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Rich with homemade honey caramel and chunks of chocolate peanut clusters, these caramel peanut chocolate blondies are a sure fire hit for almost any occasion.

Let it be known that I am not a fan of candy in general. I can say no to it in all circumstances lest one. If there’s chocolate and peanuts and caramel, I’m there.

So I mashed my favorite combo together into my brown butter blondies to make these caramel peanut chocolate blondies. Loaded up with chocolate peanut clusters and topped with homemade honey caramel, they taste like Snickers (minus the nougat, which let’s be real is the least good thing about Snickers anyhow).

I went outside the box this month and skipped making my classic loaded crispy oatmeal cookies for Game Night and instead made these faux Snickers blondies along side my strawberry white chocolate blondies. Our game group, always appreciative of the cookies was equally pleased with the change.

I know you’ll love em too, so grab your favorite chocolate peanut candy and let’s make some!

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Caramel Peanut Chocolate Blondies

Why you’ll love these bars

Caramel, peanut, chocolate: individually each of these things makes the others better. Together, they’re a combo you’ll always reach for.
Brown butter blondies: like my other brown butter blondies recipes, these are chewy bars with shiny happy tops. The nuttiness of the brown butter not only makes for good chewy blondies, it adds to the nuttiness of the peanuts.
A blondie for all occasions: whether you pack up a pan for a potluck, take some to a neighbor in need of a meal, or tie up a stack for teacher appreciation, there’s almost no place where these blondies wouldn’t be welcomed.
Elevate your brownie sundaes: Top one of these bars with any of my no-churn ice cream recipes, and you’ll go over the top of the dessert awesomeness mountain. I think the cinnamon ice cream or cookies and cream is particularly good here.

caramel peanut chocolate blondies on plate

Ingredients and components for Caramel Peanut Chocolate Blondies

chocolate peanut clusters and caramel sauce

Brown butter blondies
- Butter: for brown butter
- Powdered sugar: dissolves well, making for shiny tops.
- Brown sugar: adds to the caramel taste
- Baking powder: for leavening
- Salt: for flavor
- Egg + an egg yolk: to bind everything together
- Vanilla paste: for flavor
- Peanut chocolate cluster candies: to add the peanut and chocolate elements (I found mine in the bulk section at my local market).

Honey caramel
- Granulated sugar: to caramelize
- Water: helps the sugar from burning before it caramelizes
- Honey: adds flavor and makes for a more stable caramel
- Salt: to balance the sweet
- Heavy cream: to add smoothness to the caramel
- Sour cream: balances the sweet.
- Butter: smooths out the caramel.

Tips for making the best blondies

No double boiler?: Use a bowl over a 1 qt pan of simmering water.
Do dissolve that sugar: working in a double boiler, whisking the egg and egg yolk with the sugars helps the sugar dissolve for glossy, shiny batter. Glossy shiny batter makes for glossy shiny blondies!
Parchment sling!: If you cut 2 pieces of parchment to fit your pan and then cross them over each other so they go up opposite sides, you can easily lift out the bars to cut them later. This means that your blondies will also NEVER stick to the pan.
No chocolate peanut clusters?: use Snickers or your favorite chocolate candy bar. I’m always looking for ideas for using up leftover Halloween candy, and this is a perfect recipe to offload your extra chocolate candies.

Caramel Peanut Chocolate Blondies

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Author: Elizabeth Farr
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Yield: 16 blondies

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Description

Rich with homemade honey caramel and chunks of chocolate peanut clusters, these brown butter blondies are a sure fire hit for almost any occasion.

