The best easy cherry bakewell blondies are full of delicious cherry almond goodness. These chewy almond blondies are loaded with candied glace cherries and white chocolate chips, with a delicious swirl of cherry jam on top.
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✏️ Recipe creation
These gooey Bakewell blondies are a cherry and almond version of the classic blondie combined with a Bakewell tart. They even have the lovely addition of some white chocolate chips for more sweet goodness.
For a more white chocolate version, give these white chocolate Bakewell blondies a try! Or for a firmer cookie version, try these best Bakewell cookie bars!
These best Bakewell blondies have both candied cherries and cherry jam for full-flavour blondies. Decorate your Bakewell blondies with a simple water icing. It's similar to what a Bakewell tart is topped with so they're like Bakewell tart blondies!
In true British fashion, Bakewell blondies are the perfect pairing with a cup of tea. These Bakewell treats also make a great addition to your next homemade afternoon tea party or spring and summer picnics.
🥘 Ingredients
This Bakewell blondie recipe calls for the following ingredients:
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar (soft)
- White sugar: finely granulated such as caster sugar.
- Egg: large size, room temperature for ease of mixing.
- Salt (optional)
- Almond extract: extract or essence works great.
- Ground almonds: also called almond flour or almond meal.
- Plain all-purpose flour: sieve for a smoother blondie batter.
- Cornflour: fine white flour called cornstarch in the US.
- White chocolate chips
- Glace cherries: also called candied cherries or glazed cherries.
- Cherry jam or conserve
- Flaked almonds (optional)
- Powdered icing sugar (optional)
See the recipe card for quantities.
Top tip: For accuracy, it’s best to weigh your ingredients rather than using cups.
♻️ Substitutions / Variations
Ingredient substitutions
I love the texture of these blondies using cornflour (the fine white flour called cornstarch in the US). However, you can swap this for more plain all-purpose flour of the same quantity.
Similarly, if you don’t have ground almonds, you can swap this for plain flour of the same quantity and add an extra tablespoon of butter (15g) and ½ teaspoon almond extract.
I think the glace cherries add a lovely texture and it's a great way to use up any leftover candied cherries from the holiday season. However, if you can’t get glace cherries, you can omit them from the recipe and instead increase the cherry jam to 100g (5 tbsp).
You can swap all of the brown sugar and white sugar for golden caster sugar of the same total amount.
You can use any type of berry jam, such as black cherry jam or morello cherry jam. Alternatively, change the classic Bakewell flavour slightly by using raspberry jam or strawberry jam instead.
Toppings
I like to decorate these cherry Bakewell blondies with flaked almonds and a drizzle of simple icing. The icing is the type you often find on a Bakewell tart, so I love incorporating this element.
However, you can instead top your cooled Bakewell blondies with a drizzle of melted white chocolate.
Alternatively, you can leave them plain as the jam swirls look quite pretty!
📖 Method
- Preheat oven: 180°C / 160°C (fan) / Gas Mark 4 / 350°F
- Melt the butter for 30-50secs in the microwave and beat in the sugar until smooth and thick.
- Thoroughly beat in the egg, almond extract and salt (if using) until well combined.
- Add the ground almonds, then sieve in the flour and cornflour, stirring in until combined.
- Stir in the glace cherries (if using) and white chocolate chips until spread evenly throughout the mix.
- Pour the blondie mix into a lined 8-inch square pan, smoothing gently. Using a teaspoon, dollop the jam on top, spacing the blobs out. Gently swirl them through the blondie mix with a knife or skewer.
- Bake for 25-30mins until the top is lightly golden and has only a slight wobble in the middle.
- Sprinkle almond flakes on top and allow your blondies to cool.
- If using, in a small bowl mix the icing sugar with 2-3tsp of warm water until you get a smooth icing. Drizzle this over your cooled blondie then cut it into squares and enjoy.
💭 Top tips
- Beat your sugar-butter-egg mixture thoroughly until it’s thickened and comes together to a smooth mixture. This will give your Bakewell blondies a perfectly soft and chewy texture.
- You’ll know your cherry Bakewell blondies are cooked when they’ve turned a light golden colour on top and there’s only a very slight wobble left in the middle.
- This recipe makes quite a thick Bakewell blondie batter, so it can be hard to swirl your cherry jam on top. I dollop teaspoons of the jam on the blondie mix in the baking tin, leaving gaps between each spoonful.
- Use the point of a knife to gently push the dollops of jam through the blondie batter, spreading them all out and mixing them together lightly.
