Rolo Chocolate Chip Blondies From Averie Cooks

Rolo Chocolate Chip Blondies - made May 15, 2023 from Averie Cooks

1/2 stick butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

30-36 Rolo candies

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 8 x 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk together melted butter and brown sugar until combined. Add egg, vanilla extract and salt; whisk to combine. Add flour and stir together until combined.
3. Fold in chocolate chips.
4. Spread half the batter evenly over bottom of prepared pan. Line unwrapped Rolos in a 5 x 5 formation. Gently spread remaining batter over Rolos, trying to cover completely. 
5. Bake 22-27 minutes or until edges are set. Remove from oven and gently press remaining Rolos, chopped in half, over top of hot blondies. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

I'm not usually a blondie fan. In general, they seem like chocolate chip cookies in bar form and I'd rather have chocolate chip cookies in cookie form with their crisp edges and chewy middles. This Rolo version from Averie Cooks changed my mind. These were excellent and were more like a "fudgy" blondie with rolos.

The original recipe says to use 36 Rolos and line them in a 6 x 6 formation over half the batter then cover with the rest of the batter. You can see I only managed a 5 x 5 formation, partly because I only had 31 Rolos and partly because I didn't line them up very well, very closely or in a straight pattern. The great thing about this recipe though is that doesn't matter. No one's going to judge your Rolo placement on these, I promise.

Additionally, there wasn't enough batter to completely cover the Rolos and that's okay too. I probably used more than half of the batter for the bottom layer because I didn't want the Rolos to sink too easily to the bottom. Hence why I didn't have enough batter to cover the Rolos completely. Again, totally okay. This isn't a test; it's a blondie.

Rather than try to stuff the remaining 6 Rolos inside the blondie, I chose to chop them in half and, as soon as I took the pan out of the oven, sprinkled the chopped Rolos over the top of the blondie and let the residual heat melt them into the tops. 

As mentioned, these were delicious. I loved the flavor and the texture as well as the addition of the Rolos to give these an extra caramel kick. When baking with Rolos, I do recommend you cover the Rolos inside the blondie as much as possible (it's okay if the chocolate peeks through the batter as long as the caramel doesn't) and only top with the garnish after the blondies come out of the oven. Then you won't have any caramel part of the Rolos exposed during baking which would make the caramel too chewy and hard once cooled.