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
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
It cracks me up when people make these but change “a few ingredients” then are surprised when they don’t turn out like the one’s in the picture. If you want them to look and taste like the one’s pictured then follow the directions, it’s really pretty simple. I’m not be critical just stateing the obvious. I have not tried these blondies but they look wonderful and I will keep the recipe.
Could you double this recipe and put it in a 9×13 pan??
I haven’t tried but I imagine you could.
Has anyone successfully converted this recipe in to grams? I have just made it by trying to convert myself and it’s a disaster. More like a giant cake that sunk in the middle 🙁
Conversions are tricky, that’s why I don’t rely on any automated feature in my recipe plugin. Let me give it a try ~ I’ll post it in the recipe when I’m done.
I just did the conversions, measuring my own ingredients on my scale, and put them into the recipe above. It’s frustrating to note how different measurements can be, whether by volume or weight. My flour came out to 306 grams every time, but when I plug that into the King Arthur Flour conversion chart it comes out to 270. Go figure. Baking is an exact science, but it’s tough to reproduce exact measurements.
I loved these and so did everyone I shared them with!
Thanks Kathy 🙂
I made these for Easter and they were absolutely delicious! I skipped the icing and served them with homemade lemon curd which was a perfect marriage! I like my lemon curd tart and it went very well with the sweetness of the strawberries. I also added a few strawberries which made them extra moist and a little more lemon juice and the zest of one lemon and lessened the sugar a bit. Thanks so much for this easy but scrumptious recipe! It’s a keeper!
The lemon curd really does sound perfect for these!
I made these and the batter needed a little zing for me so I added a tsp of clear Mexican Vanilla! Perfect!
You can never go wrong with a little vanilla ~ glad you loved these Cindy 🙂
Made these yesterday… Not quite sure if I did anything wrong or if it’s a matter of preference, but I wouldn’t exactly call these blondies. To me, blondies are moist, possibly even a bit chewy. These were tasty shortbread bars (slightly crumbly in a soft and delicate –not dry– sort of way). Maybe it’s because they are a bit lower sugar than some other blondie recipes I’ve tried, and use all white sugar without any brown sugar? I also had to wrestle these into the pan because the batter was so thick.
Where I might’ve gone wrong: I measure everything by weight, using standard conversions (King Arthur / Cook’s Illustrated) except for my flour (it’s Gold Medal, so 130g/cup is more accurate than 120). I doubled this recipe and made 2 pans.
I am fairly certain these will be a hit as “strawberry lemon cookie bars” but if I ever wanted a slightly more gooey, fudgy blondie-like texture, what might you suggest? I’m tempted to increase the sugar to 1 cup even though the sweetness was perfect to my taste buds, or investigate crossing this recipe with one that uses melted white chocolate in the batter. Maybe holding some flour back is all they need.
Again, these were super tasty. Just not the texture I imagined.
Reduce your bake time? Sounds overdone.
It’s a little hard to say since everybody’s taste is so different, but I think your idea of using some or all brown sugar might change the texture of these blondies more toward what you’re looking for.
I took a pan of these to work and they were a big hit! You made a bunch of hungry nurses very happy. Thank you!
Haha, I’m honored!
Oh my goodness, these are phenomenal! I did have to use bottled lemon juice, but they are delish anyway. Thanks for sharing, this will be a regular.
Thanks Sarah ~ I’m always going on about using fresh squeezed lemon juice, but it’s good to know you can use the bottle in a pinch 🙂
I buy fresh lemons, wash good, cut in half, wrap individually and freeze. When I need fresh lemon juice, I microwave as many halves I need. I always have fresh lemon (or lime) juice.
Thinking of adding a little cream cheese to the frosting.. good or bad idea?
Honestly I wouldn’t, Brenda. I don’t think it will add anything and I imagine it would be hard to get it smooth. I used a glaze, not a frosting, but if you wanted to you could make a cream cheese frosting and use that. I think it might be overpowering for the blondies, though.