Butterscotch Blondies

Does anybody go to Ruby Tuesday anymore? Or is that passé? Cuz back in the day, RT served the BEST blondie sundae. When I was a kid, sometimes my family would go to the $1.50 cinema and then have dinner at Ruby Tuesday or the looooong-defunct Peppermill. I'm nearly certain $1.50 cinemas are now things of legend (correct me if I'm out of touch), but I know that Ruby Tuesday is alive and well. And since Ruby's was my introduction to the concept of a "blonde" brownie (or more accurately, a cookie bar), I feel like I owe it a shout out. 

Yesterday evening, we were headed to a friend's house for drinks and I was asked to "bake something." But really, pre-drinks, all I wanted to do was sit around and watch my recording of the Project Runway Season 10 premiere. Have no fear(!), these blondies are quickies when it comes to prep time, so I had time for both baking and the runway. Literally, if you have the ingredients, the prep time is 15 minutes, 10 if you put your mind to it. And they are SO. SO. YUMMY. 

I baked these blondies for 23 minutes and that was just barely long enough. I like my cookie products on the underdone side, but these probably could have used another minute or two. Bake to your liking. Also feel free to use any combination of chips/nuts that you like to have in your cookies (stick to a total of around 1 or 1-1/4 cups of add-ins). This recipe is pretty much a blank canvas for whatever you want to put in your blonde cookie bars. And it's such a great go-to when you're short on time. Or if you can't make it to Ruby Tuesday for your blondie fix.

Butterscotch Blondies
makes 15 bars (9"x13" pan)


1.5 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 cups light brown sugar 
1 stick + 3 tbsp unsalted butter,melted and cooled 
2 eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift or whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Stir together brown sugar and butter. (Make sure butter is not hot - you don't want to add eggs to a hot mix.) Stir eggs and vanilla into butter/sugar mix.


Stir dry mix into wet mix, just enough make sure all flour is incorporated. Fold in butterscotch chips and white chocolate chips.


Spread dough into an ungreased 9"x13" pan. Bake at 350 for 23-26 minutes. Enjoy warm or add vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce for a Ruby Tuesday throwback!