Gluten-Free Blondies with White Chocolate & Pecans

These are a gluten-free blondie recipe which you will truly love. Don't you think sometimes blondies can be a little disappointing? By their nature blondies are rich with butterscotch flavour but this can sometimes translate to a sickly sweet treat. Not so here, if you follow these ingredients then you'll achieve a good balance of sweetness with the same caramel like flavour without the tooth aching sweetness. They charm with vanilla, cheeky white chocolate and are deliciously nutty thanks to a scattering of chopped pecans.

I've got many tips on why these will become your best ever gluten-free blondies including adding a pinch of coffee powder, browning your butter and making sure you use a balanced blend of gluten-free flours.

By blending the flours yourself and steering away from gluten-free all-purpose flour you will achieve blondies which have a perfect fudgy, chewy texture which are moist and hold together well. Plus by mixing your own flours you won't need any xanthan gum. And don't worry if buying separate gluten-free flours seems overwhelming, I'll give you substitutions so you feel comfortable and confident with the ingredients.

Why This Gluten-Free Blondies Recipe Works

Browned Butter. Blondies need melted butter anyway to ensure their delightfully soft chewy texture so why not take it one step further. All you need to do is melt your butter a little longer than needed so that toasty nutty flavour develops. Your finished butterscotch blondies will thank you for it.

Coffee Powder. If you are put off blondies due to their overly sweet nature then you'll love the presence of a gentle hint of coffee powder. It seems to absorb the trappings of the sickly sweet blondie and balance it out, creating the most intense gluten-free butterscotch blondies without a sugar hangover.

Two Different Types of Sugar. It’s also necessary to use two different types of sugar here. It sounds a little bit of a faff but I do it in a lot of my recipes and it’s worth it. Brown sugar is used for flavour and moisture and white sugar is used to give body and a firmer texture.

Gluten-Free Flour Blend. You'll avoid any grainy, dry, crumbly blondies simply by mixing your own flours so you can ensure the balance is suitable for this recipe. You are not relying on a specific brand which you may or may not have access to.

White Chocolate Chips and Pecans. The perfect flavour combination.

Ingredients

Gluten-Free Flours

I do not recommend swapping the flours below for a shop bought all-purpose gluten-free flour as you won't get the same result. You can swap for my Homemade Flour Blend or you can substitute the individual flours as recommended below.

Oat flour. If we’re looking for that butterscotch taste then this is the only contender. If you can’t tolerate oats then never fear, you can substitute with sorghum flour. However, if you can tolerate oats then go with them as their flavour was made for these blondies. You can substitute for buckwheat flour or sorghum flour.

Sweet rice flour. The gentle flavour works well here. But we also need it for its starchy qualities, to help the blondie stick together and promote the chew factor. You can substitute for cassava flour.

Potato starch. Included here to balance out the two flours and give good structure. You can substitute for tapioca flour.

Other Ingredients

Unsalted Butter. We need unsalted so we can control the salt content of the recipe. Make sure it is at room temperature.

Light muscovado is used for its gentle molasses taste. We’re trying to evoke butterscotch tasting blondies here and light muscovado is the perfect choice. It also gives extra moisture to the bake so we’re leaning into the fudgey chew that we like so much. However, too much and we’ll have a sloppy blondie at the end of the day. You can substitute for light brown sugar.

Caster sugar gives a little bit more body to the blondie and a firmer texture.

Eggs. This recipe uses medium size, about 60g each with shell (50g each without shell). These are often classified as large eggs in the US. I recommend weighing your eggs to ensure the correct amount.

Vanilla extract. Use a good quality extract, I like Nielsen Massey.

Baking powder. A leaving agent which causes the cake to rise and become light and fluffy. Do check your baking powder is gluten-free before use.

Coffee powder. If you use espresso powder then you can use it straight into your batter without having to dissolve in liquid first.

Salt. I like to use kosher salt in my baking as it has a round gentle flavour. Using salt in your baked goods lifts and sharpens all the other flavours.

White chocolate. I recommend using a whole bar of white chocolate hand chopped into shards, some big some, small pieces. It’s a preferred choice rather than chocolate chips as some of the shards may melt into the batter during the bake which just tastes really good. We also keep some bigger shards for texture. Use a good quality white chocolate bar like Green and Blacks is excellent too and you can chop into small chocolate chips.

Pecans. A few chopped nuts in the mix work so well for taste and texture too and pecans are my preferred choice. Use a freshly opened bag so you know they are not rancid. You could also use hazelnuts or almonds.

​Recipe Variations

Add-ins. You can swap out the white chocolate and pecans for your favourite add-ins. Why not try:

• Peanut butter chips
• Butterscotch chips
• Dark chocolate chips