Cherry Blondies
Cherries! I absolutely love cherries! When I lived in Budapest, I discovered their love of plump deep dark purple juicy cherries. Sold in paper bags at the side of the road, these cherries were absolutely glorious. Unfortunately, I am still to find any that even closely resemble these, but I still love cherries!
Friday 16th July is National Cherry Day in the UK, so what better way to celebrate than making a cherry dessert! Okay, so, what I really wanted to do is to make a dessert which is traditionally made with cherries. My mind immediately jumped to Clafoutis – a French dessert – pronounced cla – fou -ti, but this is proving tricky to veganise (the main base is eggs)! I’ve made two variations so far and as much as they were both delicious, they were not Clafoutis! So instead, I created this cherry blondie recipe for you!
The Blondie Recipe
I have used a tried and tested method for this recipe borrowed from my biscoff brownie recipe. The recipe uses butter, sugar, flour and milk, with the addition of yogurt, apple cider vinegar and vanilla. Of course there are cherries too – I have used frozen cherries in my blondies, but you could use fresh if you wish to de-stone them.
A vegan blondie recipe studded with plump juicy cherries.
- 100 g plain yogurt (I used alpro plain soya)
- 100 ml milk (I used unsweetened Oat)
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 250 g plain flour (gluten free if required)
- 150 g sugar (I used granulated)
- 50 g coconut milk powder (or sub more flour)
- 5 teaspoons baking powder (check quantities per 100g on your packet)
- pinch of salt
- 100 g butter melted (I used Vitalite)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 200 g frozen cherries (defrosted & drained)
- Whisk the yogurt and milk together, then add the apple cider vinegar and mix well. Set aside.
- In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, coconut milk powder, baking powder and salt.
- Add the milk mixture, the butter and the vanilla to the dry mixture. Combine everything thoroughly.
- Put a layer of the batter in the bottom of your ovenproof tin.
- Dot the cherries around, then cover with the remaining batter ensuring that all the cherries are sealed with batter.
- Gently tap the tin to level it out.
- Bake at Gas Mark 4 (350f / 175c) for 40-45 minutes. The blondie should be pulling away from the edges of the tin and be a lovely golden colour.
- Leave in the tin to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack.
Enjoy!
Here’s how to put the blondies together.
What do I need?
This recipe can be a bit flexible – you can add chocolate chips, nuts, try a different fruit (raspberries or blueberries would work well) or even skip the filling altogether! You can use fresh cherries if you can be bothered to de-stone them. Soak your cherries in alcohol for a few hours too if you wish! Switch the sugars – coconut will give it a more caramelly taste and a deeper colour, caster sugar will change the blondies texture but not the taste.
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Serving
I would (& did) eat this just as it was. It is good. In fact, it is so good that my non vegan teenager ate 3 pieces, then came back and pulled a hunk off the side! Yes, he loved this so much he couldn’t even wait for me to pass him a knife! Oh… and the blondies might have all vanished before I’d finished taking photos!
Storage
If you are storing your blondies, please keep them refrigerated if you use any fresh fruit. They should keep for a few days in the fridge but if your house is like mine they will all be devoured before it gets that far! I have not tried freezing these with cherries in, but it should freeze well, although the colour of the cherries might run when defrosted.
Sharing
I really hope you give these Blondies a go (unless you’re on a diet then probably not the best choice)! Alternatively, go and pick some cherries for Cherry Day! I would love to see your photos of Cherries and Blondies and Cherry Blondies! Please share and tag me @LifeDietHealth or using #LifeDietHealth on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter.
Leave me a comment below… I love to chat!
I hope to speak with you soon
Laurena x
Hi Laurena, you’re lucky to have a cherry tree, it looks so pretty. I was tempted to pick a few around where I am lol. I know a lady here from ‘Budapesht’ (she always corrects my pronunciation of it lol) and was telling me about how her mum and gran would always preserve summer fruit in jars for the winter. I once attempted to make clafoutis and it turned out rather oily and dense but it tasted nice😋
Thank you Eva. This is only the second year the tree has been established enough to have more than a couple of cherries! I would love to have enough fruit to preserve for winter… ah, wait… I do usually have redcurrants and blackberries which I freeze😊 I’ll keep trying with the clafoutis and in the meantime you make these blondies and send me photos!😋
I do actually have some frozen cherries, I definitely plan to make it soon(ish)😊
Yay! Remember to take photos before you eat them all!