Gordon Ramsay’s blondies recipe is a fudgy white chocolate bake loaded with dried cranberries and a crisp golden crust, ready in under 50 minutes. One of the simplest bakes in his entire cookbook library, and honestly one of the best.
This comes straight from his Ultimate Cookery Course, where he describes blondies as “a white chocolate version of brownies” that are “a bit more subtle in flavour.” In the YouTube video where he makes them live, he says to stock up because they’ll keep for a week and they’re a great way of getting ahead when guests are coming.
What makes his version different is how few things can go wrong if you follow his order. Butter melts first, sugar whisks in while it’s warm, flour goes in stages, and the chocolate folds in last when the batter has cooled. Every step has a reason.
Gordon Ramsay Blondies Recipe
Course: DessertCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy9
squares15
minutes35
minutes615
kcal50
minutesChewy white chocolate blondies with tart cranberry pockets from Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Cookery Course. Dark brown sugar gives them their golden colour and rich toffee depth.
Ingredients
230g (8 oz) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
340g (12 oz) dark brown sugar
Pinch of sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
280g (10 oz) plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
240g (8.5 oz) white chocolate, chopped into small chunks
4 tbsp dried cranberries
Directions
- Preheat and line: Set the oven to 180°C (160°C fan / 350°F / Gas 4). Butter a 23cm (9 inch) square cake tin and line with greaseproof paper, leaving overhang on two sides for easy lifting.
- Melt and whisk the base: Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Remove from the heat and whisk in the dark brown sugar and salt. Give it a proper whisk here because this is what makes the mixture lighter and slightly fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and whisk again.
- Add the eggs: Stir the beaten eggs into the butter mixture until smooth. You are looking for a rich, glossy paste.
- Fold in the flour: Sift the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Pour the wet mixture in a little at a time, whisking between additions. Adding the flour in stages stops it going lumpy. It should drop off the whisk cleanly.
- Add chocolate and cranberries: Let the batter cool for a couple of minutes, then fold in the white chocolate chunks and dried cranberries. Do not overmix. If the batter is still hot, the chocolate melts and you lose those gooey pockets.
- Bake: Spoon into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a spatula, working into the corners. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the outer edges are firm and the middle is still slightly soft.
- Cool and cut: Leave in the tin on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before cutting into 9 squares. The centre firms up as it cools, so do not panic if it looks wobbly when it comes out.
Notes
- Store in an airtight container for up to a week. The edges dry out after day three but the centre stays chewy if sealed properly. You can freeze individual squares wrapped in cling film for up to a month.
FAQs
Why does Ramsay melt the butter instead of creaming it?
Most blondie recipes tell you to cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer. Ramsay does the opposite. He melts the butter first, then whisks the sugar in by hand while it’s still warm.
That’s what makes his blondies dense and fudgy rather than light and cakey. Creaming traps air, which gives you rise and fluffiness. Melting skips that entirely, so the batter stays heavy and sets into that chewy centre.
He also insists on a hand whisk over an electric mixer because you can “gauge it so much better” and stop the second it comes together.
Why does he use dark brown sugar instead of caster?
Dark brown sugar has molasses in it. That’s where the golden colour comes from and the toffee depth that separates a proper blondie from a plain white chocolate slab.
Ramsay whisks it into the melted butter straight away. In the video he says this “makes the mixture slightly lighter, slightly fluffy.”
The warmth of the butter dissolves the sugar evenly so there’s no graininess. Caster sugar would melt fine but you’d lose the colour, the chewiness, and most of the flavour. The molasses is doing the heavy lifting.
Why does Ramsay add the flour in stages?
He’s very specific about this in the video. Half the flour goes in first, you whisk until smooth, then the rest follows. He says it’s “so important to add the flour in stages” because dumping it all in at once creates lumps you can’t whisk out.
There’s a texture check too. He says the batter “should be just dropping off the whisk” when it’s right.
If it’s stiff, you’ve overworked it. If it’s runny, something went wrong with the measurements. That dropping consistency means the gluten hasn’t been overactivated, which keeps the blondie tender instead of tough.
Why both bicarbonate of soda and baking powder?
Most home bakers use one or the other. Ramsay uses both because they do different jobs.
In the video he says the bicarb “gives it that little tartness” which balances the sweetness of the brown sugar and white chocolate. The baking powder handles the rise.
Together they give the blondie a slight lift so it’s not completely flat, while keeping that fudgy chew in the centre. Only baking powder and you’d get more rise but no tartness. Only bicarb and you’d get a dense, almost bitter result.
Why does the white chocolate go in after the batter cools?
White chocolate melts at a lower temperature than dark. If you fold it into hot batter, it dissolves completely and you just get a slightly sweeter sponge with no chocolate texture at all.
Ramsay waits for the batter to cool, then chops the chocolate into what he calls “little matchsticks” so they spread evenly.
Some pieces melt into pools during baking, some stay as soft chunks. That mix of melted and intact chocolate is the whole point. It’s the same idea behind his chocolate brownies from Bread Street Kitchen, where he throws dark chocolate chunks at the half-baked brownie so they sink in and create pockets.
How are these different from Ramsay’s chocolate brownies?
They look similar but the technique is completely different. The chocolate brownies from Bread Street Kitchen start by melting 245g of dark chocolate with butter together as the base. The chocolate IS the batter. With blondies, the base is just butter and brown sugar. The white chocolate is an add-in, not the foundation.
The brownies also use two types of sugar (caster and light brown) while the blondies rely on dark brown sugar alone for all their colour and depth.
And the brownies have a signature move where you throw chocolate chunks at the surface halfway through baking so they crack through the crust. The blondies fold everything in before the tin goes in the oven. Same baker, totally different approach.
