So I skipped the ice cream and baked my two favorite ice cream toppings into bars.
They’re soft, moist, rich, and dripping with both hot fudge and salted caramel. Make your own 10-Minute Homemade Hot Fudge (GF) and Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce or use storebought. Homemade is nice because you can gift any extra and it keeps for ages in the fridge.
But we’re all so busy, and I’m all about convenience, ease, and simplicity, which is why I love these blondies. The recipes follows the pattern of my trusty blondies go-to recipe, made in one-bowl, no mixer required, and the batter is whisked together in minutes before being baked.
Literally takes 5 minutes, and it’s a small batch recipe, only making about 9 bars in an 8-inch pan. That’s nice if you’ve been eating your weight in Christmas cookies and holiday appetizers and don’t need a big batch of anything, but just need a little something to calm those pesky chocolate cravings.
Simply melt one stick of butter in a bowl in the micro, stir in an egg, brown sugar, vanilla, and flour, before swirling in the hot fudge and salted caramel. Don’t get too carried away when you’re swirling because the hot fudge in particular spreads while baking. It’s okay to leave some fairly bare and unswirled patches because if you over-do it, the swirls will all bake together and the top will look muddy and messy. It’ll still taste great, but just won’t be quite as pretty.
Because ovens, climates, and brands of hot fudge and salted caramel vary, bake until your blondies are done. Watch your blondies, not the number on the clock, when determining doneness. The hot fudge and caramel will be glistening, shiny, and stay wet-looking, so make sure you’re evaluating the blondies, not the toppings, if you’re doing a toothpick test.
The blondies are soft, dense, moist, and the butter and brown sugar caramelize while baking. Between the inherent caramelization and the salted caramel swirls, there’s plenty of bold caramel flavor.
The slight saltiness in the caramel sauce cuts some of the sweetness from the hot fudge, and caramel and chocolate are such a great flavor pairing. The chocolate rivers than run through them make me want to go river-rafting through a couple blondies.
Who needs ice cream when you’ve got the toppings. The best part.
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Do you prefer hot fudge or salted caramel? Or both!
