These are hands down the BEST vegan blondies ever. They are soft, buttery and packed with delicious butterscotch flavor.
These vegan blondies are honestly so delicious. It took quite a few tries to get them right but we did it in the end and this recipe is just pure perfection.
The classic flavor of a blondie is butterscotch and that comes from the combination of butter (vegan butter in this case of course), molasses from the brown sugar, vanilla and salt.
The main difference between a blondie and a brownie is that a brownie is packed with chocolate and a blondie is not. It’s the blonde version of a brownie, basically.
Of course if you DO want some chocolate brownies then check out our delicious recipe for fudgy vegan brownies.
How To Make Vegan Blondies
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Melt vegan butter and add it to a mixing bowl along with light brown sugar and whisk together.
- Add cashew butter and vanilla extract and whisk in until well mixed.
- Sift all purpose flour into a separate mixing bowl and add baking powder, cornstarch and salt and mix together.
- Gradually stir the flour mix into the butter and cashew mixture until completely combined.
- Add chopped macadamia nuts and stir in.
- Transfer the batter to a 9×9 square baking pan (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with a parchment paper overhang on each side). Smooth down with the back of a spoon.
- Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes until the edges just begin to turn golden brown.
- Leave it in the pan to cool for around 30 minutes. The top should be firm to the touch before you remove the blondies from the pan using the parchment paper overhang.
- Cut into squares and serve.
Ingredient Notes
Vegan butter: Vegan butter is essential to a good blondie because you want it to have that buttery flavor. This combines with the brown sugar, salt and vanilla to create the butterscotch flavor. You can use any vegan butter option, tub style or stick style. Alternatively you can use homemade vegan butter.
Brown sugar: You can use light or dark brown sugar or a mix of the two. We used light brown sugar in this recipe. If you use a dark brown sugar the flavor may be a little sweeter and the color will be a little darker.
Cashew butter: Cashew butter works wonderfully in this recipe, and we used a smooth, salted cashew butter. You can even use a homemade cashew butter.
Cornstarch: Cornstarch helps to create softness to baked goods and this is why we use it in this recipe.
Macadamias: We used chopped macadamias which worked so well in these blondies, but if you have a nut allergy of course you can omit them. Alternatively, vegan chocolate chips or chunks would work great.
Baking Time
These blondies have a relatively short baking time of 20 minutes so that they stay soft and moist. However, there can be some variation in the baking time with some ovens needing to bake them for up to 35 minutes.
The top of the blondies should be dry and set and the edges should be golden brown. A toothpick inserted into the middle should have moist crumbs but not wet batter.
Storing and Freezing
Leftover blondies will keep very well in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
They also freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and then let them come to room temperature before serving.
More Delicious Vegan Bars
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Blondies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Vegan Butter (225g) Measured, then Melted
- 1 ¾ cups Light Brown Sugar (350g)
- ½ cup Cashew Butter (125g)
- 1 ½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 2 ¼ cups All Purpose Flour (281g)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 2 teaspoons Cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ cups Raw Macadamia Nuts (195g) Chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and spray a 9×9 square dish with non-stick spray and line it with parchment paper so that there is overhang on each side.
- Melt the vegan butter and add it to a mixing bowl along with the light brown sugar and whisk them together.
- Add the cashew butter and vanilla extract and whisk in until well mixed.
- Sift the all purpose flour into a separate mixing bowl and add baking powder, cornstarch and salt and mix together.
- Gradually stir the flour mix into the butter and cashew mixture until completely combined.
- Add the chopped macadamia nuts and stir in.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared 9×9 square baking pan and smooth down with the back of a spoon.
- Bake for 20-35 minutes (see notes)* until the top is dry and the edges turn golden brown.
- Leave it in the pan to cool for around 30 minutes. The top should be firm to the touch before you remove the blondies from the pan using the parchment paper overhang.
- Cut into squares and serve.
Notes
- Vegan butter – is essential to a good blondie because you want it to have that buttery flavor which combines with the brown sugar, salt and vanilla to create a butterscotch flavor. You can use any vegan butter option, tub style or stick style.
- Light brown sugar – you can use light or dark brown sugar or a mix of the two. Dark brown sugar will result in a blondie that is darker in color.
- Cornstarch – helps to keep these blondies soft.
- Macadamia nuts – are entirely optional. You can leave them out, or switch them for a different nut or use vegan white chocolate chips.
- Baking time – we baked ours for a relatively short 20 minutes. However, ovens can vary a lot and we’re seeing a lot of variation in reported baking times. The blondies should be golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of the blondies should come out with moist crumbs and NOT wet batter. If you’re seeing wet batter in the middle then it needs to bake for a longer time.
- Storing: Leftover blondies will keep very well in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. They also freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and then let them come to room temperature before serving.
Hi could I sub the flour for half gluten free half coconut flour?
Thank you.
Heidy
I wouldn’t use coconut flour as it absorbs liquid very differently. But a gluten-free all purpose blend should work fine.
Great, thanks for the heads up! I really wanted a coconuty flavoured blondie, maybe I’ll try with coconut flakes ????
Made these following the recipe exactly besides adding glazed pecans as well as the macadamia according to another persons review and they ame out phenomenal. Buttery and rich and everyone loves them. I made it on an 8×8 glass pan baked for 35 minutes and it was perfect! Thank you Allison. I use almost all of your recipes when I want to cook something that isn’t a recipe from my own knowledge. Been five years vegan now and everyone loves all the recipes I have ever made with your help.
