These Gooey Slow Cooker Caramel Blondies are soft, rich blondies that are slow cooked, creating a gooey caramel sauce for a killer dessert with minimal effort.
Well, one thing is for certain – you all love slow cooker recipes. I was slow to convert to a slow cooker lover, but sometime in the last few years, I have really learned to love and utilize my slow cooker on a regular basis. I pull it out several times a month (it often becomes my go-to on Sundays when I feel like it’s hard to find the time to make dinner).
So it’s only natural that I’d want to snatch up every slow cooker cookbook that I come across. I’m always needing new inspiration, and I’m sure to get it from a cookbook dedicated to those slow cooked meals!
Today’s cookbook review – Easy Everyday Slow Cooker Recipes by Donna-Marie Pye – is filled with 200 slow cooker recipes. I have looked through and own my fair share of cookbooks, but what I really love about this book is its versatility. You get the regular suspects – soups, stews, chilis, plus plenty of main dish recipes using chicken, beef, pork, lamb and veal. But on top of that, there are also chapters on big-batch dinners for a crowd, cooking for two, plus double-duty dinners. There are slow cooker recipes for every occasion in this book!! And don’t forget about the desserts. I’ll talk more about that below, but I love that there is a good sized dessert chapter.
Here are the details:
Number of Photos: many. There isn’t a photo of every dish, but with 200 recipes in the book, there are over 80 photographs. I think they give a good representation of the recipes as well.
Difficulty Level of Recipes: easy. The word “easy” is in the title of the book, and luckily, the recipes deliver. There is a good mix of recipes that are dump and cook and recipes that require a little bit more prep.
Availability of Ingredients: easy. Most of the ingredients should be readily available at any grocery store. Things like veal and lamb aren’t always easy for me to find, but for the most part, you should be able to find all of the ingredients easily.
Other recipes I want to make:
Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup
Greek Chicken Chili
Chicken and Pepperoni Bake
Turkey, Bacon and Avocado Wraps
Philly Cheese and Beef Casserole
Snickerdoodle Cheesecake
Buy Easy Everyday Slow Cooker Recipes on Amazon.
My first thought was to do a main dish from this cookbook, but I am seriously lacking in the slow cooker dessert selection. Plus, the recipe for these caramel blondies kept jumping out at me.
I almost hesitated to call these blondies, because the texture didn’t really make me say blondie. Because they are “baked” in the slow cooker, they have more of a steamed texture than a typical blondie texture. But they do have that brown sugar, caramel flavor of blondies, so even though they have more of a pudding cake texture, I let the blondie title stick. 🙂
This recipe calls for a 4 to 5 quart slow cooker, and I have a smaller slow cooker and a larger slow cooker. So I ended up doing 1 1/2 times the recipe and used my larger cooker. It all worked out perfectly.
These caramel blondies cook up with a sweet caramel “sauce” that forms in the bottom of the slow cooker – and you don’t want to leave that behind when you serve the dessert. I drizzled some of the caramel over the top of the blondies, and that sauce was probably my favorite part of the dessert. And the ice cream on top is optional, but I highly recommend serving this dessert warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I actually liked this way more than I even expected, so it was a total win for me!! It is one of those humble desserts that may not look like anything special, but I think you’ll be hooked after one bite!!
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Gooey Slow Cooker Caramel Blondies
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup packed brown sugar divided
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup milk
- 12 soft square caramels about 3.5 oz, wrappers removed and cut into fourths
- 1 cup boiling water
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
- In another bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together 1/2 cup of the brown sugar and the butter until creamy. Stir in vanilla. Stir in 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/3 of the milk. Continue adding the flour and milk, making another 2 additions of each and beating well after each addition. Stir in the caramels. Spread the batter evenly into the bottom of a 4- to 5-quart slow cooker.
- Combine the remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar and the boiling water and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Pour evenly over the batter.
- Cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in the blondie comes out clean. Serve topped with ice cream, if desired.
Recipe Notes:
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I received this book from the publisher for this review, but all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item from Amazon from the link Taste and Tell receives a small commission. Thank you for supporting Taste and Tell through your purchases!
Tracey S says
The flavour was delicious but my caramel sauce didn’t thicken, was still watery. Any idea why??
Raechel says
What do you think about using homemade salted caramel sauce? it’s pretty thick. I’m going to try it on Friday…
Kellie says
Can I use a caramel jar instead of wrappers? How many oz do I use?
Thanks,
Kellie
Deborah says
I haven’t tried, but I wouldn’t think so because the jarred caramel sauce is thinner than the candies. It might work but they would end up a different consistency completely.
Caitlin says
I typically use slow cooker liners to help with cleanup and a quick turn around to use my crock again, would you recommend not doing that with this recipe for fear of sticking to the liner bag?
Deborah says
I have only used liners a couple of times before so I’m not super sure on how much will stick to them. I would think that if you sprayed the liner with nonstick cooking spray then it should work. But I haven’t tried so I couldn’t say for sure.
Ilona says
I used my slow cooker for baking for the first time – but not last 🙂 Blondies are great and very simple. Looking forward to finding some new sweet slow cooker recipes 🙂
Linda H says
Hi – never received a reply to my question – is this the larger recipe for a 6 qt crock pot or the original? Do I need to multiply the ingredients by half?
thanks
Deborah says
The recipe as written is for a 4-5 quart slow cooker. If you have a 4-5 quart cooker, you can follow the directions as written.
Stephanie says
I am thinking that since the end results of the cake-like “blondie” layer doesn’t need to rise very much, I might substitute a gluten-free flour blend for the all-purpose flour. All of the rest of the ingredients are more in-line with a gluten free recipe so this substitution just might be awesome for us GF folks too!
Carrie|Carrie's Experimental Kitchen says
I’ve never tried baking in my slow cooker, but this looks delicious and so easy. Thanks for sharing.
kylie says
do you put a tea towel under the lid?
Deborah says
I didn’t – just cooked it normally.
Chels R. says
Oh, you know how I love a good Blondie! This looks amazing!
Kathleen @ Yummy Crumble says
Yeah…this looks incredible! I’ve only made one slow cooker dessert and it was a hit. I need to try this!
Jerrelle | Chocolate For Basil says
I’ve only tried butter cake once in my life, and fell so deep in love I knew it was a dangerous relationship. Best thing since sticky toffee pudding!
June Burns says
Hmmm that is one interesting dessert! They do look very gooey, that’s just the way to go 🙂