Blueberry Muffin-Top Cookies

I got this cookbook a while ago, and as soon as I got it, I looked through and marked recipes that I was interested in making. There are lots and lots of recipes that I marked! The author of this book is Australian, which I know means that there will be a few differences in the recipes, but they aren’t too difficult to navigate. All of the recipes list weight measurements, and I tend to use those already. The book calls for vanilla paste and hazelnuts, so I stocked up on those.

I decided to make these Blueberry Muffin-Top cookies first. I made only one small change. The recipe called for fresh blueberries, but I know that the blueberries I get at the store are giant, and I knew that wouldn’t work for this recipe. I suppose I could find huckleberries (although not easily) but the easiest substitute was wild blueberries, which are small, but also frozen. Thankfully, since so many people make fruit smoothies nowadays, frozen wild blueberries are easy to find. 

I made up the dough, and the first batch, with very frozen berries, turned out great. As the berries warmed, the dough became increasing blue. It didn’t impact the taste at all, but they did get messy! I also used too many frozen berries, but that’s ok. You bake these cookies for a few minutes then add the crumb topping and finish baking. These came out great, although they looked different depending on the batch. No matter, the taste is excellent and they do taste a lot like a (skinny) blueberry muffin. I can’t wait to make more recipes from this book!

Blueberry Muffin-Top Cookies
210 grams flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
160 grams butter, room temperature
125 grams brown sugar
100 grams sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla paste
Zest of 1 lemon
170 grams wild blueberries

110 grams flour
50 grams sugar
45 grams brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
70 grams butter, very soft

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, combine the 160 grams of butter, brown sugar, sugar, egg, vanilla paste, and lemon zest. Beat on medium until combined. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula.

Make the crumb topping: combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, and salt. Add the butter and mix with your fingertips until the mixture resembles crumbs. Set aside.

Shape the cookies into 30-gram portions and place on the prepared baking sheet. I placed 8 cookies per baking sheet, in case they spread. Bake for 5 minutes.
 
Remove the cookies after 5 minutes and sprinkle the cookies with the crumb topping. Bake for 10 additional minutes, until browned along the edges. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Some of My Best Friends are Cookies by Emelia Jackson

Crispy Oatmeal Cookies with Blueberries

I had already been baking, but I wasn’t happy with how the cookies I had made turned out. I knew that I needed to make a different recipe, but I was also fairly short on time. I do have a well-stocked kitchen, but sometimes even that isn’t sufficient. Thankfully, I was able to select this recipe, and while I made a few edits, it worked perfectly.

This cookie originally called for dried cherries. I’m pretty sure that I had those on hand, but I needed a small amount and I came across freeze-dried blueberries first, and used those. Later when I was typing up the recipe, I realized that I should have added nuts to the cookies, but I didn’t see that in the recipe at all. I guess that happens when you are working quickly! 

These cookies are thin and crispy, but not too thin! I think that the maple syrup in the dough helps them remain a little chewy, and the butter helps with the crispness. The blueberries are very small and they don’t add a lot of flavor. You could use whatever dried or freeze-dried fruit that you have on hand. The cinnamon oat flavor and the texture of these cookies is the real winner. I think you could use this as a base for just about anything, and it would turn out wonderfully. 

Crispy Oatmeal Cookies with Blueberries
1-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar 
2 tablespoons cup maple syrup
½ cup butter, room temperature
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/4 cup freeze-dried blueberries

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the oats, sugar, brown sugar, and maple syrup. Stir on low to mix. Add the butter, egg, and vanilla to the oats, and mix on medium until the mixture is well combined. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until the four almost disappears into the dough. 

Switch to a spatula and fold in the freeze-dried blueberries.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, using about 1-1/2 tablespoons of dough per cookie. The cookies may spread so don’t place too many on each baking pan.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies look set and begin to brown along the edges. Allow the cookies to set on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Recipe based on Red Wine Dragons

Lemon Blueberry Cookies

I think if I were to capture the flavor that best summarizes summer, it would be blueberries or some other type of fruit. We had blueberry bushes at the house that I lived in until I was 6 years old. I don’t remember a lot, but I do know that I like blueberries a lot. Baking with fruit of any type is challenging, but there are options.

