Blondies With a Strawberry-Balsamic Swirl

Recipe from Irvin Lin

Adapted by Melissa Clark

Blondies With a Strawberry-Balsamic Swirl — Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Total Time: 1½ hours
Rating: 4(292)
Notes: Read community notes

Most blond brownie recipes rely on copious amounts of brown sugar for flavor, without calling for any chocolate. These, from "Marbled, Swirled and Layered" by Irvin Lin, are an excellent exception. Using white chocolate that has been roasted and caramelized, they have a rich, buttery character with a peppery undertone from a bit of extra-virgin olive oil whisked into the batter. A swirl of homemade balsamic strawberry compote gives them a vein of jammy fruit amid all the sweet, gooey cake. Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, they keep for up to 3 days. —Melissa Clark

Featured in: The Year’s Best Baking Cookbooks

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Ingredients

Yield:24 blondies

For the Batter

1⅔cups/285 grams white chocolate, in ¼-inch chunks
¾cup/170 grams (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, more for pan
¾cup/150 grams granulated sugar
¾cup/165 grams packed dark brown sugar
2teaspoons vanilla extract
¾teaspoon kosher salt
3large eggs
½cup/120 milliliters extra-virgin olive oil
2¼cups/315 grams all-purpose flour

For the Swirl

1cup/160 grams cubed strawberries (½-inch chunks)
1tablespoon/12 grams granulated sugar
1teaspoon cornstarch
2teaspoons balsamic vinegar

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

Step 1
Roast white chocolate: Heat oven to 300 degrees. Spread white chocolate on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and stir with a spatula until browned chocolate at edges is evenly mixed with uncooked chocolate in center. Once stirred, chocolate should be the color of dark peanut butter. If it isn’t, continue to bake in 5-minute increments to darken. Watch closely: White chocolate can easily burn. Let cool.
Step 2
Make blondie batter: Lightly coat a 9x13-inch metal baking pan with butter. Line it with parchment paper so there is a 2-inch overhang on the pan's long sides. Place a clean, empty baking sheet in the oven, and increase the temperature to 350 degrees.
Step 3
Place butter and both sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat together on medium speed until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla and salt and beat to incorporate. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition to incorporate completely and scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add oil and beat. Scrape roasted white chocolate into bowl (it may have hardened and gotten a little grainy: This is O.K.) and mix it in. Add flour and mix on low speed until absorbed. Scrape batter into the prepared pan.
Step 4
Make strawberry-balsamic swirl: Place strawberries and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon and smashing the berries, until they release their juices and fall apart, 10 to 12 minutes. Separately, stir cornstarch and a tablespoon of water and drizzle it onto strawberries, continuing to stir for a minute or two until mixture has thickened into jam. Continue cooking for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from heat. Stir in balsamic vinegar. Drop generous tablespoons of strawberry mixture over batter and use a butter knife to swirl them together, but don’t overmix.
Step 5
Place pan on baking sheet in oven. Bake until blondies are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes. They will firm up as they cool, so pull them out 2 or 3 minutes before your desired consistency. Place pan on a wire rack and, once room temperature, remove blondies from pan by pulling on parchment paper. Transfer to a cutting board, cut into squares, and serve.

Ratings

4 out of 5

292 user ratings

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Sam6 years ago

I was excited for these, but they fell flat, and I agree with other reviewers:

*These are greasy. There is no need for olive oil, which came through very strong and took away from the white chocolate and jam. Subbing the melted other half of the butter stick of next time for OO.
*The jam is absolutely fantastic, and I'll be saving that recipe for sure!
*I used 1/4 cup less white sugar and it still came out sweet enough.

Sam6 years ago

When roasting the white chocolate, be careful. The bottom of the chocolate will be much browner than the top, so frequently stir. By the time my edges were a very light brown (~18 min), the bottom was quite brown and no longer smooth. It was pretty grainy and there were crunchy bits in the batter as a result.

Stir your chocolate every 5 minutes, even if it doesn't appear brown, to make sure this doesn't happen to you. The flavor is delicious--it's worth this step.

rebelchanteuse6 years ago

Wow, these are delicious! They definitely took longer than 35 minutes to cook, but were worth the wait. I used a good, aged balsamic, but plan to use an everyday (and more tart) balsamic the next time I make these to offset the sweetness. I'll also make them a day in advance, as they firmed up overnight (but the texture was still nice and fudgy).

Laura6 years ago

Omit olive oil, 2 Big bars of white chocolate ghirardelli from baking section. 3 heaping tsps of vinegar. Extra strawberries. Roast chocolate at 350.

RM606575 years ago

Totally agree that the oil is overkill. I halved it and didn’t supplement with anything and the texture was great. Also used white chocolate chips which roasted up nicely. Was sort of nervous about that process but they provided a really great flavor.

