Chewy chocolate chunk blondies are made with nutty browned butter and filled with salty pretzels. This sweet and salty blondie dessert bar will be your new favorite treat. Whipped up and baked and in your mouth, in less than 45 minutes you will love these Pretzel Chocolate Chunk Brown Butter Blondies.

Sometimes life gets busy and you don't have time for cookies. But you do have time for blondies. Growing up I liked brownies but I never LOVED them. Cookies- well I have ALWAYS and will ALWAYS love them. But I never really had blondies. Not until I was older anyway.
Lately, blondies have been made quite a few times in my kitchen. Because as much as I love me a cookie sometimes I really don't have the time or energy to scoop individual portions and watch each batch bake. So blondies come in handy 🙂
This blondie recipe is for sweet and salty lovers (my salted caramel lovers) there is something so satisfying about sweet and salty together. Don't miss my Kitchen Sink Cookies next!
Let's get to the recipe.
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Ingredients
- Butter. For this recipe you can use salted butter or unsalted butter, doesn't really matter, I personally do not adjust the salt in the dry ingredients either way. But if you were using salted butter technically you could reduce the salt. For this recipe we are going to brown the butter, this creates a nutty caramelized undertone to the butter. I have a whole post dedicated on how to brown butter.
- Brown Sugar. I generally use light brown sugar but dark brown sugar would work just fine too.
- Vanilla Extract. Please, use the real stuff, no imitation vanilla for me.
- Egg. You want your egg to be at room temperature so it will evenly incorporate into the butter-sugar mixture. To get an egg at room temperature fast just place it in a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes before cracking.
- Flour. Just good old all-purpose flour also known as plain flour is needed for this recipe.
- Baking Soda. The baking soda acts as the leavening agent to make the blondies rise.
- Salt. Salt is a necessary ingredient for almost all baking, salt not only balances out all of the sweetness but also helps other ingredients flavors shine through.
- Chocolate. To get nice gooey chocolate inside the blondies I prefer to use chocolate chunks. love to use the Pound Plus Bars from Trader Joe's, I use a combo of milk and dark chocolate. Chocolate chips will totally work well here too.
- Pretzels. The star of the show. I like to use small pretzel either sticks or twists and chop them up into pieces.
Instructions
First things first make sure your oven is properly preheated to 350F/180C.
You can use an 8-inch square or 9-inch square baking pan, keep in mind 9" will make thinner bars and cook quicker than the 8". In order to easily remove the blondies once baked I like to line the pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper. If using foil make sure to spray with non-stick spray then set the pan aside.
Over low-medium heat brown the butter. Check out this post for an in-depth look at browning butter. You will start to smell a nutty aroma and the butter will become a golden brown color. Turn off and pour into a heatproof bowl to slightly cool for 5 minutes, if you leave the butter in the pan it can start to burn.
Add the brown sugar and vanilla to the butter and mix until fully combined.
Mix in the egg, make sure there is no trace of egg yolk left behind.
Add flour, baking soda and salt, and gently mix until no flour streaks remain.
Fold in chocolate chunks and pretzels, I like to reserve a little bit of the chocolate and pretzels to press on top of the batter so you can easily see what kind of cookie bar this is.
Pour into prepared pan and add leftover chocolate and pretzels on top.
Bake the blondies for 23-28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Check out this post on my Cookie Baking Tips
Can you double
You can totally double the recipe just bake it in a 9X13 pan the bake time I would add another 5-10 minutes.
More blondie recipes
These pumpkin blondies are a favorite all year round for us, are you a pumpkin lover all year round?
Another fall favorite that is perfect all year round are these Chewy Gooey Candy Blondies, perfect for using all your leftover candy.
For a non chocolate bar try my lemon crumb bar recipe, so easy and soooo delicious!
★★★★★ Please let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a star rating and comment below!
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Pretzel Chocolate Chunk Brown Butter Blondies
Chewy chocolate chunk blondies are made with a nutty browned butter, filled with salty pretzels and a sprinkling of sea salt. This sweet and salty blondie dessert bar will be your new favorite treat. Whipped up and baked and in your mouth, in less than 45 minutes you will love these Pretzel Chocolate Chunk Brown Butter Blondies.
- Total Time: 38 minutes
- Yield: 9-16 Blondies 1x
Ingredients
- 5oz (10 Tablespoons) Unsalted Butter
- 200 grams (1 Cup) Light Brown Sugar
- 2 Teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 Large Egg, at room temperature
- 125 grams (1 Cup) All-Purpose Flour/ Plain Flour
- ½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- 160 grams (1 Cup) Chocolate Chunks or Chips
- 1 cup Chopped Pretzels
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C and line an 8-inch square or 9-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper, if using foil make sure to spray with non-stick spray then set the pan aside.
- Over low-medium heat brown the butter. Check out this post for an in-depth look at browning butter. You will start to smell a nutty aroma and the butter will become a golden brown color. Turn off and pour into a heatproof bowl to cool for 5 minutes.
- Add brown sugar and vanilla to the butter and mix until fully combined. Mix in the egg, make sure there is no trace of egg yolk left behind. Add flour, baking soda and salt, and gently mix until no flour streaks remain. Fold in chocolate chunks and pretzels. Pour into prepared pan.
- Bake for 23-28 minutes. Or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes
- Cook Time: 28 Minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: sweet and salty blondies, chocolate and pretzel cookies, brown butter blondie recipe
This post was originally published on April 25, 2013 as of July 21, 2020 the text and photos have been updated.
Kayle (The Cooking Actress) says
ohhhh holy crap.
yes. yesyesyeysyesyesssssssssss
Gloria @ Simply Gloria says
Funny how brownies were always available back in the day but blondies were not really the thing. Maybe that's why they're my fav! These are a must to bake!
Liz says
I just came to like blondies too! Now I love them just as much as brownies! These look delicious! 🙂
Lisa Langston says
These look delish!!! Cannot wait to make and EAT them!!
Thanks!!
Laura Dembowski says
I love blondies so much, and they're so versatile. Putting pretzels in them sounds fab! These pics are fab too!
Hayley @ The Domestic Rebel says
If we weren't such bffs and you weren't so damn pretty and brilliant, I'd proooobably hate you for making such a sexy blondie. But since I'm a glutton and you're gorgeous and I love ya, I guess I have to live with gaining 7 pounds from inhaling 9 batches of these bad boys. LOOOVE.
Pamela @ Brooklyn Farm Girl says
I love when people add pretzels to chocolate desserts, it's a perfect match in my opinion. You get the sweet, you get the salty, oh you get perfection!
Christi says
Oh wow, these look amazing! I am definitely pinning!
Elizabeth says
Thanks Christi!! 🙂
Laina says
This recipe is right up my alley. I tried making brownies with pretzels mixed in and they just tasted stale and I didn't pick up on the salt. The pretzels tasted like I was biting into pieces of paper that accidentally got mixed into the batter. Weird. Did you find this happened in this recipe?
Elizabeth says
Hmm well I add some sea salt so that amps up the saltiness factor. The pretzles were not as crunchy when baked but still tasted good to me. I have never mixed pretzels in brownies, I have however made pretzel crusted brownies https://confessionsofabakingqueen.com/ooc-brownies/ and https://confessionsofabakingqueen.com/pretzel-crusted-brownies/ both are amazing! Hope you give them a try! 🙂