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These patriotic red, white, and blue blondies are rich, chewy dessert bars with a slightly gooey cookie center and buttery brown sugar vanilla flavor. They’re festive and fun for Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, or any summer picnic, potluck, or BBQ!
If you’re looking for quick and easy crowd-pleasing treat to make this summer, this is the recipe for you. Delicious, decadent, gooey funfetti blondies get a patriotic makeover with this easy red, white, and blue dessert recipe!
Blondies (aka cookie bars) are a fun dessert recipe that whips up in less than 45 minutes with just 15 minutes of hands-on prep time. I like to serve these along with a meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, or grilled chicken. They’re the perfect festive treat to add to an Independence Day dessert table!
And if you want to make these blondies feel extra special, you can serve them slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
Or take it one step further; to make dessert even more special for Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, or any summer gathering, you could set up an ice cream sundae table. Making your own sundaes is so much fun! Along with these dessert bar cookies, include a couple kinds of ice cream, a few different flavors of syrup (like hot fudge, caramel, butterscotch, etc.), and several toppings (such as sprinkles, chocolate chips, gummy bears, chopped nuts, etc.). And of course don’t forget the whipped cream and maraschino cherries on top!
Ingredients
Breaking It Down
Ingredients Explained
In this section I explain the ingredients and give substitution ideas where applicable. For the full recipe (including the ingredient amounts), see the recipe card below.
- Unsalted butter – Adds rich, decadent flavor and helps create chewy texture.
- Granulated white sugar and light brown sugar – Using a combination of white and brown sugar gives us just the right amount of sweetness with rich undertones of molasses and caramel.
- Egg – Acts as a binder and helps create the perfect cookie bar texture.
- Vanilla extract – To create classic cookie flavor.
- Vanilla bean paste – Bumps up the creamy vanilla flavor profile and adds pretty dark flecks. If you don’t have paste, you can use more extract instead.
- Flour – All-purpose flour is the base of this cookie dough. Note that blondie dough is much thinner than regular cookie dough with its consistency falling somewhere in between cookie dough and cake batter.
- Salt – To season the cookie bars.
- Red, white, and blue sprinkles – Here we use patriotic colors, but you can use any color of sprinkles you like.
- White chocolate – Chopped white chocolate is completely optional.
How to Make Red, White, and Blue Blondie Cookie Bars
To prep, preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8 by 8-inch baking pan with 2 sheets of parchment paper so it hangs over all 4 sides.
- Whisk together the warm melted butter, granulated white sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl (the mixture will be somewhat gritty at this stage). Whisk in the egg, vanilla extract, and vanilla bean paste (the mixture will now start to turn thick and glossy).
- Add the flour and salt, and whisk to combine, being careful not to over-mix.
- Stir in 5 tablespoons of sprinkles and the white chocolate (notice that the consistency is somewhere between cookie dough and cake batter).
- Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan and sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sprinkles on top.
- Bake until the blondies puff up and are light golden along the outside, about 22 to 25 minutes, being careful not to over-bake. Let the blondies cool completely in the pan before removing and cutting.
- If desired, once they’re cool, you can drizzle on a little bit of melted white chocolate and top with a few more sprinkles.
Storage
Once the chocolate drizzle is set, store blondies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. The flavor and texture is generally best during the first 3 days after making them.
Variations
- Use any color sprinkles you want. Go for rainbow sprinkles for classic funfetti cookie bars!
- Instead of white chocolate, use milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or omit the chocolate.
- Change up the extract flavor. Instead of vanilla, use almond or coconut. (TIP: Use about half the amount if you go with something other than vanilla extract because other extracts can sometimes be overpowering.)
Tips For the Best Blondie Cookie Bars
- The butter should be fully melted and cooled ever-so-slightly, but still warm to the touch. This is the key to getting a beautiful sugar-crackled crust.
- By nature, blondies are dense and chewy with a slightly gooey center. It’s not a mistake; there’s no need for a leavening agent in this recipe.
- Feel free to change the color of sprinkles you use to match any season. For example, green and white are fun for St. Patrick’s Day and red and green are perfect for Christmas.
Frequently Asked Questions
Blondies, which are sometimes called “blonde brownies”, cookie bars, bar cookies, or dessert bars, have a vanilla base flavor. On the other hand, brownie batter has a chocolate base.
However, you can still add chocolate to your blondies! Chocolate chips are a popular mix-in for blondies, but the batter itself isn’t chocolate-flavored.
The short answer: yes!
The longer explanation is that when blondies are overcooked they tend to be dry and hard. However, when blondies are cooked properly they’re chewy and rich, with a slightly gooey center.
The trick to blondies that are rich and gooey (but not undercooked) is to know when to pull them out of the oven at just the right time. Blondies are done cooking when they’re light golden along the outside. The outside should slightly pull away from the pan, and the blondies should puff up slightly.
TIP: Blondies will look a touch undercooked in the middle when they’re done. Fear not, they’ll continue cooking in the pan even after you remove them from the oven. This is how you’ll get a delicious, slightly gooey center.
More Cookie Bar Recipes to Try
- Flourless Pecan Pie Cashew Butter Blondies
- Peanut Butter Blondies
- Cinnamon Apple Brown Butter Blondies
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Patriotic Red, White, and Blue Blondies Recipe
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Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted and ever-so-slightly cooled)
- 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar (lightly packed)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons red white and blue sprinkles (divided into 5 tablespoon + 1 tablespoon)
- 1/2 cup chopped white chocolate (optional)
Instructions
- Prep. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8 by 8-inch baking pan with 2 sheets of parchment paper so it hangs over all 4 sides.
- Make the batter. Whisk together the warm melted butter, granulated white sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl. Whisk in the egg, vanilla extract, and vanilla bean paste. Add the flour and salt, and whisk to combine, being careful not to over-mix. Stir in 5 tablespoons sprinkles and the white chocolate.
- Bake. Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan and sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon sprinkles on top. Bake until the blondies puff up and are light golden along the outside, about 22 to 25 minutes, being careful not to over-bake.
- Cool. Let the blondies cool completely in the pan before removing and cutting. (TIP: If desired, once they're cool, you can drizzle on a little bit of melted white chocolate and top with a few more sprinkles.)
Notes
- Storage: Store leftover blondies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is automatically calculated and should be used as an approximate.
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This post was first published on An Edible Mosaic on May 24, 2021 and updated on June 29, 2026.
I’m the writer, recipe developer, photographer, and food stylist behind this blog. I love finding the human connection through something we all do every day: eat! Food is a common ground that we can all relate to, and our tables tell a story. It’s my goal to inspire you to get in the kitchen, try something new, and find a favorite you didn’t know you had.
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