These dense and gooey pumpkin spice blondies are topped with an ethereal smear of cream cheese frosting and dusted with fresh nutmeg. A celebratory "welcome back!" for the return of my favorite season. 🍂
As summer starts to dwindle and the night air lightly crisps around the edges, my culinary desires transition from dewy, barely-there meals to dishes with deeply rooted flavors, vibrant colors, and weighty textures. And these pumpkin spice blondies? Satisfying on all three counts.
Where other pumpkin blondie recipes call for just a hint of pumpkin spice, I fully load mine with the stuff, AND incorporate other rich flavors like brown butter, dark brown sugar, and fresh nutmeg. (Side note: when you make a batch of browned butter, the aroma it bathes your home in will have everyone from your partner to your pets coming in to gaze at you like you're a god.)
Color-wise, despite their sallow-sounding name, there's nothing "blonde" about these pumpkin pie spice blondies. Their saturated orange coloring just oozes an autumnal richness that makes me want to dive into a leafy pile of firecracker red and burnt auburn.
And texturally speaking, we're going for dense and gooey all the way. By not creaming the butter and sugar like we would for other sweet treats like Peanut Butter S'mores Cookies, we prevent excess air from whipping into the batter, which will result in more dense, chewy pumpkin blondies.
Making a batch of these blondies is, to me, like putting on that favorite sweater for the first time after the hot and sticky summer has relented. A little bit like coming home. Like finally landing somewhere you know you're meant to be.
If that feels like you too, welcome home 🧡
ingredients for pumpkin spice blondies
ingredients for cream cheese frosting
ingredient notes & swaps
- In addition to adding great flavor, using brown sugar is part of what helps make your pumpkin blondies moist and chewy as opposed to dry and cakey. I recommend using dark brown sugar, which has the highest molasses content as compared to light brown sugar.
- Canned pumpkin puree tends to have a smoother, more cohesive texture and lower water content as compared to homemade puree. If you would prefer to use homemade, make sure it is blended very well and let it drain in a fine mesh strainer before mixing into your blondie batter.
- Pumpkin pie spice is typically a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. I use it often enough that I have a bottle from the store (the Trader Joe's version as seen above has a few additional spices in the mix), but if you have all the main components, by all means mix them up to make your own! A good basic ratio is: 4 parts cinnamon, 2 parts ginger, 2 parts nutmeg, 1 part allspice, and 1 part cloves.
pumpkin spice blondies with cream cheese frosting
These dense and gooey pumpkin spice blondies are topped with an ethereal smear of cream cheese frosting and dusted with fresh nutmeg. A celebratory "welcome back!" for the return of my favorite season. 🍂
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 9 large blondies 1x
Ingredients
For the blondies:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
- 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups pumpkin puree
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ½ tsp salt
For the frosting:
- ¼ cup (half stick) butter, at room temperature
- ¼ cup cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon water
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup powdered sugar, sifted
- Whole nutmeg (or use additional pumpkin spice)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350℉ and line a 9-inch square pan with parchment paper. Allow some overhang on the parchment; this will make it easier to remove your blondies later.
- Heat the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat until melted. Continue cooking it, swirling occasionally, for about 10-15 minutes until it takes on a golden coloring and rich, nutty smell. The butter will make a fun crackling sound as it cooks, and once it starts to brown just a wee bit, it will happen quickly from there so be sure to keep a close eye! I usually start my butter on medium low and then finish it over medium heat to achieve a nice level of browning. The heat level and cook time will vary depending on your stovetop and what type of pot you are using.
- Remove your browned butter from the heat, pour into a pyrex or heatproof bowl, and let it cool for about 5 minutes before sticking it in the fridge to continue cooling for another 10 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the cooled browned butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and pumpkin puree together until smooth. You can do this with either a whisk or an electric mixer.
- Add the all-purpose flour, baking powder, pumpkin spice, and salt.
- Stir by hand, taking care not to over-mix. A few lumps in the batter are ok!
- Spoon the batter into your parchment paper lined pan. This batter is thick and sticky so use a rubber spatula to evenly distribute the batter and smooth the top as best you can.
- Transfer to the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.
- Allow the blondies to cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then use the parchment paper to lift them out of the pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Slice your blondies into squares as desired, then allow them to keep cooling as long as they need. It's important they come all the way to room temperature before adding frosting!
- In a mixing bowl, combine the butter, cream cheese, water, and vanilla extract. Sift in the powdered sugar.
- Use an electric mixer to whip the frosting just until it comes together.
- Smear each pumpkin spice blondie with frosting as desired, then grate a little fresh nutmeg over the top or dust with a pinch of pumpkin spice if you want!
Notes
- If you want your blondies to come out a bit thinner, you could try baking them in a larger pan such as a 10-inch square. You may need to reduce the baking time, so start checking them for doneness at 30 minutes using a toothpick or cake tester.
- When browning butter, it helps to do this in a lighter colored pan such as stainless steel or one with a ceramic coating if you have one (I don't, sadly!). The lighter color makes it easier to see the color of the butter as it deepens.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cooling Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Category: desserts
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: american
FAQs
What's the difference between a blondie and a brownie?
Brownies contain chocolate, whereas blondies specifically omit chocolate. As ya girl is not much of a chocolate lover, these are my kind of treat!
It's also worth noting that the chocolate content is largely responsible for giving brownies their fudgy, chewy texture. Achieving a similar texture sans cocoa is a little tricker, but we are able to get there by using moisture rich brown sugar, an abbreviated amount of baking powder, and lots of melted butter.
Need some more pumpkin-y goodness? 🎃 Try my Roasted Cauliflower and Pumpkin soup!
dig in!
Enjoy & let me know what you think 🌙 💛