For this recipe, the solution was to use freeze-dried blueberries. While this was once an unusual ingredient, freeze-dried fruit isn’t too difficult to find. There must be some sort of shortage as I went to get blueberries, and everything was stocked except the freeze-dried blueberries. I had wanted to make them sooner, but I just kept my eyes open until I was able to find them in stock at the store.

Using freeze-dried fruit removes the extra moisture you get with fresh fruit, but they still have great flavor. The blueberries are enhanced by lemon zest, that is combined with the sugars and allowed to infuse in order to strengthen the flavor. These cookies are soft, and remain soft after baking, so you must be careful not to use too much flour and to not bake them too long. If all goes to plan, you will get lovely soft cookies with the wonderful flavors of lemon and blueberry.

Lemon Blueberry Cookies
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
Zest of one lemon (2 tablespoons)
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups (280 grams) flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup freeze dried blueberries, chopped
Additional sugar

In a large mixer bowl, combine the sugar, brown sugar, and lemon zest. Mix the ingredients with your fingers to evenly distribute the zest. Allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes. 

Add the butter and mix on medium until light. Add the egg and vanilla and stir until incorporated. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. In order to avoid over mixing, stop the mixer when a few streaks of flour remain.

Using a spatula, carefully fold the blueberries into the dough. Do not over mix. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and roll the balls in sugar. Place the cookies onto the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 8-10minutes, until the cookies start to turn golden brown. Be careful not to over bake the cookies, they should still be soft. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Browned Butter Blondie

Berry Lemon Cheesecake Bars

I had bought a couple of lemons recently and still had one lemon that I wanted to use. It was starting to show its age so I went looking for recipes, hopefully something where I had all of the necessary ingredients. Since I try to keep cream cheese on hand, this helps a lot! I found these lemon cheesecake bars, which were perfect. The original recipe called for strawberry preserves, which I didn’t have, but I figured I could find something.

Our kitchen is stocked with quite a variety of preserves, which I think I have mentioned before. I knew we would have something that would work with lemon. While some of the flavors we had on hand didn’t combine well with lemon, I ended up finding some preserves that were a combination of blueberry and blackberry. Blueberry and lemon are classic together, and the blackberry would be even a little bit better.

These bars take a little bit longer because there are several steps. I made my crust in the mixer, but I could have also used my food processor. That does a better job of making pastry, but the mixer was fine. The mixer bowl was quite clean so I just used that for the filling as well. These bars are excellent with the blueberry/blackberry preserves! The only challenge was cutting the bars when they were very cold, which was nearly impossible! Once I let the bars sit at room temperature for a short time they were much easier to work with!

Berry Lemon Cheesecake Bars
2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3/4 cup cold butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces
16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup berry preserves

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon zest and butter. Mix on low until the mixture is crumbly. (You could also use your food processor for this.) The mixture will be dry. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.  

Bake for 20 minutes, until the crust begins to brown.

While the crust is baking, make the filling: in a large mixer bowl beat the cream cheese, sugar, and lemon zest on medium until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring until combined. Stir in the lemon juice.

Once the crust comes out of the oven, carefully spread the preserves in an even layer over the crust. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the preserves and smooth the top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cheesecake is set in the center. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour before refrigerating for several hours. Bring the bars to room temperature for about 30 minutes before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Cookies and Cups

Lemon Cookies with Blueberry Buttercream

I’ve been off work for a bit and I wanted to make something nice for when I was back on campus. My colleague also had a birthday very recently, so I thought about what she would like. One of her favorites is lemon and blueberries, and that seemed like an excellent combination for cookies. I have made cakes and muffins with that flavor combination, and both lemon cookies and blueberry cookies, but I’ve not made lemon blueberry cookies. Now was the time. I found a lemon sandwich cookie with blueberry filling and that felt perfect.

I ended up using a different lemon cookie recipe than the original blog post, and substituted one that I had made previously. The original cookie recipe didn’t provide a useful yield, which was frustrating. I used the lemon cookie recipe found below and it made 3 dozen cookies, perfect for 18 sandwich cookies. That was great, as sandwich cookies are more substantial and I typically make fewer than other types of cookies. You get two cookies! What is there not to like?

