These sultry Cardamom Coffee Blondies are worlds away from your standard chocolate chip blondie, with smokey undertones of espresso and the sensuous aroma of cardamom ~ but all that just makes them just a little more mysterious.
cardamom and coffee blondies are a sophisticated treat
But don’t worry, they still have the familiar brown sugar and butter crumb of a thick, slightly under baked cookie, the melted pockets of chocolate chips, and a crackled crust with that classic golden sheen. I’m just saying these aren’t your basic bake sale blondies…they’re definitely a little more worldly, but I think you’ll agree that isn’t such a bad thing.
what you’ll need for these blondies
You already know I love the coffee plus cardamom combination. You’ve seen it in my Turkish coffee, truffles, and pound cake, but there are so many other ways to enjoy these flavors, I’m driven to keep experimenting.
- butter
- brown sugar
- granulated sugar
- instant espresso
- cardamom
- eggs
- flour
- chocolate chips
- vanilla
- baking soda and salt
here’s just something about a blondie
I love those adorable Shar Pei rumples they get along the edges of the pan. They signify a super thin crust and a rich, moist interior. And how about the way the dark chocolate chips barely peek through the thin crust? No other dessert can match it, it’s sheer heaven.
tips and faqs for baking blondies
Great question. Just like with brownies, our standard methods aren’t very useful. If you stick a toothpick into a perfectly done blondie, chances are you’ll come out with a little goo. With blondies there’s a little guesswork involved, but better to under-bake than to over-bake. My advice is to stick with the recipe directions, but definitely check that your oven temperature is accurate with an inexpensive oven thermometer. It’s worth its weight in gold.
You might get different answers from different folks, but I want my blondies to be rich and dense, not at all cakey. My recipe includes a little bit of baking soda to give the batter a subtle lift, but the overall texture is moist and chewy.
Blondies freeze beautifully. Be sure to let them cool completely, then wrap in plastic, then in foil. They’ll keep for 3 months in the freezer.
Check out my other blondie recipes here. I’ve got lots to choose from!
Cardamom Coffee Dirty Blondies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 heaping Tbsp instant espresso powder
- 1 heaping Tbsp ground cardamom
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 10 oz bag bittersweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Set oven to 350F
- Cream the butter, espresso powder, cardamom and sugars together until fluffy. About 2 to 3 minutes.
- Beat the eggs in, one at a time. Then the vanilla.
- Whisk the flour, soda and salt together and then add to the eggs and butter, mixing just until combined.
- Mix in the chocolate chips.
- Spread the batter (it will be thick) into a 9×13 glass baking dish, lined with parchment (or greased).
- Bake for 30-35 minutes. Don’t over bake. They’ll be wrinkled a bit around the edges, and a little bit of squooshyness inside is a good thing.
- Cool before cutting. (or don’t)
Thanks so much for the quick response to my overbaked blondie conundrum! I “researched” the truffle idea and contemplated combining some blondie crumbs with cream cheese and then coating with chocolate but did not have the patience so wound up making some chocolate pudding with almond milk and layering with sweetened real whipped cream. Not bad if I do say so myself–Anyway, happy holidays and thanks again!
Made these today and tried to halve the recipe using an 8 X 8 inch pan and wound up overbaking big time! Flavor is GREAT though and I would love to repurpose into something yummy–Any ideas as to what I can do? I was thinking of maybe crumbling to use as a pie crust with some melted butter–and then filling with chocolate pudding or maybe some sort of pudding trifle type thing??? (I actually think a blog post on repurposing baking disasters like this wouldn’t be a bad idea….) Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have–
Oh too bad, Yael, I do that kind of thing all the time! And I like your idea of doing a blog post about it, that would be fun. As for what you can do, I think a crumb crust might work, and I’ve seen some recipes going around where you grind up cookies, or in your case, over-baked blondies, and create chocolate coated ‘truffles’.
These look fantastic. I am hesitant to put a full tbsp of instant espresso in as kids will be having a small piece. How do you think the flavor would be if I cut the amount down or left it out?
I think that would be fine, Tanya ๐