Cherry Bakewell Blondies

An easy cherry almond blondie with white chocolate! These gooey cherry bakewell blondies are the blondie bar version of the classic Bakewell tart - a sweet almond dessert with tangy jam. Topped with a quick almond frosting drizzle.

Jump to:

• What is a Bakewell?
• Ingredients
• How to Make Bakewell Blondies
• Quick Almond Glaze
• FAQs
• Cherry Bakewell Blondies

What is a Bakewell?

A Bakewell is a classic British tart. It's generally characterised by its almond frangipane filling and a jam - usually cherry or raspberry. There's a great divide in terms of whether a bakewell should be topped with just sliced almonds or with a frosting and you'll find both options, if you're looking for a recipe for the tart.

My Bakewell Blondies are a quick and easy blondie bar version of the tart, echoing all the flavors of the original. When I asked my British husband whether it needed frosting, he confirmed that he's team iced bakewell, so these blondies include a quick drizzled almond glaze.

Ingredients

For the Cherry Almond Blondies

• Flour - all purpose flour or plain flour work well in this recipe.
• Almond flour - or a finely ground almond powder.
• Cornstarch - this is cornflour in the UK.
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Sugar - superfine granulated sugar or caster sugar.
• Brown sugar - light brown sugar, firmly packed. This is sometimes called muscovado sugar.
• Eggs - large eggs, ideally at room temperature for baking.
• Vanilla extract
• Almond extract - if you don't have almond extract available, this can be left out, but it will help accentuate the almond flavors in the bake. A little goes a long way!
• White chocolate - either white chocolate chips or solid white chocolate chopped into small chunks.
• Cherry jam - either store bought or homemade. A half batch of my easy homemade cherry jam will make enough for this recipe.
• Sliced almonds

And for the topping

Bakewell tarts often have a frosting on top. This isn't strictly necessary with these blondies, but will add a nice simple decorative finish. All you'll need is:

• Powdered sugar - or icing sugar.
• Almond extract - again, this just adds an extra almond kick to the recipe. A little will go a long way, so you only need a tiny bit for this frosting.
• Water

How to Make Bakewell Blondies

These cherry almond blondies are super simple - you'll need an 8" square baking pan, lined with parchment paper or wax paper. This lining may seem a bit of a faff, but it will save you so much time later - you'll be able to lift the baked blondies easily out of the pan without worrying about them sticking!

Almond White Chocolate Blondie Batter

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together your flour, almond flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Set this aside for the moment.

Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl, whisk together your melted butter and the sugars until these are well combined and emulsified - about 2 minutes. Then add the eggs, vanilla and almond extract. Beat together until incorporated.

Now add your dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir with a spatula until just combined. Be sure there aren't any clumps of flour, but avoid over mixing. Tip: I recommend doing this with a spatula to avoid overmixing and also because the mixture will be very thick and difficult to clean from a whisk! Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl as you mix to get any patches of dry ingredients.

Finally, add your white chocolate chunks or chips and fold to distribute.

Layering Batter and Jam

Spoon about ⅔ of the batter into your lined baking pan. Spread carefully into a smooth layer over the bottom of the pan. Tip: if your parchment is moving a lot while you're trying to spread the batter, try using some butter to grease the side of the pan under the lining - this will help your parchment paper stick to the pan and stay in place. Alternatively, you can use foldback binder clips to clamp the parchment in place on the sides, if you have these in your stationary supply!

Once you have a layer of batter, spoon dollops of your cherry jam over the surface and again spread these evenly. Tip: spooning dollops over the top will help you spread the jam evenly. If you just pour the jam in the centre, this will be more difficult to spread because it will start to mix with the batter.

Finally, spoon dollops of the remaining batter over the top of the jam. Same as with the jam layer, dollops across the top of the jam will be easier to spread gently and evenly than just scooping the whole of the remaining batter into the centre. This will squish the jam out and press it disproportionately to the sides of the blondies.

Once you have a smooth blondie layer, sprinkle the sliced almonds over top.

Bake in the centre of a preheated oven for about 50 minutes until a toothpick inserted about 2 inches from the corner comes out mostly clean. This will help ensure gooey blondies!

Tip: once baked, allow to cool for 2 hours before slicing - this will allow the gooey blondie to set up firm enough to slice more cleanly.

Quick Almond Glaze

This frosting is optional. As I've said above, the question of frosting a bakewell is a bit of a contentious divide amongst some Brits. But to add a bit of decoration to the top and a touch more almond flavor, simply whisk together the powdered sugar, water and almond extract until smooth. Drizzle over the top of the blondies once these have cooled down from the oven.

Slice and serve! I like to cut mine in 16, but you can also make 9 large squares or 12 rectangular slices pretty easily with your 8" square bake.

FAQs

If you're looking for more blondies try:

• Biscoff Blondies
• Coconut Walnut Paradise Pie Blondies
• Banoffee Blondies
• Cadbury's Creme Egg Blondies