Thanks so much Jenny! xoxo
Holy Moly!!!!! I made these, (added some apple that I had stewed with maple syrup and cinnamon, reduced the sugar and baked for longer because of the apple moisture) and they were INCREDIBLE!
I wouldn’t normally ever pick a blondie over a brownie, but the taste and texture of these is unreal! (They’ve also gone down so well with my non-vegan family, we’ve been having them heated up with coffee in the afternoons)
I always use this site for my vegan baking recipes now, I’ve never had one fail!
Thank you ☺️
Thanks so much Faye! 🙂
Hello, me again!
Just wondering…. I want to make these for someone who doesn’t eat any nuts at all, so I need to substitute the cashew butter with something else…. any ideas what would work the best?
Thanks so much!
Hi Sarah, the best thing would be a seed butter or nut free option like wowbutter (made from soy).
Thanks!
“Wowbutter”…. is that a product? I’m not sure we have that in the U.K.? I’ll have a look!
Oh yes, I was just browsing amazon and saw that Wowbutter is a brand name for a nut free peanut butter. But any seed butter or similar nut free ‘nut butter’ should work. 🙂
Hi,I made these last week and they were lovely! However, I couldn’t get any cashew butter in our delivery this week…. do you think coconut oil would work in place of it? I’m just linking it to your amazing brownies and that have coconut oil in them… would it work in the blondie?
Thank you
Hi Sarah, I don’t think it would work, it would be too oily, but you could use a different nut butter, or, if you can get hold of roasted, salted cashews then we have a recipe for homemade cashew butter.
Ah! Ok, thanks!
Will see what I can find locally!
Hi,
I’m wondering if you bake these on fan/convection setting in your oven? I can see them only taking 20 minutes if I used that setting.
Thanks!
Hi Elle, no I bake them on the normal bake setting, not fan. But even so ovens do differ, so a longer bake time may be appropriate in your oven.
I made these recipes for my friends for the holidays and they loved it. The one thing I would suggest but it’s probably my oven it wasn’t fully baked at the 30-minute mark so I had to bake it for an additional 10 minutes and let it cool in the oven. Overall so good and will make it again but might put sprinkles instead of macadamia nuts for the birthday theme…unless you have a birthday blondie recipe! 🙂
Awesome, thanks for sharing Arushana!
Could I sub the nut butter for biscoff spread?
Hi Katie, honestly that sounds delicious! I haven’t tried it, but if it’s a similar consistency to a nut butter then I think it will work perfectly!
Hi
Is it possible to sub the cashew butter with peanut butter or another nut butter?
Yes it is! Cashew butter is more neutral in flavor so if you use another nut butter the flavor may come through more strongly but that’s not really an issue. 🙂
Hi Katie, did you try using the Biscoff spread and did it work? I’d love to give it a go!
YUM!! So delicious! So easy to make! I swapped in maple candied pecans for the macadamia nuts (pecans are my favorite) and I’m just in love! The cashew butter adds a rich buttery flavor that is just perfect! Can’t wait to make these again!
Awesome Sara! So happy to hear that, thanks for the wonderful review!
So tasty!! I didn’t have enough coconut sugar so had to sub about 150g of white (and they still turned out great) Bake time was about 15mins additional, but not a bother for a flavor my non-vegan friends enjoyed 🙂
Hi,
Would coconut sugar work in lieu of brown sugar?
Hi Alex, yes I think it would work fine!
This looks delicious!!! Really want to try it, but where I live, it’s really difficult to find vegan butter.
Would it be ok to replace for coconut oil (without flavor), or even more of a nut butter?
Tksss!!
Hi Ricky, nut butter wouldn’t work for a replacement, coconut oil may work, but another option that definitely will work is our homemade vegan butter if you want to try that! 🙂
I made these on the weekend and they were AMAZING! I had just about given up on finding a recipe for the perfect vegan blondies, others I tried just didn’t turn out. These were so perfect, they were better than the non-vegan ones I’ve tried! Thanks for the awesome recipe.
So happy to hear that Janine! Thanks for the great review! 🙂
Made this today and followed the recipe to the letter (except for excluding the optional macadamia nuts). Baked for 20mins at 180, left in tin for 45 mins, then onto an cooling rack for 1hour before slicing. However when slicing the inside was still really under baked and the 4 centre pieces were like complete ‘mush’ underneath the crispy top layer. Seems like it needs longer in the oven to me? Will try again for 25 or 30 mins.
Hi Elliot, oh no, it sounds like they definitely needed more time in the oven. Did you by any chance use a different sized dish? If it was a smaller dish it would have needed a longer time. The other thing though is that ovens can vary so much. I highly recommend an oven thermometer so you can tell what temperature the oven is actually reaching inside. But otherwise if you bake again definitely bake for a longer time.
Sounds delightful! I’ll try the all purpose gluten free flour and am sure it will be just as good!
Hi Anna, yes I’m sure that will work great! 🙂
mmm, what can I sub for cashew butter? I have almond butter… too strong?
I think it may be fine, it might have an almond butter taste as cashew butter is more neutral, but it would work!
Although this was delicious, I had to cook for an extra 20 minutes and even then the middle was still wet, even though the top was lovely. I think next time I will use less butter to cut the greasiness and more flour to stiffen it up. Tastes brilliant though!
Hi El, the baking time on this does seem to be quite variable.