diff --git a/qutebrowser/utils/utils.py b/qutebrowser/utils/utils.py
index 95d3c9468..632773b7f 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/utils/utils.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/utils/utils.py
@@ -889,6 +889,10 @@ def yaml_load(f):
 
 
 def yaml_dump(data, f=None):
-    """Wrapper over yaml.dump using the C dumper if possible."""
-    return yaml.dump(data, f, Dumper=YamlDumper, default_flow_style=False,
-                     encoding='utf-8', allow_unicode=True)
+    """Wrapper over yaml.dump using the C dumper if possible.
+
+    Also returns a str instead of bytes.
+    """
+    yaml_data = yaml.dump(data, f, Dumper=YamlDumper, default_flow_style=False,
+                          encoding='utf-8', allow_unicode=True)
+    return yaml_data.decode('utf-8')
diff --git a/tests/unit/config/test_configtypes.py b/tests/unit/config/test_configtypes.py
index 4f20cb818..ce4e052db 100644
--- a/tests/unit/config/test_configtypes.py
+++ b/tests/unit/config/test_configtypes.py
@@ -531,7 +531,7 @@ class TestList:
 
     @hypothesis.given(val=strategies.lists(strategies.just('foo')))
     def test_hypothesis_text(self, klass, val):
-        text = utils.yaml_dump(val).decode('utf-8')
+        text = utils.yaml_dump(val)
         try:
             klass().from_str(text)
         except configexc.ValidationError:
@@ -746,7 +746,7 @@ class TestInt:
 
     @hypothesis.given(val=strategies.integers())
     def test_hypothesis_text(self, klass, val):
-        text = utils.yaml_dump(val).decode('utf-8')
+        text = utils.yaml_dump(val)
         try:
             klass().from_str(text)
         except configexc.ValidationError:
@@ -800,7 +800,7 @@ class TestFloat:
     @hypothesis.given(val=strategies.one_of(strategies.floats(),
                                             strategies.integers()))
     def test_hypothesis_text(self, klass, val):
-        text = utils.yaml_dump(val).decode('utf-8')
+        text = utils.yaml_dump(val)
         try:
             klass().from_str(text)
         except configexc.ValidationError:
@@ -1305,7 +1305,7 @@ class TestDict:
     @hypothesis.given(val=strategies.dictionaries(strategies.booleans(),
                                                   strategies.booleans()))
     def test_hypothesis_text(self, klass, val):
-        text = utils.yaml_dump(val).decode('utf-8')
+        text = utils.yaml_dump(val)
         d = klass(keytype=configtypes.Bool(), valtype=configtypes.Bool())
         try:
             d.from_str(text)
diff --git a/tests/unit/utils/test_utils.py b/tests/unit/utils/test_utils.py
index aff5b49b4..d5585c06e 100644
--- a/tests/unit/utils/test_utils.py
+++ b/tests/unit/utils/test_utils.py
@@ -943,4 +943,4 @@ def test_yaml_load():
 
 
 def test_yaml_dump():
-    assert utils.yaml_dump([1, 2]) == b'- 1\n- 2\n'
+    assert utils.yaml_dump([1, 2]) == '- 1\n- 2\n'