Easter blondies: bright happy colors in a chewy bar cookie

Why you’ll stash Easter candy to make these blondies

1. Bright pretty color: The blondies base perfectly compliments the pastel M&Ms here, making for a truly Spring colored dessert.
2. Crackly top: My double boiler

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   technique always ensures perfect crackly top shiny crust blondies with the best texture. You can geek out if you want to and read more about how to get a shiny crust on a blondie, but the TLDR summary is that sugar that is completely dissolved into a batter is what gives you that shiny crust. My technique gets you there with no guesswork.
3. More interesting than a brownie: The brown butter in these blondies is the star here, giving you big warm flavor and a nuttiness that compliments the butterscotch and chocolate. While brownies are dark warm chocolate bombs, blondies bring more layered subtlety to the bar cookies game.
4. Infinitely packable: These cookies travel better than almost every other cookie. They’re not terribly crumbly, and you can stack them a mile high with no fear of damage. They will be welcome at Spring potlucks, baby showers, or in any Mother’s Day dessert spread.
5. Make-ahead marvels: These keep at room temperature for at least 5 days, and you can freeze them for up to 3 months. This makes them perfect for easy entertaining.
6. Choose a size: Because these are such a packable bar cookie, it’s also easy to customize their size by cutting them. Cut them in 9 for jumbo blondies, 16 for small blondies, or cut the 9 pieces in half for blondie fingers (or the “Jenga cut” or piano keys if you prefer), or in half again for 1 bite blondies that are perfect for kids’ parties or school treats.

Step by step process for making Easter Blondies

1. Line the bottom of an 8×8

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   pan with a parchment

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   sling (2 pieces of parchment

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   that cover the bottom of the pan and go up the sides, meeting in the middle of the pan at right angles to each other).
2. Make brown butter: 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, though you can heat it on medium heat in about 5 minutes. Set it in a mixing bowl to cool.
3. Warm the sugars and eggs: Fill the bottom of a double boiler

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    with about 1″ of water, and 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 the 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.
4. Add the sugar to the butter: 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.
5. Add the flour: Fold in the flour with a baking spatula

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    until the flour disappears.
6. Stir in the mix-ins: Quickly fold in 3/4 cup of the M&Ms, coconut, and butterscotch chips.  Scrape the batter into the pan and then smooth the batter in the pan in one even layer.  Scatter the remaining M&Ms on top of the batter.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes until the edges are browning and the middle is no longer jiggling.
8. Cool the bars completely before cutting. 

Tips for making the prettiest blondies

• Line that pan: I always always make a parchment sling for my bar cookies. To do this, you cut two pieces of parchment that cover the bottom and sides of your pan, crossing each other on the bottom of the pan. This way when baked, you can easily lift on opposite sides of the parchment straight to the cutting board. You will never have to dig a blondie or a brownie out of the side of a pan with a blunt spatula with this technique!
• Save some M&Ms for up top: Any time you add mix-ins to a cookie it’s a good idea to save some of whatever mix-ins you are adding for decorating the top. Here the extra M&Ms offer a pop of color that might sink into the blondie otherwise.
• Freeze the blondies: Prior to cutting, freeze your blondies for 30 minutes. This will firm up the butterscotch chips and the chocolate candy so that they don’t get smudgy when you cut them.

What to serve with Easter Blondies for the Ultimate Easter dessert spread

1. Easter brownies: adorable mini brownie bites with Cadbury Mini Eggs and coconut.
2. Orange bars: Like lemon bars but with creamy, less-tart orange filling. If you could mashup a creamsicle with a lemon bar, you’d get close to the taste.
3. Pistachio lemon bread: This two-tone bread is so pretty with bright pistachios and sunny lemon. If you want a lemon cake that’s not egregiously sweet, this is a great choice.
4. Lemon blueberry cookies: These cookies are so very good. With bold streaks of blueberry across a bright lemon soft sugar cookie, these are as pretty as an Easter egg.
5. Lemon Monkey Bread Muffins: These are like a lemon sweet roll but in much easier to make format. You can make them in any size muffin cups to suit the number of people you’re hosting for Easter.

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