Blender tool not working well

[Oxycoedone]

Whenever I select both the offset shapes, head to Object > Blend > Make, I obtain this result which is undesired (ideally, the text/object should have black borders, without the white "part"). I've been trying to follow this tutorial (https://youtu.be/Rt15_OclsyI).

That being said, there is no 'Properties panel', it doesn't show up if I reset the workspace 'Essentials' nor does it appear in the Window list.

Is there any way to solve this?

Thanks for the help.

[Monika Gause]

The blend is not a good way to make this kind of effect (and neither is the transform effect), because both create far too many objects, which will be an issue when printing, cutting or when exporting as SVG.

There are plugins to make this (opo as well as Stylism)

And you can make it like this: https://www.vektorgarten.de/long-shadows-with-illustrator.html

[John Mensinger]

That being said, there is no 'Properties panel', it doesn't show up if I reset the workspace 'Essentials' nor does it appear in the Window list.

That sounds like you may be using a version of Illustrator from before the Properties panel was introduced. Is your installation up to date? If it is, you may need to reset preferences.