Strawberry Lemon Blondies ~ these easy strawberry blondies are moist and dense, (think soft shortbread) with plenty of little jammy pockets thanks to a cup of diced fresh strawberries in the batter. A hint of lemon gives these strawberry bars a bright, tangy vibe.
We’re baking strawberry lemon blondies on repeat right now!
If you could only have one strawberry dessert this season, these fruity little strawberry bars would have to be the one, they’re ridiculously easy to throw together and completely irresistible…take it from me, I had my fork in one before I could finish my photo shoot. That’s always a sign of a good recipe 🙂
TIP: baking softens, sweetens, and brings out the best in pre-season berries, so even before the really good strawberries start showing up at market, you can make fabulous strawberry desserts.
If you like your desserts soft and moist, I know these strawberry lemon blondies will appeal to you.
There’s nothing dry or crumbly about them, they melt in the mouth like a great blondie should. Only instead of nuts and chocolate you’ve got juicy strawberries and tart lemon. Yum.
Blondies are an art form here at tvfgi, and there’s a special place in my heart for unique recipes like my Banana Blondies with their amazing caramel frosting, or my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Blondies. But sometimes you just need a little chocolate, am I right? In that case head straight for my Outrageous Chocolate Hazelnut Blondies or decadent Almond Butter Skillet Blondies.
The plush batter for these strawberry lemon blondies is thick but easy to work with. Take a minute to spread it out evenly in your pan so it bakes up nice and flat.
The pretty pink glaze is naturally colored
Blondies are pretty unassuming when they come out of the oven, but just wait. Let them cool down a bit, then drizzle on the tart glaze (I use a tablespoon of strained strawberry puree to create that pretty color naturally)…things are about to get interesting…
This is one strawberry dessert that is more than meets the eye. It’s all about that party in your mouth!
tvfgi recommends: a 9″ square ceramic baking dish
When it comes to small bakes like brownies and blondies, I like to bake in ceramic or stoneware. I think it bakes evenly without over cooking the edges. They come in so many pretty colors, but I’m partial to my white pan. Every kitchen needs one.
I recommend the 9″ size, and look for something with weight to it, like the one above. The side handles help when you’re trying to get it in and out of a hot oven.
Reader Rave ~
“You have gained a few fans! Made this for our Sunday night family gathering and everyone kept going back for more. I cut them into smaller pieces so everyone felt less guilty splurging 🙂 Thank you for a very yummy recipe.” ~ Jen
Strawberry Lemon Blondies
Equipment
- 9x9 square baking pan
- parchment paper for easy removal optional
Ingredients
blondies
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup diced fresh strawberries
glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted, measure out your sugar before sifting.
- 1 Tbsp strawberry puree, you'll need about 2 large strawberries, instructions below.
- lemon juice, about 1 Tbsp, or just enough to thin the glaze to a spreadable consistency
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Line a 9 inch square baking pan with parchment paper with long edges. This is optional but will help you lift out the blondies for easy glazing and slicing later.
- Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg.
- When the egg is fully incorporated, beat in the lemon juice. The lemon juice will probably not completely incorporate at this point, that's ok.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and add to the wet ingredients, mixing until no more dry flour is present.
- Gently fold in the diced strawberries. Spread the mixture into your pan and spread out as evenly as possible. The dough is thick, so take your time. I like to use a large offset spatula for this job.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, just until starting to turn golden around the edges and the center is set. A toothpick inserted in the center will be moist but not wet. Don't over-bake these, or they will dry out. Let cool on a rack.
- Trim the strawberries for the glaze and puree in a small food processor. Strain the puree through a small strainer to get 1 Tbsp of puree. Whisk together the sugar, puree, and lemon juice until no lumps remain. If your glaze is too thin, add a touch more sugar. If it's too thick, add more lemon juice.
- Spread the glaze over the cooled blondies. Let the glaze set before slicing.
Video
Notes
- When you measure out the flour, first fluff the flour, then scoop it with your cup, and then level it without compacting it. This method helps insure an accurate amount.
- If you don't want to bother with the strawberry puree for the icing, just use lemon juice. I don't recommend using strawberry jam because it would be too sweet combined with the sugar.
- Do a little test before glazing your blondies. Spoon a bit of glaze on the blondies and see how it does...if it soaks right in it is too thin you can add more sugar. If it's too thick you can thin it down with more puree or lemon juice.
- For a variation, try this with diced rhubarb, blueberries, or raspberries. You could also use a combination of strawberries and rhubarb.
Nutrition
Thanks for pinning!
More strawberry desserts ~
Strawberry Shortbread Cookies
Easy Strawberry Cake
Strawberry Buttermilk Cake
My whole family did not like these. Too much flour, no flavor and incredibly thick. More of a Biscuit texture.
Sorry they didn’t turn out for you Nicole. You might prefer my strawberry buttermilk cake.
Just made this for a party! I love the natural pretty colors! Does it need to be refrigerated?
No, you can leave at room temp if you prefer.
Question – do you refrigerate or are they ok left in a container on the counter? I just made my first batch and can’t wait to try them. The tastes I took of both the batter and icing were delicious. I did add a bit of zest to both, and about a teaspoon of vanilla to the batter. They look perfect and I love being able to use our homegrown produce in combinations!
I leave them on the counter, I think baked goods have better texture if you don’t refrigerate (unless you have to.)
What a delightful flavor combination for a blondie. I can’t wait to make these delicious blondies.
These blondies were fantastic and so pretty! I made them for my niece’s baby shower last weekend and everyone wanted to recipe. Thanks for sharing.
I love the lemon strawberry combo. My daughter made these today for our brunch tomorrow and they turned out perfect.
Added some zest on top and omg so good, kids loved them.
Can i use frozen berries?
Fresh is best for this recipe. Even off-season fruit bakes up with good flavor, and it will result in a better texture. When we do bake with frozen fruit I use it frozen rather than thawing it, but strawberries are frozen whole, so that presents a problem.
Could you replace the flour with GF instead?!
I think you could but be aware that they will bake up even softer than they already are.
Very, very good. I’m an experienced confection baker of many years, and this delicious-looking recipe caught my eye. Enticing pictures! I love lemon and strawberries together or not, and wanted to give this a try.
I was a bit concerned as I read through reviews (as I always do before trying something new), when other bakers appeared to struggle with the stiff consistency of the batter. But my curiosity won me over and I decided to try the recipe anyway.
Following the instructions and ingredient list carefully, I had no trouble. But some things that helped are— softening (NOT melting) the butter right out of the fridge. This made the batter silky. I added the flour gradually, a 1/2 cup at a time, and added the diced strawberries to the batter just after I mixed in the first cup of flour. Then I added the rest of the flour as stated above.
The consistency was similar to a semi-stiff cookie batter. The strawberries were not crushed at all. The batter spread beautifully in the baking dish because I spooned dollops of dough evenly over the surface of the pan so I didn’t have to work from a mountain of unmovable dough in the center. From that point, spreading was easy and the batter very cooperative.
It baked up nicely. I left it in the pan until it cooled, and then removed it with the help of the parchment flaps.
The icing went on well too, and I couldn’t wait to taste them. Rich and tasty. Light, tender-crisp texture, and melt-in-your-mouth feel. A nice combination of sweet and tart! Lemon bars come to mind, which I love. It was an easy recipe to put together. And I changed nothing except one teensy thing: I added a 1/2 tsp. of vanilla to the batter because… why not? 🙂 Thank you, Sue, for a wonderful recipe!
Thanks so much Diane for the thoughtful review, you’ve made me want to bake up a fresh batch!