The blueberry buttercream filling I kept to the original, and this was her ode to Maine blueberries, which tend to be smaller. I had several types of blueberries in the freezer, including Maine ones! I used those for this recipe as the smaller blueberry worked better with the buttercream. I had extra buttercream but I am sure I can find something to do with the extra icing! These cookies are substantial, but I think are quickly going to become a favorite. The lemon shines through clearly and the blueberry buttercream is excellent. It’s hard to stop eating after one cookie!

Lemon Cookies with Blueberry Buttercream
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1-1/8 cups sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Yellow food color, if desired
Powdered sugar

½ cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-1/2 cups powdered sugar, divided
½ cup frozen blueberries, defrosted

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking pads.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and lemon zest until light. Add the egg and yolk and stir to combine. Stir in the lemon juice, lemon extract, vanilla, and food color. The mixture may look curdled but will come together once the flour is added. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture until the dough comes together.

Shape the dough into mounds (mine were 17-18 grams) and roll into a ball. Roll the balls in powdered sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies barely begin to brown along the edges. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Cool completely before assembling the sandwich cookies. It’s helpful to pair the cookies by size at this point, so it doesn’t have to be done later.

Make the filling: in a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, milk, vanilla, and ½ cup powdered sugar. Mix on medium until smooth. Gradually add the remaining powdered sugar, stopping and starting the mixer as needed to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the thawed (and drained) blueberries and mix on low to combine.

Place the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a larger open tip. Pipe the buttercream onto half of the cookies and top with the remaining cookies.

Cookies recipe from Cooking Classy. Buttercream recipe from It’s Simple!
 

Blueberry Oat Cookies

When I bake and I know that I won’t be taking the cookies to work or elsewhere, I try to make a smaller batch. I came across these cookies, and it looked like a half recipe (shown here) would be perfect. I had all of the ingredients, and I was sure that I had some blueberries in the freezer. My husband looked at the recipe and suggested that I try using freeze-dried blueberries, so there was no risk of the fruit going strange or my cookies turning purple. I went to the store and was able to find freeze-dried blueberries, so I wanted to give that a try.

In reading the comments for this recipe, it suggested using the full amount of cinnamon, as the original recipe gave a range. I did use the full amount, and cinnamon is one of the fantastic flavors of these cookies! Normally, in making half a recipe, I would use half an egg, which for me is simply using the egg yolk. If you do use freeze-dried blueberries, I would go ahead and use the entire egg, as the freeze-dried blueberries don’t contain any moisture and the egg can provide that. Of course, you could always use fresh or frozen blueberries, and could get away with just a yolk.

I baked two baking sheets worth of cookies. I noticed that the first batch didn’t flatten or change shape all that much, so the second batch I flattened the cookies slightly and I think they looked better. I liked using the freeze-dried blueberries, as they had great flavor, but I wasn’t worried about the fruit going off. I would not necessarily think of blueberries combined with cinnamon, but the cinnamon makes all the difference in these cookies!

Blueberry Oat Cookies
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cups oats
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup freeze-dried blueberries

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar. Stir in the egg and vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the oats, flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula.

Shape the dough into 1-1/2 balls and place on the prepared baking sheets and flatten slightly. I placed about 8 cookies per baking sheet.

Bake for about 12 minutes, until golden and set. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for five minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Elaine Gelina, via Taste of Home

Purple Blueberry Cookies

A week or so ago, when my husband and I were trying to plan what to do on the weekend, we decided that we would visit the local farmers market and get some apples for a pie that we planned to make. We had a great time, and it is interesting to see how produce is converting from summer specialties to items that make me think of fall. We got the apples we needed, and since I grew up with blueberry bushes in our back yard, I also got some blueberries. Thankfully they freeze very well.

In trying to figure out how to use the berries, I looked at recipes that I had already saved. I admit that none of them were very unique. My husband found some different recipes, including this one. I have to say I have never made purple cookies, and the point of these cookies is that you do bash the blueberries so that they release their juices and turn everything purple. It’s a very different approach than what I am used to!

One thing to note for these cookies is the chilling time. The original blog shows what the cookies look like if they are or aren’t chilled, and chilling the dough makes a big difference. The look more purple when chilled, and that’s the whole point here! These cookies are so good! You expect a cookie with fruit to be softer, but they have a nice crunch. They aren’t as sweet as you might think, so the white chocolate chips are the perfect addition!

