Sourdough Blondies
Sourdough Blondies! The perfect gooey blondie with a crackly crust is made even better with a dash of sourdough discard. These blondies have amazing butterscotch flavor.
These blondies are nice and rich, but with a surprisingly light crumb thanks to a little lift from the natural yeast in the sourdough starter.
But wait, there’s more…
The discard also enhances the flavor of the blondie. There’s a slight background tang that is the perfect counterpart to the sweet butterscotch flavor. It’s so, so good.
If you don’t have one, check out my post to learn How to Make a Sourdough Starter. Then check out my system to Feed and Maintain Sourdough Starter or How to Keep a Small Starter.
Scroll through the step by step photos to see how to make Sourdough Blondies:
Tips for making and storing Sourdough Blondies:
- The recipe can be halved and baked in an 8″ or 9″ square pan.
- Unfed sourdough starter will add a tangy flavor to the batter. I got great results with a starter that had been in the refrigerator, unfed, for about a week.
- Butter the pan and line with parchment paper. This not only prevents sticking, it makes it much easier to lift the blondies out of the pan.
- Stirring the batter vigorously after adding the eggs will incorporate air into the batter. As the blondies bake the bubbles rise to the surface and help form the crust. If you prefer a soft top on your blondies, you can skip that step.
- Cool the blondies in the pan then use the parchment to transfer them to a cutting board.
- To appreciate the subtle tangy flavor, I prefer to serve these spectacular blondies without any frosting
- The blondies will keep at room temperature for several days.
- Leftover blondies can be frozen. Layer them with parchment paper or plastic wrap to prevent them from sticking together. They’re delicious straight from the freezer or defrosted.
You might also like these other Blondie recipes, Classic Blondies, Butterscotch Ripple Blondies and Malted Milk Blondies.
For you chocoholics I’ve got lots of recipes for the blondies’ cousin: Fudgy Brownies, Sourdough Brownies, Habanero Brownies, Chocolate Cherry Brownies, Malted Milk Brownies, Roasted Beet Brownies, and White Chocolate Raspberry Brownies.
I know you hate to throw away that sourdough discard. Check out these recipes that use sourdough discard.
You might also want to try Sourdough Shortbread or Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies made with sourdough powder.
If you love this recipe as much as I do, I’d really appreciate a 5-star review.
Sourdough Blondies
Ingredients
- 12 oz unsalted butter (melted)
- 24 oz brown sugar (3 cups)
- 4 large eggs
- 1 ½ tablespoons vanilla extract
- 8 oz sourdough discard (1 cup)
- 12 ½ oz all purpose flour (2 ½ cups)
- ½ teaspoon table salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 °F. Butter a 13" x 9" baking pan and line with parchment paper. You can just butter the pan but the parchment makes it much easier to remove the blondies from the pan.
- In a large bowl, combine 12 oz unsalted butter and 24 oz brown sugar. Add4 large eggs and 1 ½ tablespoons vanilla extract, stir until combined then vigorously stir for 30 seconds. Fold in 8 oz sourdough discard. Stir in 12 ½ oz all purpose flour and ½ teaspoon table salt. Spread the batter into the pan.
- Bake until the center springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with wet crumbs, about 30 minutes.
- Cool to room temperature before removing from the pan and cutting into 24 pieces.
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I just made these and they turned out amazing! So happy to have a new recipe to use for my sourdough discard!
Thank you! 🙂
Can i use dry active yeast to substitute the sourdough? And what is the instructions?
No need for yeast. The starter is there for flavor, mostly. You can make blondies without the starter.
Made these tonight with my discard! Love love love! Will definitely make these again. I used vanilla sea salt for the salt and it was fab. Thanks for the discard recipes! Hate throwing away.
I love this recipe! I’ve made it a couple times now, and the flavor is always perfect! It has a not-too-sweet, slightly tangy flavor. The only thing is I can never get the baking time right. 30 minutes and it is still very raw.. I like mine gooey, but not liquidy :). I think somewhere between the 40-45 min bake time it usually turns out good for me. This last batch I baked for about 43 minutes and I almost whished I would have taken it out a little sooner to get it a little more gooey. The edges cook much faster than the middle, so just be aware of that. Overall, LOVE the flavor!! Thank you for the recipe!!
Glad you like the recipe Amanda. I love the way the tangy sourdough discard heightens the flavor of the blondie. The baking time will vary based on your real oven temp (mine often runs a little hot), the temp of the batter and the color and material of your baking pan.
Hi, I was wondering if I decrease the sugar content, will it totally change the texture of the blondies?
Yes. Depending how much you reduce the sugar it will change the texture. You’d have to gradually decrease to see how low you can go before you don’t like the result.
@Eileen Gray, thank you!!
My second batch is now in the oven. The first batch, from a few weeks ago was incredibly nice. This time I am approaching it from a ‘lockdown’ perspective, and have used coconut cream (leftover from making curry) instead of butter; it smells amazing, even before going into the oven 🙂
I just whipped up a batch of these to use my first sourdough discard. My family loves them (and they’re VERY hard to please.) The blondies were right in the sweet spot between being not sweet enough for my daughter or too sweet for my husband.
They turned out less dense than I expected and the lightness was greatly appreciated.
It’s nice to know that I can make a pan of these anytime I have too much sourdough to deal with.
Oh, and I halved the recipe!
I also had this problem. They never got done. My discard was from a week ago and should have worked. The toothpick test came out clean. But they are basically raw. I baked them for 38 minutes to get to that point. I let them cool, cut into them, and found them to be oozing. So I put them back in for another 15 but it didn’t help. What are we missing here?
Hi,
Thanks for sharing this recipe. Unlike one of your followers, mine turned out very gooey. Thought I was at the 30 minute mark, and did the toothpick as recommended. Oh well.
Thanks for the vigorous egg to crust tip. Been waiting for that trick my entire baking life!
I will make this again.
So how many times do we add the vanilla?
It’s been fixed.
Hi! I made these last night. The flavor is good but they turned out cakey. That’s not how I thought the consistency would be. Any tips?
I usually think of “cakey” blondies as having a drier crumb, like a cake. Is that what you got or was the crumb buttery? If your starter was still quite active you might get a lighter crumb but they should still be quite rich.