As soon as I learned that one can order malted milk ball centers without the chocolate coating, I ordered a one pound bag! This is from a nut company online. And I knew I wanted to make something that showcased them and didn’t crush, chop, burn or hide them, because really why bother having them if you don’t showcase them in a recipe? They need to be front and center.

So that is the reason why this recipe calls for taking the blondies out of the oven halfway through the baking process and topping them with the malted milk balls. Because if you mixed them into the dough before baking, it would either just be buried, or else they get burned and look more like chocolate. I wanted them to be a little toasted, but not too dark.

I’m so happy how these turned out. And you’ll be happy too! Feel free to multiply each ingredient of this recipe by 2.25 for a 9-inch square pan, or quadruple the recipe for a 12-inch square pan. The only reason I made them in a 6-inch square pan is because I find that it’s easier to freeze and store things when you make small batches. And these freeze very well!

As a kid, I was never a huge fan of whoppers, which are the chocolate covered version of malted milk balls usually sold in giant cartons by Hershey’s Chocolate company. I’m not sure why, but when I looked up the Wikipedia page for it, it describes whoppers as having an artificial “chocolatey coating”, and I think that may be the reason for my dislike. Oh well. I guess I can always experiment making different kinds of coatings for the remaining malted milk balls that I have left. Or not.

malted milk ball blondies

ingredients

1 large egg, room temperature

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 ounces salted butter, melted but cooled

3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 Tablespoons malted milk powder

1 ounces (1/2 cup) malted milk balls, without the chocolate coating

method

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray with butter or grease a 6” square pan and line with parchment paper that overhangs on two sides. Spray again and set aside.

Whisk the egg in a large bowl first, then add in the sugar and whisk again until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and the melted butter and whisk on high for about 3 minutes.

Stir together the flour with the baking powder and milk powder in a bowl, then add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir with a spatula until all the flour is wet and the batter is smooth. 

Pour into prepared pan and place in oven heated to 350 degrees.

Bake for 20-22 minutes, but remove from oven at the 10 minute mark and quickly top with the malted milk balls, pressing each one down into the batter just slightly with the back of a spoon or small offset spatula. Place back into the oven immediately to finish baking for 10-12 minutes more.

Remove from oven when the middle of the top surface no longer looks raw and malted milk balls look slightly browned. Cool in the pan on a wire rack, then place in a refrigerator or freezer to until cold to get clean edges when cutting into squares. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.