Easy no-chill Lemon Blueberry Cookies are soft, chewy, and filled with fresh blueberries and fresh lemon. The fruity and refreshing flavor combination makes the perfect cookie for Easter and the hot summer months!
Preheat the oven to 375° F (190° C) and line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper or grease lightly.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour (2 ¾ cups), cornstarch (1 tsp), kosher salt (¾ tsp), baking soda (½ tsp), and baking powder (½ tsp).
In a large mixing bowl, add sugar (1 ½ cups) and lemon zest (2 TBL), combining well with hands or whisking until the mixture is fragrant and resembles wet sand.
Add melted (slightly cooled) butter whisk well, then add the egg (1), egg yolk (1), vanilla extract (2 tsp) and whisk vigorously until smooth and color lightens slightly, about 2 minutes. Whisk in lemon juice until combined, another minute or so.
Add the flour mixture (2 ¾ cups flour, ¾ tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp cornstarch, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp baking powder) to batter, mixing together until no flour streaks remain. If using frozen blueberries, be sure to remove 1 TBL of the flour mixture.
Carefully fold in the blueberries (1 cup), trying to avoid smashing them***. If using frozen blueberries, toss them gently with the reserved 1 Tablespoon flour mixture, then carefully fold them into the lemon sugar cookie dough.
Using a medium cookie scoop (2 TBL), carefully scoop cookie dough aiming for 3-5 blueberries per cookie. Keep a few extra blueberries on hand to gently press evenly into the dough or feel free to move them around; you don’t necessarily want multiple blueberries right next to each other.
Roll dough balls in granulated sugar (4-5 TBL) and place 2-3 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. I typically put 9-11 cookies on a baking sheet.
Bake for 9-14* minutes in a preheated oven until the cookies have spread and are set. For softer, chewy lemon blueberry cookies, bake for 9 minutes. For cakier cookies, bake for closer to 12-14 minutes. Cool on pan 3 minutes, then remove cookies with spatula to cooling rack. Cool completely. if desired, sprinkle with sparkling sugar or Swedish sugar or optional glaze (below).
Notes
My sea-level recipe tester had these notes: Using a rounded 2-tablespoon scoop, yielded 24 cookies, baked at 375° F for 14 minutes. They loved them!
Optional Lemon butter glaze
If desired, in a small bowl, mix powdered sugar (1 cup), melted butter (1 tsp), lemon juice (1-2 TBL), vanilla extract (¼ tsp), and lemon zest (1 tsp). Add more liquid if the mixture is too thick. Drizzle on top of cookies, allowing to harden before storing.Storage Tips:
Lemon blueberry cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for 3 days or in the fridge for up to 7 days.
Freeze lemon blueberry cookies: Place lemon blueberry cookies on a baking sheet in a single layer, flash freeze one hour until hard, then transfer to an airtight container or ziplock baggie, freeze up to 3 months.
Thaw by placing them in a single layer on a plate (they're delicious straight from the freezer, too).
High Altitude InstructionsThese cookies have been tested at high altitudes and sea levels.
Decrease sugar to 1 ¼ cups
Increase flour to 3 cups
Decrease baking powder to ½ teaspoon
Bake as directed in 375° F (190° C) oven removing closer to the 10 minute mark.
Notes
***Alternatively, if using fresh blueberries, you can instead add 3-5 blueberries per cookie after scooping and rolling, gently pressing into the dough balls.
Frozen blueberries may be substituted for fresh. DO NOT THAW. And when you fold them into the batter they will most likely leave streaks of purple in the cookie dough, not all together unfun!
During testing, I found that frozen wild blueberries worked best as they are smaller; don’t forget to toss them gently in a tablespoon of the flour mixture before adding to the dough. Do not overmix the dough (it will turn your cookies purple and make a mushy mess of things).
I also found that reducing the oven temperature to 350° F (175° C) and baking 13-16 minutes was best.
Lemon Zest I loving using my Microplane for zesting citrus fruits. It just gets the aromatic skin and not the pith (white part underneath, it’s bitter, you don’t want that).
This is a no chill cookie dough. In fact, I tested a batch to see how they would turn out if I refrigerated them for 10 minutes. The cookies did not spread as nicely, and were more cakey in nature.