If you don’t have a sweet tooth, this is the dessert for you. Doenjang, a Korean fermented soybean paste — similar to Japanese miso — infuses this dough with intensely savory, nutty undertones, and then brown butter takes it home. There’s an intensely fudgy, just-barely-cooked center and deep golden-brown, crisp edges that will make people fight for the corner pieces. A little flaky sea salt in the last five minutes of cooking makes it lean slightly savory — my ideal level of sweet for any dessert.
These blondies were inspired by two of my mom’s recipes: the cookie bars she adapted from the back of the Toll House chocolate chip bag and her butterscotch blondies (made with lots of brown sugar and butter — but no actual butterscotch). I added a few modern twists and Korean flair to represent my Korean American adoptee identity and the cultures that curated my taste buds.
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