Strawberry White Chocolate Blondies Recipe

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Brownies are one of the most well-known and popular desserts out there, beloved for their fudgy flavor and chewy texture. Not as many people are familiar with brownies' chocolate-free cousin, the equally luxurious blond brownie, AKA blondie. Of course, blondies aren't just brownies without the cocoa powder or melted chocolate. They're dessert bars in their own right, but they do have that distinctly chewy texture, similar to brownies, which makes them just as irresistible.

There are countless ways to customize blondies or to jazz them up, and this strawberry white chocolate blondies recipe takes a perfectly summery approach. It can be tricky to incorporate fresh fruit into a baked good, but we take extra precautions in this recipe to dry the strawberries well, resulting in a positively delicious blondie addition that adds just the right pop of freshness and fruity flavor. The pieces of fruit also keep their bright color and give the bars more visual appeal, especially paired with those white chocolate specks. There's some debate over which came first, the brownie or the blondie, but we're more focused on how delicious the respective treats are — especially those with a fruity, summery flair, like these strawberry white chocolate blondies.

To begin this recipe, you'll need fresh strawberries, washed, diced, and thoroughly dried. You'll also need unsalted butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Make sure to soften the butter first, or you won't be able to stir it with the sugar. The recipe also calls for a large egg as well as a large egg yolk, and they should both be at room temperature before you begin. The other necessary ingredients are vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and white chocolate chips.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Grease a 9x9-inch baking pan. (You can optionally line the pan with parchment paper for easier removal, if desired.)

Sandwich the diced strawberries between a few layers of paper towels and pat dry.

Place the softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir for about 2 minutes, pressing the butter into the sugar with a spoon until it comes together.

Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until evenly combined.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate mixing bowl.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the bowl of wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

Fold in the strawberries and white chocolate chips.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and flatten the top with a spatula.

Bake the blondies for 30 to 34 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out with just a few crumbs on it. Cover the edges with strips of aluminum foil if they are browning too quickly while baking.

Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack. The blondies will be very soft when they come out of the oven. Do not disturb them until they are cool, about 1 hour.

Slice the blondies and serve. Store leftovers in an airtight container on the counter for 2 days, in the refrigerator for 5 days, or in the freezer for 3 months.

• Fruity Cereal Clarified Milk Punch Recipe
• Strawberry And Rose Valentine's Day Cocktail
• Fluffy Vanilla Cherry Coke Recipe
• Tropical Smoothie Recipe

There are plenty of tasty and picturesque ways to customize this recipe. If you can't get fresh strawberries, dehydrated ones will work instead. Frozen strawberries are not my first choice because they are much wetter than fresh ones, but they could still work here. If you need to use frozen strawberries, defrost them, dice them, and dry them as well as you can. Instead of white chocolate chips, these blondies would be delicious with butterscotch chips or regular semisweet chocolate ones. The same goes for nuts — my preference for this recipe would be macadamia nuts, but you can add your favorite kind.

You can enhance not just the flavor but also the appearance of these treats with a simple glaze made from powdered sugar, lemon juice, and water. Thinly slice some more strawberries and lay them down in the icing for a colorful touch. To make the icing pink, stir in a little strawberry jam until it reaches the desired color. You can also add spoonfuls of jam to the batter after you pour it into the baking dish and use a knife to swirl it into a beautiful pattern.

There's nothing worse than diving into a baking recipe only to realize that your butter is still hard as a rock. It's ideal to plan ahead and let the butter sit out on the counter for an hour or two before beginning a recipe, but no judgment here if you forget. We've all been there, but fortunately, there are ways to soften butter fast so you can get back to baking without having to wait around.

As a word of caution, don't try to microwave the butter or heat it in a pan or oven, tempting as that seemingly instant solution may seem. You'll get melted or partially melted butter, or, at the minimum, the outside will be softened while the inside remains firm. Melted butter behaves differently in recipes for baked goods, so that's not the solution here. Instead, cut the butter into small pieces and place those pieces in a single layer in a bowl. Pour an inch or so of water into a dish that's large enough to hold the first bowl. Microwave the second dish until the water simmers, or simmer the water in a pan and pour it back into the bowl. Set the bowl of butter in the hot water and let it sit until the heat softens the pieces. For a simpler method, just cut the butter into small pieces and spread them out. The smaller pieces will soften much faster than the stick would, though you'll still need a little patience with this method.

• Simple Blondie Recipe
• Loaded Blondies Recipe
• Cinnamon Blondies Recipe
• Buttery Cinnamon Roll Blondies Recipe
• Copycat Starbucks Strawberry Bliss Bar Recipe