- Drizzle icing over your cooled cherry Bakewell blondie. This icing won’t stay white but can get tinted pink from contact with the jam over time, giving it a cute look! You can skip this step if you're not a fan.
❔ Recipe FAQs
Your Bakewell blondies should last for up 5 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature. If it’s hot where you live or for a firmer chewy texture, store your blondies in the fridge instead.
Yes! You can freeze your Bakewell blondies in an airtight container or wrapped in cling film and then foil for up to 3 months. Defrost and enjoy!
Traditionally, Bakewell has a shortcrust pastry base, beneath a layer of jam and frangipane (an almond mix). This is then topped with flaked almonds or icing. Bakewell is a tasty treat that originates from the town of Bakewell in England.
A blondie is a non-chocolate version of a brownie. They’re soft and chewy, usually with a slight caramel taste from the use of brown sugar, often mixed with white sugar.
If you want to try more blondies, check out these white chocolate bakewell blondies or caramilk blondies.
Swap the plain all-purpose flour for a gluten-free 1:1 blend. You can also swap the cornflour / cornstarch for gluten-free flour as the texture is already short enough.
For dairy-free Bakewell blondies, replace the butter in the recipe for a solid dairy-free baking block. You should also either swap the white chocolate chips for a dairy-free version or remove them from the recipe.
🧁 Other goodies
Looking for some other goodies to make?
Love a gooey blondie? Give these best blondie recipes a try:
For all things Bakewell (i.e. berry and almond flavoured), check out my recipes for Bakewell cookie bars, Bakewell shortbread slices or Bakewell white chocolate blondies.
Other Related Recipes:
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📋 Recipe
Cherry Bakewell Blondies
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 115 g (½ cups) unsalted butter
- 100 g (½ cups) white sugar finely granulated e.g. caster
- 75 g (⅓ cups) light soft brown sugar
- 1 egg
- ⅛ teaspoon salt optional
- 1 ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 50 g (½ cups) ground almonds almond flour
- 90 g (¾ cups) plain all-purpose flour
- 30 g (2 tablespoon) cornflour called cornstarch in the US
- 75 g (½ cups) white chocolate chips
- 75 g (½ cups) candied glace cherries chopped or halves, optional
- 75 g (4 tablespoon) cherry jam
- 15 g (1 ½ tablespoon) flaked almonds optional
- 50 g (½ cups) powdered icing sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven: 180°C / 160°C (fan) / Gas Mark 4 / 350°F
- Melt the butter for 30-50secs in the microwave and beat in the sugar until smooth and thick.
- Thoroughly beat in the egg, almond extract and salt (if using) until well combined.
- Add the ground almonds, then sieve in the flour and cornflour, stirring in until combined.
- Stir in the glace cherries (if using) and white chocolate chips until spread evenly throughout the mix.
- Pour the blondie mix into a lined 8-inch square pan, smoothing gently. Using a teaspoon, dollop the jam on top, spacing the blobs out. Gently swirl them through the blondie mix with a knife or skewer.
- Bake for 25-30mins until the top is lightly golden and has only a slight wobble in the middle.
- Sprinkle almond flakes on top and allow your blondies to cool.
- If using, in a small bowl mix the icing sugar with 2-3tsp of warm water until you get a smooth icing. Drizzle this over your cooled blondie then cut into squares and enjoy.
Notes
- The cornflour used in this recipe is a white fine flour, not a yellow coarse flour. However, sometimes this is called cornstarch and the yellow version is called cornflour, e.g. in the US, so be sure to pick the white one!
- Beat your sugar-butter-egg mixture thoroughly until it’s thickened and comes together to a smooth mixture.
- You can swap the cornflour for more plain all-purpose instead (same amount).
- You can swap ground almonds for plain flour of the same quantity and add an extra tablespoon of butter (15g) and ½ teaspoon almond extract.
- You can use any type of cherry or other berry jam of your choice.
- You can swap the 8-inch square pan for a 9-inch square pan and reduce the baking time by 5mins.
- Double up the recipe and bake these blondies in a large brownie tin for 30-35mins, (e.g. 9inch x 13inch brownie pan).
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate based on an online nutritional calculator, actual values may vary.
Helen Gander-Jones
This is now one of my favourite recipes. I just need to perfect the cooking time, I think I took them out a little too early this time.
Sweet Mouth Joy
Thanks, glad you like the recipe! I like to give mine a little shake once they're golden and when there's only a slight wobble in the middle, that's when I take them out. If they're a little underdone, keep them in the fridge and they'll firm up slightly but still be nicely chewy!