk until smooth step was a total failure— even after switching from a hand whisk to my KitchenAid standup mixer. And I probably should’ve baked mine for well more than 30 minutes. The instruction not to cook too long led me to undercook the blondies significantly. I like the flavor, but the recipe needs some revision, I think.

Rich H

I didn't have a 9x9 pan so scaled up all the ingredients by 50% and used a 13x9 baking pan instead. Turned out delicious! I took them out of the oven after 20 minutes, probably could've gone a few minutes longer.

kmal

Delicious! Quite sweet and fudgy so cutting small bites is good. Dusted with powdered sugar and Christmas sprinkles rather than drizzling with chocolate.

Lolly

Can these be frozen? Like maybe before adding the chocolate drizzle? That information for all these cookie recipes would be useful.

Sandy

The parchment is the easiest way to the bars out of the pan in one piece; greasing the pan lightly helps the parchment lie flat against the sides and bottom of the pan. The parchment sticks to the pan, not the bars.

Circumnavigator

Yes, grease the pan and add parchment paper. These were delicious. I had to bake at least 30 minutes, but I probably good have gone for more. I had trouble browning the butter… I gave up after 8 minutes or so of a full boil… oh well, still good. The middle sunk quite a bit after cooling but that didn’t matter it had a nice fudgey texture. The ginger notes were fantastic. I did forget to add the pepper but will next time.

Rich And Delicious

Made 16 then cut them in half again to make Blondie bites. So rich and delicious. Great easy recipe.

SC

Family Loved these! Tips in the comment section were helpful. I baked them longer than recipe noted because they were still underdone and very gooey at 25 minutes. I was very attentive so that they didn’t over bake. Will makes these again. And Again!

Janet

Two tablespoons of vanilla? Or teaspoons?

Linda

I reduced brown sugar to a scant cup, but they were still a bit too sweet. I replaced some of the flour with white whole wheat. It took a long time for the butter to brown. Placed a few chocolate chips on top before baking. Baked in glass for 23 minutes. Next time I will increase the spices for more flavor and increase bake time to 35 minutes. In spite of all, they are delicious!

Margaret B

I made these as written with the addition of some crystalized ginger bits in the batter, which I highly recommend. Toasted nuts included, skipped the drizzle. These are crazy good. Just be sure not to over bake. I set my timer for 17 minutes, ended up giving them a minute more, but pulled them out with them looking a little underdone. Metal pan in my case. These were devoured wit everyone saying they are a new favorite on the Christmas cookie plate.

Debbie

OMG. Unbelievably good. I made them exactly as the recipe said. I was afraid they might be too gingery, but they are perfect!

Jeanie R

Wonderful! i cut everything in half for just the 2 of us and used an 8x6 Pyrex. The consistency was a perfect brownie-chewy, and the aroma made me think it was holiday time -- a bit wistful, but made the kitchen a nice place to be on this rainy California Monday. Thanks!

Sally

The recipe is perfection. The spices and flavors and texture were outstanding. The first time I I drizzled chocolate on top and found that overwhelmed the bright spice flavor. The second time I followed another commenter's suggestion to drizzle a lemon glaze over it. Outstanding! BTW - no issues with spattering or undercooking. Used a silicone whisk, baked to 18 mins. Thank you Melissa!

sue

So good! Used coffee liqueur instead of vanilla, added a pinch of grated nutmeg- (both really unnecessary - but couldn’t help myself) directions were great. These were gone so fast. Yipee! A new favorite.

Sanctuary Baking 501c3 nonprofit

We made a larger batch in a 9x13 pan as a test. Reduced the brown sugar by about 25 percent and subbed a smaller amount of nutmeg as we didn't have allspice. Maybe due to the reduction in the sugar, ours didn't sink dramatically like the one in the video and in many reviews. Piped ginger cream glaze & crystallized ginger on top. Wow, amazing! Melissa Clark does it again! Another one for our regular baking rotation. Sanctuary Baking nonprofit

Tamie H

The chocolate didn’t stick well. 10x sugar with a little ginger and cinnamon drizzled and stuck better.

Laura

These are extraordinary. Wowed the whole family at Christmas!

