Birthday Blondies
- jennbitesbakingblo
- Jan 20
- 2 min read
I bake monthly for an event called "The Birthday Meeting," every month, someone asks me if I made my 'birthday blondies.' Thus, the name of the recipe. I don't like most blondie recipes, especially the birthday cake-themed ones, because they're often overly sweet. I like this recipe because of that and it doesn't use many eggs. We're in the midst of an egg crisis as I write this (a recall due to avian flu). I think this is the fourth or fifth egg recall in the past two years, so I've become increasingly aware of how many eggs my recipes use. There's a weird substitute my mom used to use in a glass jar with a green lid and I think it was figs? I'll have to call her and ask.
Anyways, this recipe is done best in an 8"x11" pan with rounded corners, such as a glass pan. Keep in mind a glass pan will take longer to bake than if done in a metal pan, and that dark will cook faster than light metal. If you can replace your dark metal cookie sheets and pans with lighter-colored metal, do so. If you can't, that's fine, but then use the middle rack only and check it frequently. If a recipe says 18 minutes, set a timer to check it at 16 minutes.
Feel free to comment egg replacements below and your experience with them. I've used applesauce to replace an egg but I've found it cannot replace multiple eggs well, for example. I haven't tried it with this recipe so if you do, please let me know how it went!
Below are some swaps and substitutions that can be made in this recipe:
Unsalted Butter – If you only have salted butter on hand, you can use it instead of unsalted butter in this recipe. Just be sure to omit the salt the recipe calls for. You can also use vegan butter in its place. Be careful of using European butters because they will flavor your end result.
Brown Sugar – Brown sugar is crucial here! It's what gives the bars their caramel-y flavor. Dark is best, but light will work just fine. If you use granulated sugar, you will get more of a sugar cookie bar, which is excellent, too, but I prefer the caramelization.
Egg – If you don’t have an egg on hand or can’t eat eggs, you can try using applesauce but I haven't tried that yet.
All-Purpose Flour – This recipe turns out best with AP flour, but you can use a cup-for-cup gluten free flour blend in its place if needed.
Sprinkles - You must use jimmies (the longish bar-shaped sprinkles) and not nonpareils (tiny sphere-shaped sprinkles) because the latter will dissolve in the batter and turn it strange colors. Jimmies will keep their shape but if you add them too early to the batter you risk dissolving them.
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