What's The Difference Between Blondies And Brownies?

One of the most magical aspects of baking is just how many totally unique desserts you can make from different combinations of sugar, butter, and flour — from perfect zesty, booze-infused pound cakes to lemon shortbread cookies. Brownies and blondies are two such desserts, made with the same base of butter, sugar, flour, salt, and eggs, cooked in the same type of pan, and sliced into the same square servings. Yet, the two crowd-pleasing snacks look and taste distinctly different. What gives? And more specifically, what ingredient sets these two desserts distinctly apart? To prep you for this exact pub trivia question, we're breaking the two desserts down to their basics.

The biggest difference between brownies and blondies? Brownies are all about chocolate. Whether they're sprinkled with walnuts or drizzled with caramel, the chocolate has to be the star of the baked good. Blondies, on the other hand, don't typically feature a strong chocolatey taste. Instead, these sweet squares rely on sugar, butter, and vanilla to build a warm butterscotch flavor.

Let's start with the familiar favorite, the brownie. Unlike blondies, brownies are characterized by the inclusion of chocolate — and lots of it, either with cocoa powder, chopped chocolate bars, or both. In the baking world, brownies are also unique in how different they can look and taste with a few varied cooking techniques and measurement tweaks. If you use more cocoa powder or bake them twice (Alton Brown's brownie tip), you'll turn out super fudgy brownies. If you swap some of the butter for vegetable oil, you'll get a chewier, more cookie-like consistency (all butter tends to create a more cake-like texture). And, if you whisk all your wet ingredients together for close to a minute before adding the dry ones, you can create that distinctive crackly brownie top.

With their dense, moist interior, brownies do take a bit longer to bake than blondies or other cookies. But once they're ready, brownies are the perfect base for ice cream sundaes, drizzles of dulce de leche, or whipped cream.

If it's all the same ingredients minus the chocolate, you might be wondering why anyone ever bakes blondies. But blondies have a few differentiating factors that make them worthy of a place on your dessert table. First, blondies are characterized by a rich butterscotch taste that comes from brown sugar, vanilla extract, and, usually, browned butter. While brownie recipes typically call for regular granulated sugar, the molasses in brown sugar adds a certain depth of caramel flavor to blondies. Alongside the vanilla, browning the butter helps to bring out a nutty, toasted taste that conjures nostalgic memories of freshly baked cookies.

Plus, while a brownie recipe might throw in (controversial) chopped walnuts or a sprinkling of chocolate chips, blondie recipes are very forgiving and can withstand the kitchen sink of mix-ins. Of course, you can add back your missing chopped chocolate, but you can also get experimental, like with rhubarb and white chocolate or dried cranberries and pistachios. With blondies, the pantry-ready possibilities are truly endless. As a bonus, a blondie's more cookie-like consistency means they're usually out of the oven in half the time.

If you're torn between which to make, maybe try a brookie. Brookies, as every food writer will tell you, are the best of both worlds. An easy way to upgrade boxed brownies, they combine a layer of brownie batter with dollops of cookie dough. Try layering your brownie batter with a layer of blondie batter for a deluxe, multidimensional dessert.