Valerie

I felt like these needed more flour, but everyone else loved them. To each their own I suppose.

deb

Deliciousness!!!! Wow! I used the 9x9 pan, 1TBS bourbon and 1TBS vanilla, cayenne instead of black pepper, and stirred the spices into the browned butter. I did have to bake 35 minutes. What a delicious treat!

kira

But now I know I should have used more fresh (it’s not a 1:1 ratio of fresh and dried)I would try again not adding spices to butter

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Gingerbread Blondies  Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Are blondies meant to be gooey in the middle? ›

A good blondie should be chewy, gooey in the middle and firm around the edges. If you want to add an additional egg yolk to this recipe to make the blondies super gooey, you can! Just to clarify, that would be 1 whole egg plus 2 egg yolks. Try it if you like gooey blondies!

How do I know if my blondies are cooked? ›

Check if the blondies are cooked by giving the tin a gentle shake, they should be mostly set but a little bit of a wobble in the centre is fine. Cool completely in the tin – the blondies will sink in the middle as they cool, just like brownies.

Why are my blondies falling apart? ›

However, they shouldn't be falling apart. If your blondies are coming apart in your hands, it's likely for one of three reasons: You didn't aerate the eggs enough. The leading cause of raw, sunken blondies is not whipping enough air into the batter.

Why are my blondies spongy? ›

Our answer. Unfortunately if the brownies have turned spongy then they have been overbaked.

Can you eat undercooked blondies? ›

So if your blondies are very wet, then they're most likely undercooked. In the UK, eggs with the Red Lion seal of approval are safe to eat raw or undercooked. So you can slightly undercook blondies and brownies if you prefer a fudgier texture.

Should blondies look undercooked? ›

For a chewy, gooey-centered blondie, look for golden edges and a just-set center. It shouldn't jiggle but it may look a bit underdone and feel soft when you press it. That's perfect as the blondie will continue to cook in the pan after you take them out of the oven.

Why are my blondies not setting in the middle? ›

Over mixing the eggs: If you over mix the eggs, that can incorporate more air into the batter and cause them to sink. Underbaking the bars: Pulling the blondies out of the oven before the center has had time to bake through can also cause them to sink in the middle. Try baking them for a couple extra minutes next time!

Should blondies be wobbly? ›

Place onto a baking tray on the middle shelf of oven and bake for 25 minutes. Check your Blondie, the centre should have a slight wobble, if very wobbly put back into the oven for a few minutes until it has firmed a little.

Why do my blondies taste like cake? ›

Tips. If your blondies are like cake when you take them out, it simply means they have been over baked – try less time or a lower temperature next time. If they are too soft, it just means they needed longer!

Why aren't my blondies chewy? ›

Replacing a portion of the brown sugar with corn syrup ensures that the blondies stay chewy but aren't overly sweet. Buttery pecans and milk chocolate chips balance the blondies' flavor without obscuring it. Flaky salt on top makes for a crunchy flavor contrast.

What happens if you use self-raising flour instead of plain flour in blondies? ›

Self rising flour has baking powder and a bit of salt already added. So, if you make the substitution, you'll have extra salt and baking powder in the finished product. It may not be terrible, but it won't be good.

Why do my blondies sink in the middle? ›

1 – Your ratio of ingredients is incorrect

When it comes to baking, balancing your ingredients is key. If you have too much liquid or too much fat in your cake batter, this can result in a cake with a weak structure which can cause it to sink in the middle.

How to tell when blondies are done baking? ›

In the case of brownies and blondies, most of the time you want to intentionally under-bake them to achieve that ideal moist, fudgy texture. The key is not under-baking them too much or too little. The toothpick test should produce a few errant crumbs stuck to the tester but not a smooth smear of batter.

Why did my blondies turn green? ›

It turns out that sunflowers (including the seeds) contain chlorophyll, which reacts with the baking powder/soda in a recipe, and turns the baked product green once cooled. In order to eliminate the green tint, you can add a splash of lemon juice to the wet ingredients, and reduce the leavening in the recipe by half.

Why are my blonde brownies dry? ›

Do not over-bake the brownies. This recipe shouldn't take longer than 26 minutes to bake so make sure you check on them at 23 minutes. If over-baked, the blondie portion will be dry and crumbly instead of soft and tender.

Is it normal for brownies to be gooey in the middle? ›

If the brownies still look wet or aren't pulling away, they aren't done. Even fudgy brownies will pull from the edges once they've finished baking. You'll see that the edges look dry while the middle still looks soft or slightly wet. Chewy and cakey brownies will have dry edges with firmer-looking centers.

What should brownies look like in the middle? ›

To test for doneness with a toothpick, insert a toothpick into the center of the brownies and pull it back out. For fudgy brownies, you'll want to see some moist crumbs attached to the toothpick when you pull it back out. If it looks like it's covered in brownie batter, the brownies will need to bake a bit longer.

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