Angela Caruso6 years ago

Once I cut a small corner out to see what was going on with these not firming up, mine formed a pool of oil at the bottom, which it soaked right back up as soon as it started cooling. Don't think I can salvage this - going to have to throw it out. Disappointing.

Susan Yardley6 years ago

This was horrible. Just greasy. I am a baker and followed this recipe to the letter. Will definitely not make this again.

Claire6 years ago

These turned out rather nicely, after 35 minutes in the oven (for a fudgy texture, which I prefer). I would double the strawberry-balsamic jam recipe, and cut back on the white sugar a bit.

AnActualPastryChef3 years ago

I’m going to be brutally honest here - because I don’t want anyone to make the same mistake that I did. I did a double take when I realized this called for a second addition of fat (olive oil). When I make a recipe for the first time, I make it as prescribed to make sure I fairly understand what I would change the 2nd time. TL/DR:I do not understand why there is olive oil in this recipe. It is completely unnecessary, a waste of an expensive ingredient, and negatively affects the final product.

The Tortoise6 years ago

These were fine, but overall, I'm not sure why you would want these when you could have chocolate brownies. Maybe people just need a break from chocolate. However, they were well-received at work.

The recipe doesn't specify, but I used "good" white chocolate that contains cocoa butter. I assume this is what was intended, but purists assert this is not chocolate. The white chips you might buy in the chocolate-chip section of the grocery are not even not-chocolate.

Maine Deb2 months ago

Delicious as written. Make a day ahead. And also they keep well in the freezer for a month. Bring to room temp before serving.

Maureen6 months ago

Family had one word about this : wow!!! Like other reviewers I felt concerned about the olive oil from the get-go. I mean why not combine the oil with the butter and sugar, as would be done with a kosher apple cake? So that’s what I did. And reduced to 1/4 cup because the proportions aren’t appropriate for typical chewy bar cookies. Added a little baking soda. Very very happy with the results!

maggie10 months ago

Omitted olive oil and turned out great

Ally10 months ago

Followed other suggestions to sub EVOO for butter, cut down on sugar, and make double the amount of strawberry balsamic jam. Rich and delicious. I used 1/2 cup of granulated sugar instead of 3/4 cup, and it could do with even less sugar because of the white chocolate (another person suggested cutting both sugars in half, I’ll try that next time).

Desertstyle1 year ago

So thanks to some of the commentators here, I made these adjustments and they came out perfect: -Doubled the quantity of the jam -Halved the white and brown sugars (interestingly, the bake time turned out to be the same in my oven) -Omitted the olive oil They were a hit! Yum!

eliza3831 year ago

Husband says they are cobbler-like, but I mostly find them complex, forgivably greasy, and pretty rich. Not a straight up blondie but better - less cloying, even though plenty sweet. I dirtied a lot of dishes, but nothing was complicated. Good recipe for when you want elevated blondies - not sure what situation that might be, but very good.

virginia2 years ago

Ugh. Should have red the reviews first. Wayyy too oily and a bit too sweet. I’ll make it again without the extra oil. Flavors were good.

Jodie2 years ago

I really enjoyed these! Following other comments, I left out the olive oil. I thought they were really delicious, especially when served warm.

Jackson2 years ago

This was awful!!! The chocolate completely hardened and could not be mixed into the batter. I will definitely not try this again!

AnActualPastryChef3 years ago

Sydney H.3 years ago

These are almost perfect! Toasting the white chocolate is brilliant- I’ll never use white choc any other way. They needed more like 40 minutes in the oven, and are still very fudgy. I would personally double the strawberry balsamic jam for the recipe because it is absolutely delicious. Served with unsweetened lightly whipped cream, these are an amazing and pleasantly uncommon dessert.

Alexandra4 years ago

So just tried these - riffed a bit here and there but these are sweet! My fiancé will probably love bc he loves dessert but this is certainly for a sweet tooth. So things I did and didn’t do- Totally left out the white Choco - I hate white chocolate and just added dark chocolate chips and a chocolate drizzle at the end Added way less sugar to the strawberries - go light!!! and used corn flour instead of starch (all I had) - used 1/4 of evoo and didn’t sub any other liquid!

TK4 years ago

Great flavors but incredibly greasy

Ashley4 years ago

This was an excellent dessert for my Super Bowl party. I followed the advice of some commenters bu cutting both sugars by half a cup and it was perfect. I also subbed oil for melted butter and it didn’t come out greasy at all. I loved the jam, so I think next time I make it I’ll double that part of the recipe. 10/10

Donna4 years ago

I had to cook MUCH longer than the 35 minutes Melissa called for. I finally removed them from the oven and cut them in squares, and removed all the ones on the outer edges, and put the rest back in the oven. That way the ones on the edge wouldn’t get too dark. It ended up taking a total of 55 minutes to get the squares in the middle to the proper doneness.

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