Soft and chewy cranberry white chocolate blondies loaded with sweet white chocolate chips, fruity tart dried cranberries, and a hint of aromatic vanilla.
These little beauties are just perfect for bake sales, parties, buffets, and afternoon tea. I've even been known to serve them just warm from the oven as an alternative to Christmas pudding (we have several Christmas pudding haters in my family)!
It won't come as a surprise that these moist, fudgy, buttery blondies belong on my 'I can never stop at one slice' list!
I love the flavour contrast between the sweet white chocolate and the fruity tart cranberries. This is most definitely a flavour match made in heaven!
Love blondies? You'll want to check out my easy Nutella blondies! 😋
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✔️ Why should you try it?
- Made in one bowl
- Easy to make
- Perfect for the holidays
- Make ahead and freeze
🥘 Ingredients
- White Chocolate - you'll need both white chocolate chips for the blondies and 50g of melted white chocolate for the drizzle topping.
- Dried Cranberries - if you can't find dried cranberries you could substitute for other dried fruit such as chopped dried apricots, dried blueberries or raisins.
- Butter - the butter needs to be melted and slightly cooled before beginning the recipe.
- Sugar - use granulated sugar and light brown sugar for the best texture and sweet flavour.
- Egg - one large free-range egg.
- Vanilla Extract - use a good quality vanilla extract (not essence) as it makes it all the difference to the taste.
- Flour - plain flour (all-purpose) is needed for these blondies.
- Baking Powder
🔪 Instructions
The recipe card with ingredient quantities and detailed instructions can be found at the bottom of the post
One: Place the melted butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl and beat until pale.
Two: Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
Three: Fold in the flour and baking powder.
Four: Mix in the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.
Five: Make sure the chocolate chips and dried cranberries are evenly distributed in the batter.
Six: Spoon the blondie batter into a greased and lined 20cm square baking tin. Smooth the top with a spoon and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Seven: Once cooled drizzle with melted white chocolate and scatter over more white chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Once the melted chocolate has set, slice into bars.
💭 Top tips
- Make sure your egg is at room temperature. It ensures a lighter textured blondie.
- Your blondies will look slightly under-baked when you take them out of the oven. Once they have cooled they will be the perfect blondie texture.
- Use good quality vanilla extract. It makes a huge difference to the finished taste of these bars.
- Grease and line the tin with baking paper to ensure your blondies don't get stuck in the tin. When completely cooled, gently lift them out onto a chopping board and cut into slices. You'll want your baking paper slightly overhanging the tin to make this easier.
- To speed up cooling, you can place the tin in the fridge for 30 minutes.
🍴 Serving suggestions
Cool, slice, and serve the delicious white chocolate and cranberry traybake at parties, buffets, for afternoon tea, and bake sales!
I sometimes also serve these cranberry white chocolate blondies warm from the oven with creamy custard or honeycomb ice cream, for a delicious dessert.
📖 Variations
- Swap the light brown sugar for dark brown sugar for a richer more caramelly flavour.
- Use a combination of dark chocolate chips and white chocolate chips if you're serving these blondies to adults only.
- Try using fresh cranberries instead of dried.
- Keep things simple and miss out the drizzle topping. It does look pretty though!
- Cool completely before slicing them into bars, unless of course, you are serving them as a warm dessert!
🥡 Storage
The baked cranberry blondies will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
The blondies can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Place in layers in a freezer-safe container, separating each layer of blondies between pieces of non-stick baking parchment.
❓ FAQs
The main difference is chocolate. Brownies are made with chocolate and/or cocoa powder in the batter, giving them that wonderful dark brown colour, and blondies are not (although they often have white chocolate in them).
They'll start to pull away from the sides of the tin and the edges will be a golden brown colour. Be careful not to overcook your blondies or they might turn out dry and cakey rather than soft and fudgy.
Yes, just like brownies, blondies are meant to be gooey, fudgy and dense in texture.
😋Related recipes
More delicious blondie and brownie recipes to try!
M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
White Chocolate and Cranberry Brownies
Dark Chocolate Orange Brownies
🍽️ More family-friendly recipes
Sweet treats from the Effortless Foodie kitchen!
Tried this recipe? Leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ star rating in the comments!
Recipe
Cranberry White Chocolate Blondies
Ingredients
- 120 g Butter melted
- 100 g Granulated Sugar
- 50 g Light Brown Sugar
- 1 Egg large, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 130 g Plain Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 125 g Dried Cranberries
- 125 g White Chocolate Chips
For the topping
- 50 g White Chocolate melted
- 25 g Dried Cranberries
- 25 g White Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°c (160fan/ 350F/ Gas 4) and line a 20cm square baking tin with baking paper.
- In a large mixing bowl beat together the melted butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix in.
- Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Stir in the dried cranberries and white chocolate chips.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. The blondies may look a bit underbaked when you take them out of the oven but they will set further on cooling. If they have started to pull away from the edge of the tin they are ready!
- Cool completely (you can speed this up by placing the tin in the fridge), then drizzle with the melted white chocolate and scatter over more dried cranberries and chococlate chips. Leave the chocolate to set before slicing into bars.
Video
Notes
- Make sure your egg is at room temperature. It ensures a lighter textured blondie.
- Your blondies will look slightly under-baked when you take them out of the oven. Once they have cooled they will be the perfect blondie texture.
- Use good quality vanilla extract. It makes a huge difference to the finished taste of these bars.
- Grease and line the tin with baking paper to ensure your blondies don't get stuck in the tin. When completely cooled, gently lift them out onto a chopping board and cut into slices. You'll want your baking paper slightly overhanging the tin to make this easier.
- To speed up cooling, you can place the tin in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Swap the light brown sugar for dark brown sugar for a richer more caramelly flavour.
- Use a combination of dark chocolate chips and white chocolate chips if you're serving these blondies to adults only.
- Try using fresh cranberries instead of dried ones.
- Keep things simple and miss out the drizzle topping. It does look pretty though!
- Cool completely before slicing them into bars, unless of course, you are serving them as a warm dessert!
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Beth
These are so delicious. My family loved them! I love the tart cranberries with the sweet white chocolate!
Anjali
Omg these blondies were so delicious!! They were perfectly sweet and turned out great!
veenaazmanov
Perfect for Breakfast, Snack or a Tea Time Treat. This is delicious, gooey , chocolaty and fruity too.
Tara
Such flavorful blondies! I absolutely love the combination of white chocolate and cranberries. They come together so easily too!
Gina
One of the few ways I enjoy white chocolate is paired with cranberries in a cookie so I know these blondies will be a hit!