If you love orange, you’ll love this twist on the traditional blondies recipe! Orange flavors go throughout both the blondie and the creamy orange cream cheese frosting. These are divine straight from the refrigerator!
If you really love citrus, make sure you also check out my recipe for Lemon Bars!
It’s funny how my mind remembers food. I first made this Orange Blondies recipe back in 2007. But recently, I had a craving for them again. After 11 years. It’s crazy that I can’t remember what I did last Tuesday, but I can remember this blondies recipe from 11 years ago.
I originally made these after seeing Paula Deen make them on The Food Network. She calls them Orange Brownies, but they are not brownies. So I couldn’t stick with that name – I had to change them over to blondies.
This bar recipe is so, so good, though – no matter what you call them. A soft, sweet orange flavored blondie, topped with an irresistible cream cheese frosting. My favorite way to eat these is straight from the refrigerator, when they are nice and cold. So, so good!!
What is the Difference Between a Brownie and a Blondie
A blondie is essentially a brownie without the chocolate. No chocolate means no brown, so that is where it gets the title of a blondie. You still get that soft, chewy, sweet bar, just minus the chocolate. These blondies are nice and moist and the cream cheese frosting pairs with them perfectly.
How to make this Orange Blondies Recipe
- Preheat your oven and spray a baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Add butter, eggs, orange extract, and orange zest. Beat these all together until they are well combined.
- Pour this batter into the pan you prepared earlier and bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Once the blondies have baked and are cool, you can make the cream cheese frosting by beating cream cheese and butter together. Gradually beat in some powdered sugar, then add some orange juice and orange zest.
- Spread that frosting on the blondies. Store them in the refrigerator, and make sure you try one when they are cold!
More Citrus Dessert Recipes
Orange Cake
Caribbean Truffle Pie
Glazed Lemon Cakes
Baked Key Lime Pie Donuts
Lemon Sunshine Cupcakes
Tools Used to Make this Orange Blondies Recipe
- You can use a stand mixer or a hand mixer for this recipe.
- You’ll need a 9×13-inch baking dish – an inexpensive glass dish works great.
- I love using an offset spatula for spreading the frosting.
Orange Blondies
Ingredients
Blondies:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter softened
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure orange extract
- 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
- 4 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 pound 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons orange zest
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- Stir together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the butter, eggs, orange extract and orange zest. Beat until well blended.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out mostly clean, about 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the cream cheese and the butter together. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until it is completely combined and smooth. Beat in the orange zest and orange juice.
- Spread the frosting over the blondies.
- Store covered in the refrigerator.
Kimberly kampmann says
I am making this for the second time and love it!!
Rob edwards says
thanks for sharing this recipe! the blondes were fabulous! I added putting a greased parchment paper in the glass pan. Which allowed me to lift the blondes outof the pan all at once. Then I took a large knife and cut them into nice pieces. the first time I made them cutting and taking the out of the pan one at a time was difficut.
Deborah says
I’m so glad that you enjoyed them! And the parchment is definitely a great idea!
BeeBee says
My orange brownies looked and tasted like a pound cake rather than brownies. They were not gooey like brownies but they tasted great. Does anyone known of a” brownie” recipe that does not taste like chocolate?
Jenner says
Came across this a bit ago and made them for my Mom for Mother’s Day. I swapped out the cream cheese frosting for a chocolate pseudo-ganache of melted chocolate chips, orange juice and zest. She loved ’em. I loved ’em. Everybody loved ’em. =)
Deborah says
@Jenner, that sounds great. I’m having a craving and may have to make some of these up now!
Ingrid says
YAY, I found it! I’m printing out the recipe. Thanks for letting me know about these!
~ingrid
Augustina says
my mouth is watering as i write this! i’m having some friends over for dessert this friday and i just figured out what else to add to the menu!
btw, is orange extract easily found in grocery stores? i’ve seen lemon but not sure about the orange. Thank-you.
Tartelette says
They look wonderful and good choice on the frosting! These would be a great change from traditional brownies!
Dolores says
100% Paula Dean… how can you go wrong with that? I’m looking forward to trying these.
Kristen says
Those look fantastic! I hope you do win…keep entering! I love these recipes.
Belinda says
Ooooh, Deborah! These look beyond heavenly! And I remember that Paula Deen episode too, and recall thinking at the time that Orange Blondies sounded so wonderful. And I have to say, I agree about those cute Brownie Babe aprons. 🙂
Lynnylu says
These look really great. I will definitely make them as I love orange anything.
Rose says
Yum!! I love orange with cream cheese! They really look delicious–I’ll have to try these! I’m going to post mine tonight but these look better. 🙂
Terry B says
These sound fabulous! Next I think you should figure out a way to combine dark, fudgy chocolate with all this orange goodness. Something like that might even be illegal in certain states.
Nan says
Paula Deen haha, I love that woman! I think my favorite part about your awesome brownies is that you tied the orange rind into adorable little knots. I’m going to link to you right now, if you don’t mind!