Meyer Lemon Cream Cheese Blondies

Sweet and tangy blondies with lots of Meyer Lemon zest, Meyer Lemon juice and cream cheese topped with a strawberry glaze.

This is my first post for the New Year and I wanted to do something refreshing. That mean something with lemons and I have been doing a lot of post with chocolate and it needed a brief break.

I'm using Meyer Lemons because it has both the sourness of the a lemon yet has some sweetness from the tangerine or mandarin.

You can tell the different by the color, that would be more of a yellow-orange and slightly bigger.

Since they have a short season I have to make a few recipes with it.

These blondies have a great combination of Meyer lemons and cream cheese. I would say that is a great combination.

I baked these slightly under to get a the gooeyness like a chocolate brownie.

Recipes you may like:
Lofthouse Style Meyer Lemon Sugar Cookies
Meyer Lemon Cranberry Scones
Strawberry Lemon Sugar Cookies

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Meyer Lemon Cream Cheese Blondies 

Time-
Prep: 45 minutes
Baking: 20 to 25 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter
12 ounces (1 1/2 bricks) Cream Cheese
2 cups Granulated Cane Sugar 
2 1/2 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
3 Tablespoons Meyer Lemon Zest
1/4 cup Meyer Lemon Juice
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Fine Sea Salt
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

Strawberry Glaze
1 package Freeze Dried Strawberries
2 cups Confectioners' Sugar
1 Tablespoon Meyer Lemon Juice
2 teaspoons Meyer Lemon Zest
2 to 3 Tablespoons Milk

1. Grate the Meyer lemons into the 2 cups of sugar. Let that sit for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line the bottom of a 13 by 9 pan with parchment then spray nonstick spray. Set aside.
3. Whisk together flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.
4. In a medium sauce pan, melt butter and cream cheese together on low heat. Whisking often so it doesn't burn the bottom, may take up to 15 minutes. It may look curdly at first but keep whisk it will come together. Remove from the heat once melted, add vanilla extract and let cool for 10 minutes.
5. In a large bowl, beat together eggs and lemon-sugar until smooth. Add in lemon juice and beat until just incorporated then add in the butter-cream cheese mixture. Beat until smooth.
6. Add flour mixture to the sugar-cream cheese mixture until well incorporated. The mixture maybe slightly lumpy, that's okay.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes mostly clean. Let pan cool on a wired rack completely.
8. Strawberry Glaze: whisk together confectioners' sugar and Meyer lemon juice. Add lightly crushed freeze dried strawberries and zest. Add in milk a teaspoon at a time until slightly thinned out.  Drizzle glaze over cooled blondies and let set for 1 hour.
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