1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Set oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick spray. Line pan with a piece of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. Spray paper.
In a large bowl, whisk butter and sugars until smooth. Whisk in egg and vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix just until moistened (do not overmix). Fold in 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Transfer batter to prepared pan and smooth top. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips.
Bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Set pan on a wire rack, and let cool completely. Using parchment overhang, lift cake from pan and transfer to a cutting board and cut into 16 squares. Store blondies in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.
Rookie's Notes: Okay, unsalted butter. Not everyone keeps it in their fridge. It really does make baking better, but you don't have to use it. One of the reasons you use unsalted butter is to control the amount of salt in your baked good. You will notice that a recipe that calls for unsalted butter also calls for salt, sometimes in a large amount. A recipe with regular salted butter usually calls for a small amount of salt or none at all. So in this recipe, if you don't have unsalted butter, use salted, but maybe use 1/2 tsp. of salt instead of 1 tsp. Since it is such a small amount, it shouldn't matter much.
Also, you don't have to use the parchment paper. It just makes it easier when it comes time to cut them. None of the squares get sacrificed as the first one out of the pan.