Ingredients

Scale

cooking spray for the pan (8″x8″)

Honey Caramel

1 cup granulated sugar (200 g)
4 tablespoons water (59 mL)
2 tablespoons honey (42 grams)
1/8 tsp salt
4 tablespoons heavy cream (59 mL)
2 tablespoons sour cream (30 g)
2 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces (28 g)

Brown Butter Blondies

1 stick butter (113 g)
1/3 cup powdered sugar (40 g)
1/3 cup light brown sugar (66 g)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large whole egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla paste
3/4 cup peanut chocolate cluster candies

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Instructions

Lightly spray an 8″x8″ pan with cooking spray, then cut a piece of parchment to line the bottom and sides of one side. Spray over the top of this piece of parchment, then cut another one to go across the remaining 2 sides of the pan.

Make the caramel:

Combine the sugar, water, honey, and salt in a small bowl just to moisten the sugar evenly.
Pour the sugar into a heavy bottom saucepan. Turn the heat on medium.
Whisk the heavy cream and the sour cream together, then place this and the butter near the stove.
Cook the sugar until you start seeing color around the edges of the pan.
If you notice that the color seems to be in one spot of the pan but not the rest, gently swirl the sugar in the pan. You may also turn the pan around 180 degrees on the burner to even out the heat.
Do not stir with a spoon or whisk at this point as you can create sugar crystals and threads you will not be able to incorporate back into the caramel.
Do not leave the stove. Once you start seeing color watch carefully. As the sugar begins to color, you’ll notice the bubbles start to slow down considerably.
Caramel can go from pale amber to burnt in a few seconds. Start looking for more deep amber color form across the pan. Right at the end of cooking, you should smell just a hint of burnt sugar and you may see a puff of smoky steam. Once you see this, count to 5 and turn off the heat.
Have a long whisk handy, then pour in the cream all at once. The caramel will bubble up furiously, so stay back from the steam and whisk furiously until it’s all incorporated.
Carefully drop in the butter, then whisk to incorporate it.
Pour the caramel into a glass measuring cup to cool while you make the blondies.

Make the blondies

Pop the chocolate peanut clusters in a ziploc and whack a few times with a rolling pin to break up the candy into about 1/2″ chunks.
Preheat the oven to 350F (180 C).
Melt the butter over low heat in a small pan until the foam starts to subside and there are brown flecks in the bottom of the pan. On low heat, this will take about 10 minutes.
While the butter is browning, fill the bottom of a double boiler with about 1″ of water, then bring it to a boil.
Use a whisk to mix the sugars, baking powder, salt, whole egg and the egg yolk in the top of a double boiler.
Lower the water to simmer, then set the top pot over the water, stirring constantly for about 4 minutes. In this time, the mixture will get thinner, paler, and all of the sugar will dissolve.
Once the butter has browned, set it in a bowl to cool slightly.
Whisk the egg/sugar mix into the butter. If it splits, keep whisking. As it cools, it will come back together.
Allow the butter mix to cool until it’s thick and no longer warm to the touch. It will be noticeably thicker and glossy.
Fold in the flour and all but a few handfuls of the crushed chocolate into the batter. Stop when you no longer see flour.
Smooth the batter in the prepared pan.
Pour about 1/2 cup of the caramel into a small piping bag or a ziploc. Cut off the tip about 1/2″ from the end, then pipe lines of caramel across the top in a crosshatch pattern.
Top the caramel with the rest of the chocolate.
Bake the blondies for 20-22 minutes until the edges are browning and the middle is just barely no longer jiggly.
Cool the blondies completely before cutting.
Blondies can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container for up to a week. You can also freeze them in an airtight ziploc for up to 3 months.

Notes

Work ahead: you can make the caramel up to 2 weeks ahead of time, storing it covered in the fridge. To use it when you’re ready, just microwave for a few seconds until it’s a pipeable consistency. In my microwave, that takes about 15 seconds.

Swap out the chocolate: instead of the chocolate peanut clusters, feel free to add in chopped Snickers bars. Snickers have all the components with added nougat that’s perfect here. This recipe is great to hold onto for leftover chocolate Halloween candy like Snickers, KitKats, Reese’s etc.

Prep Time: 35 minutes
Additional Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Category: Bar cookies
Cuisine: American