These Valentine's Bars are delicious Blondies made with M&M's. They're soft and gooey with a delicious pop of chocolate from the M&M candies. They're a fun Valentine's day treat everyone will love.
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We love some blondie bars in our house hold. Did you know blondies where actually created before brownies?
Yep, they're their predecessor. It makes sense. They're soft and gooey just like brownies, but without the cocoa.
They almost taste like thick, soft and chewy sugar cookie bars, with M&M's of course. Pink and red ones, just in time for Valentines day.
This is one of my favorite bake sale recipes and they always sell quickly. But they also make adorable gifts.
Be sure to check out some of our other Valentine day favorites like our Valentine's day rice krispie treats and our adorable yet super easy heart jam cookies.
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Why You'll Love this Recipe
- Perfect for Valentine's Day: These bars are festively themed with Valentine's colors, making them ideal for the occasion.
- Delightfully Chewy: The blondie base offers a moist, chewy texture that's irresistibly good.
- Easy to Make: Simple to prepare, these bars are great for those who want a delicious treat without too much fuss.
- Versatile: You can customize them with different types of M&M's or add-ins according to your preference.
- Crowd-Pleaser: Their sweet, satisfying taste makes them a hit at parties or as a special treat for loved ones.
Ingredients
Brown Sugar: While you could use regular granulated sugar, the brown sugar adds so much more flavor!
You can use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar. If you use dark brown sugar, your brownies will be sweeter and have more moisture. We used light brown sugar for this recipe.
Unsalted Butter: For these blondies, we'll melt the butter with the brown sugar. Melting the butter will help give the blondies a softer, chewier texture while adding a slight buttery flavor.
All purpose flour: Acts as the base for our bars.
Baking soda: A leavening agent that allows baked goods to be light and fluffy.
Salt: A pinch of salt in desserts and baked goods helps bring out the other flavors.
Eggs: Adds structure to the blondies and acts to bind the ingredients together.
Pure vanilla extract: Adds it's own flavor while enhancing the other flavors in the bars.
Pink & Red M&M's: You can put anything into your blondie bars, but we choose to keep it simple with just Valentine's day colored M&M's.
Walnuts, pecans or chocolate chips would be a delicious add in though
And you can add fun and color with any kind of candies or sprinkles.
Heart sprinkles would be a great addition for the Valentine's day treat.
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Start by preheating your oven to 375 degrees F. It's important to allow your oven to get completely hot before popping in your blondies.
This will allow it to cook evenly and will help you time the baking better.
Grab a 9x9 square pan and line it with parchment paper. This allows you to pop the bars out easier.
So less breakage of the actual bars and easier clean up!
In a medium pan over medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar together.
Be careful not to let it burn. It'll change the flavor completely.
Once it's melted together, remove the melted mixture from heat and allow to cool completely.
This step is important, as you'll be adding in your egg and you don't want cooked eggs in your blondie batter.
While your butter mixture is cooling, pull out a large mixing bowl and sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.
Once your melted butter is completely cooled to room temperature, add in the egg and vanilla extract and whisk together.
Slowly add in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring until just mixed together.
Add half of your Valentine's day M&Ms into the batter itself and then pour into your prepared baking pan.
Gently sprinkle the rest of the M&M's onto the top of the batter. This will give your blondies more color!
Then pop into the oven bake!
Hint: Using parchment paper can help prevent a lot of frustration when baking. I like to use unbleached parchment paper when I have it. It makes for easier clean up and keeps your dessert's looking better.
Substitutions
Unsalted butter: If you only have salted butter you can still use it. Just reduce the pinch of salt to ½ teaspoon.
Brown sugar: You can use granulated sugar in this recipe, but the flavor might feel a little flat. If you also have molasses on hand you can always try making your own homemade brown sugar.
Variations
Much like cookies, these bars are very versatile. You can use add ins to help coordinate with any theme.
For Valentine's Day ideas, we suggets:
- M&M's: We found some Valentines day M&M's on sale at the grocery store. But you could just pick out the red ones from a very large bag party sized bag.
- Valentines day sprinkles: There are tons of fun and interesting sprinkles available now that just scream valentines day. Looking at the choices alone are tons of fun.
- Icing the Bars: If you like, you could always ice your blondies with frosting. White frosting topped with red sprinkles or pink frosting topped with white ones! The combinations are endless.
- Other Add-ins: Of course, there are tons of wonderful add-in's that'll enhance your bars. Our favorites include nuts, candy and chocolate chips.
Top Tip
Make sure you don't overbake the blondies. Keeping an eye on the baking time is key to achieving that perfect chewy texture. Blondies should be taken out of the oven when they're just set and slightly golden on top, as they will continue to firm up as they cool. This will give you that wonderfully soft and chewy consistency that makes blondies so delicious.
Equipment
A great thing about this recipe is that it doesn't require much equipment. All you need is a sauce pan, whisk and a square baking pan.
You could use a rectangle pan, however they blondies will be much thinner and you'll have to lessen your baking time to prevent them from burning.
A wire rack is also useful for cooling the blondie bars.
Storage
These blondies never last long in our house.
You can put cut bars into an airtight container at room temperature for a few days. However, they're best eaten within 1-2 days.
A whole pan that hasn't been cut can be wrapped well in plastic wrap and will store at room temperature up to 4 days.
To Freeze: These bars freeze surprisingly well. When frozen properly they hold their texture and flavor well.
Wrap cut up squares in plastic wrap and placed into a freezer bag. They store well up to 3 months.
To defrost, remove single bars and allow to thaw at room temperature for 50 minutes.
Recipe
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Valentines M&M Blondie Bars
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups light brown sugar packed
- 1 cup of butter 2 sticks
- 2 ¼ cups of all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup Valentines day M&Ms
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Line a 9x9 square pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, melt brown sugar and butter over medium heat. Set aside and allow to cool completely.
- As the butter and sugar mixture cools, sift together flour, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Whisk eggs and vanilla into the cooled butter and sugar mixture.
- Slowly add dry ingredients into wet ingredients.
- Add half off the M&Ms into the blondie batter. Pour into lined baking pan.
- Top off with remaining M&M's.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the blondies.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes and then remove from pan. Cut into 9 squares.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
FAQs
Yes, you can customize with different M&M colors or types, like peanut or dark chocolate, or even substitute with chocolate chips.
They're done when the edges are lightly browned and the center is set. It's better to underbake slightly for chewy blondies.
Absolutely, they freeze well in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, or refrigerate for longer freshness.
Let us know what you'll be whipping up for for your Valentine's day treats!
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