No-Butter Glazed Lemon Blondies
Lemon blondies!
Because I thought, "why not make a much gooier, softer, richer version of a lemon cookie?" which would mean baking the lemon cookie dough in bar form instead of cookie form because the dough would be too loose to shape into cookies if I wanted to make them that gooey.
Long sentence, but that should explain my thought process for these lemon blondies pretty accurately.
After that, it was coming up with a title. And that thought process went something like this: "Lemon bars? No, because lemon bars have a cookie crust and gooey, wet, custard-like filling. Lemon cookie bars? No, because my bars were gonna be gooier than lemon cookies. Lemon blondies? Hmm... yes, that would work! Wait - maybe lemonies? No, they're not gonna realize that I combined the words 'lemon' and 'blondies' together. I'll just stick with lemon blondies."
But enough with the technicalities. Let's get to the good stuff.
Just like a good blondie (these brown butter blondies would be a model example), these lemon blondies are soft and gooey and tender and dense and rich and melt-in-your-mouth.
But instead of that vanilla, blondie, cookie dough flavor you can expect from a classic blondie, here you'll be biting into a bright, citrusy, lemon flavored blondie. How very nice is that, eh?
Okay, I won't lie; I'd probably pick a classic chocolate chip blondie over a lemon blondie when given the two options. But 1 - who cares about me, because you might prefer a lemon blondie, and 2 - lemon blondies are more unique and it's nice to switch things up every once in a while, no?
You'll be getting ALL the lemon flavor in these blondies. Lemon extract? Check. Lemon juice? Check. Lemon zest? Check.
Oh, AND a lemon glaze. Which you can either drizzle over or completely spread on top of the blondies once they're cooled. Your choice, depending on how lemony and how sweet you want your lemon blondies to taste. And depending on how you want them to look.
The lemon glaze is just powdered sugar and freshly squeezed lemon juice. And then a little water, if you need it for thinning the glaze out till it's a pourable consistency.
As for the actual blondies, they're simple too. Another one-bowl recipe, these are.
Just melt your coconut oil, stir in the wet ingredients, then the dry, and you're done. I guess the only annoying part is zesting and juicing the lemon. I never enjoy doing that part. But it's just one lemon, so it isn't too bad.
Soft and gooey. Rich and dense. Bright and citrusy. Quick and easy.
Lemon blondies, where have you been all my life?
no-butter glazed lemon blondies
Yield: 16 blondies
1/2 cup coconut oil,* melted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of half a lemon
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Lemon Glaze:
1 cup confectioner's sugar
Juice of half a lemon
Water for thinning
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8x8 square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving excess hanging over for easy removal later.
In a large bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, sugar, egg + egg yolk, extracts, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
Pour flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt over wet ingredients and stir everything together until just combined.
Drop dough into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake lemon blondies for about 20 minutes, or until edges and top just begin to get golden.
Let bars cool completely before removing from pan, glazing, and slicing.
Lemon Glaze: whisk glaze ingredients together, using as much water as needed to achieve a pourable consistency. Drizzle or spread glaze onto cooled bars.
*Note: use refined coconut oil if you don't want any coconut flavor in your bars.