Purple Blueberry Cookies
2/3 cup frozen blueberries, defrosted but not drained
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
Additional sugar

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until light. Add the thawed blueberries and juices and mix on medium to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the white chocolate chips with a spatula. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Scoop the cookie dough into small balls and roll the balls in the sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden but not browned. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Fresh Flavorful

Almond Teacakes with Blueberry Filling

It’s the last regular week of the school year. Graduation is this week and soon many folks will either be gone for the summer or will be in the library working our limited summer schedule. It’s been a strange academic year, and I am looking forward to when things are a little more normal. I work in the summer, but not quite as much. I think summer will be great, as long as it isn’t too hot.

I pinned these cookies not that long ago, and I was really excited to make them. I wasn’t sure if blueberry jam would be easy to find or not, but the store had a few different varieties. I bought Bonne Maman, which is a French brand that I like a lot. I figured that we would have no issue eating any extra jam. The only other unusual ingredient is the almond flour. I looked at the store and it was really expensive, so I got some almond meal at Trader Joe’s. They must use whole almonds, as their meal isn’t as blanched. I figured it would work the same anyway.

These teacakes look fancy, but they are quite easy to make. The recipe has you shape the dough into balls, but you really don’t even need to do that. I placed them in the pan and made sure the cup was full and then pushed the dough down so it was set and then make the hole in the cookie. They baked up great, with a little dot of blueberry right in the center. My cookies look a little most rustic because of the almond meal I used, but they are still very good. The cookies are a little crumbly, but that is standard for this type of cookie.

Almond Teacakes with Blueberry Filling

2 cups flour

1 cup almond flour/meal

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

About ½ cup blueberry jam, room temperature, stirred

Powdered Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 24 mini muffin tin with baking cups.

In a food processor, pulse the flour, almond meal, sugar, baking powder and salt until blended. Add the butter, vanilla and almond extract. Pulse until the mixture forms a soft dough. Shape the dough into balls, and then make an indentation in each ball with your thumb or the end of a wooden spoon. Place in the baking cup with the indentation facing up. Fill each cookie with a small amount of blueberry jam.

Bake for about 15, until the edges are lightly browned. Allow the cookies to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar when cool.

Recipe from Saving Room for Dessert

Blueberry Pie Cookies

Nothing says summer like blueberry pie! I came across this recipe and it sounded just perfect for this week. I was really surprised that this recipe was posted by Crazy for Crust in December. I have to say that I’m not thinking about fruit pie that time of the year. But this recipe uses frozen wild blueberries, which can be found all year around, so you could make it any time that pleased you.

Make sure that you use wild blueberries for this recipe, as they are smaller and work best with the mini muffin cups that form the crust of these cookies. I had hoped to find fresh wild blueberries, and I’m sure I could have if I had explored a bit. I used frozen ones, which seem to be popular because they are used in smoothies. If you do use frozen wild blueberries, make sure you drain them super well. I thawed mine and then let them sit on paper towels for about 15 minutes to be sure they were as well drained as possible.

Pressing the dough up the sides of the mini muffin cups is a bit tedious, but not too bad. This recipe made exactly the right amount of dough for 18 cups and I had exactly the right amount of filling to fill those 18 cups. I can’t say that’s usually the case with me, so it was nice for something to come out so precisely. It doesn’t make too many, which is the only drawback. These are a bit fragile, and mine got a little crumbly on the trip in to work, but they were absolutely delicious anyway!

Blueberry Pie Cookies

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups flour

1 cup wild blueberries, fresh or thawed and drained well

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 ounces white chocolate, chopped

1 teaspoon shortening

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 24 section mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray and dust with flour.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter on medium until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and beat on medium again to combine. Add the vanilla and salt and stir to incorporate. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour. Mix just until the dough comes together.

Place 1 tablespoon of dough into 18 of the muffin cups. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of each cup with lightly floured hands.

Make the filling: drain the blueberries. Place the blueberries in a medium bowl and add the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently stir to combine. Divide the filling between the 18 muffin cups.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned. Cool completely before removing from pan. Once cool, remove the cookies from the pan with the help of a small metal spatula.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine the white chocolate and shortening. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth. Spoon the white chocolate into a plastic bag, snip off the end of the bag and pipe onto the cooled cookies. Allow the white chocolate to set before serving.

Recipe from Crazy for Crust