The best easy mince pie orange blondies are stuffed full of festive flavour and the perfect Christmas-themed treat! These Christmas blondie bars taste like the beautiful union of a mince pie and a chewy brown sugar cookie.
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✏️ Why you'll love this recipe
These Christmas blondies are soft and chewy, but surprisingly easy to make. You can quickly whip up a batch ready for the oven and stuffing mince pies into your blondie traybake is a fun and festive dessert idea.
I came up with these festive blondies after looking for speciality Christmas brownies and bars. I saw great ideas for mincemeat brownie traybakes and fruit mince shortcake bars, but I wanted a soft chewy texture and that unmistakable spiced flavour of fruity mince pies.
These tasty treats are one of my favourite Christmas dessert recipes and are one of the best blondie variations. They make great festive edible gift ideas for friends, family and co-workers!
This mince pie slice recipe is a great way to use up any leftover mince pies after the holiday season too. If you have any left that is!
🥘 Ingredients
This minced pie blondies recipe calls for the following ingredients:
- Unsalted butter: allows you to control the salt content.
- Light brown soft sugar
- Egg: large size, room temperature for ease of mixing.
- Vanilla extract: use paste or extract over essence for best flavour.
- Orange extract: use extract over essence for the tastiest results.
- Plain all-purpose flour: sieve for a smooth blondie batter.
- Cornstarch: fine white powder called cornflour in the UK and other places.
- Salt
- Minced pies: i.e. festive mincemeat stuffed shortcrust mini pies.
See the recipe card for quantities.
Top tip: For accuracy, it’s best to weigh your ingredients rather than using cups.
♻️ Substitutions / Variations
I use orange extract flavouring as it’s easier than zesting an orange. However, you can swap this for the zest of 1 orange. It gives it a delicious tangy flavour!
For less of a caramel flavour to your orange blondies, swap half of the brown sugar for white finely granulated sugar.
I usually use store-bought mince pies, the deep-filled kind for extra fruit mincemeat, but it’s even tastier to bake your own homemade mince pies! One of my favourite recipes for mince pies is by Paul Hollywood.
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).
These mince pie blondies can look a little plain, so you can decorate with candied fruit peel (mixed glace fruit peel) sprinkled on top before the blondies are baked. This adds texture and colour, plus an even more festive feel to your mince pie bars!
📖 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, orange and vanilla extracts until well combined.
- Sieve in the flour, cornflour and salt, stirring until just combined.
- In a lined 8inch square pan, pour half of the blondie mix smoothing evenly, before breaking up the mince pies into 5-7 pieces each and spacing these evenly across the mix.
- Pour the remaining blondie mix over the top, smoothing gently to cover the mince pie pieces.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25mins, until the top is lightly golden and no longer wobbles. Allow your blondies to cool before removing from the tin and cutting into squares.
💭 Top tips
- Thoroughly beat your egg into the blondie mixture to give a nicer texture. Using a room temperature egg will also allow it to mix better.
- Leave a small overhang of parchment paper so it’s easy to lift your festive blondies out of the tin after baking.
- I usually break up each mince pies into 5-6 pieces to stud into the mixture. Any less than this and you won’t get a nice even coverage of mince pie in each blondie bar.
- You’ll know your Christmas blondies are done when they’ve turned a golden colour. There should be a slight wobble in the middle still.
- I like my blondies chewy, but if they’re too soft for you after they’re baked and cooled, you can always put them in the fridge to firm up more.
- Your mince pie orange blondies will firm up as they cool, so it's best to let them cool before you remove them from the pan and cut into squares.
❔ Recipe FAQs
Your mince pie blondies should last for up 4 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Store in the fridge for a fudgier, chewy texture.
Yes! You can freeze your mince pie blondies wrapped in a layer of cling film and a layer of foil for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge and enjoy!
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.
🧁 Other goodies
Looking for some more easy Christmas desserts?
Check out my recipe collection for Christmas & The Holidays recipe ideas like these festive treats:
- White chocolate orange no-bake cheesecake
- Festive chocolate orange cake
- Spiced orange rum brownie cookies
- White chocolate Bailey's no-bake cheesecake
These recipes are great to enjoy on Christmas day or give as gifts to friends and family, such as a mason jar vegan cookie mix Christmas gift.
If you're after easy no-bake festive desserts, check out this list of the 80+ best no-bake Christmas dessert recipes!
For more blondies check out my full collection of the best blondies recipes.
Looking forward to some new recipes? Check out my Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest pages for a few sneak peeks and some sweet inspiration!
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📖 Recipe
Mince Pie Orange Blondies
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Equipment
Ingredients
- ⅔ cups (150 g) unsalted butter
- 1 cups (220 g) light brown soft sugar
- 1 egg large
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange extract
- 1 ½ cups (190 g) plain all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch called cornflour in the UK
- ⅛ teaspoon salt optional
- 3 mince pies
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, orange and vanilla extracts until well combined.
- Sieve in the flour, cornflour and salt, stirring until just combined.
- In a lined 8inch square pan, pour half of the blondie mix smoothing evenly, before breaking up the mince pies into 5-7 pieces each and spacing these evenly across the mix.
- Pour the remaining blondie mix over the top, smoothing gently to cover the mince pie pieces.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25mins, until the top is lightly golden and no longer wobbles. Allow your blondies to cool before removing from the tin and cutting into squares.
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.
- Decorate your mince pie blondies with candied fruit peel on top of the batter before baking.
- You can swap the cornflour for more plain all-purpose (same amount).
- You can swap the orange extract for 1 orange's zest.
- 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.
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