Why you’ll love them
These lemon blueberry cookies are perfection. Using fresh blueberries and with loads of lemon tang, they’re absolutely irresistible.
If that’s not enough, they’re easy to make too. Melt some butter, then mix everything together in one bowl, scoop and bake! No chilling required, no stand mixer or even a handheld mixer in sight, these cookies are so quick and simple!
The cookie itself is buttery and so delicious but the bursts of blueberry and lemon are amazing. You can use fresh or frozen blueberries or even dried blueberries work well. Lastly they have this crackly crust of sugar on the outside that can’t be beat.
These blueberry lemon cookies are adapted from my white chocolate macadamia cookies.
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Ingredients you’ll need
These no chill lemon sugar cookies, loaded with blueberries don’t need many ingredients.
Jump to the recipe card for full ingredients and instructions.
- Flour: You’ll need plain flour / all-purpose flour. These cookies have not been tested with gluten-free flour.
- Cornflour: Known as cornstarch in the US, cornflour is often used as a thickener in sauces or a way to soften the crumb texture in a cake. Similarly here, it adds a little softness. You can leave it out if you like.
- Butter: Use salted butter for these cookies or if you only have unsalted, you can use that and add a ¼ teaspoon of salt to the dough as well.
- Sugar: You just need caster sugar (superfine sugar) or white granulated sugar here. Either works fine.
- Baking soda: Also known as bicarbonate of soda, make sure to use this and not baking powder as they work differently. Baking soda helps these cookies spread but also gives them a lovely chewiness.
- Lemon zest: Lots of fresh lemon zest is how we make these lemon blueberry cookies irresistibly lemony. It gets worked into the sugar to release all the natural lemon oil.
- Egg: Just one large egg.
- Vanilla extract: Not only does vanilla add vanilla flavour (obviously) but it also enhances other flavours so don’t skip it. And use vanilla extract, not vanilla essence.
- Blueberries: You can go a number of ways here. All have their pros and cons so pick which will work best for you.
- Fresh blueberries: (pictured) have lovely bursts of fresh blueberry but you will need to store them in the fridge and eat them quick. Try to use firm, small blueberries for best results. The firm blueberries don’t burst as easily as softer ones, and the smaller ones mean you can distribute more through the dough
- Dried blueberries: Dried blueberries have the texture of sultanas or raisins and add a lovely chewy texture to the cookies. They can be stored for longer and at room temperature is fine.
- Frozen blueberries: Just like the fresh ones but make sure to leave the blueberries frozen right up until you add them to the dough. Don’t overmix the dough or it may start to discolour and you will need to bake the cookies slightly longer.
- Freeze-dried blueberries: These are crispy and add that crispy crunch to these cookies.
How to make blueberry cookies (step-by-step)
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
- Melt the butter: Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave until just melted then set it aside for 10 minutes to cool.
- Combine the dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornflour and baking soda.
- Make the lemon sugar: In a large mixing bowl, massage the lemon zest into the sugar until it looks like wet sand (photo 1). This releases all the oil from the lemon zest and intensifies the lemon flavour.
- Wet ingredients: Add the egg, butter and vanilla to the sugar and whisk until smooth (photo 2).
- Add the flour mixture and mix with a spatula to combine (photo 3).
- Add the blueberries (photo 4) and very gently fold them into the dough so you don’t burst any.
- Scoop the cookies: I love using a cookie scoop here to keep this super simple and so my hands don’t get sticky. Use a ¼ cup sized cookie scoop and scoop rounds of dough or alternately roll golf ball sized balls of dough.
- Bake: Roll the cookie dough balls in sugar (photo 5) – this gives a gorgeous sugar crust – then place them onto prepared baking trays (photo 6) and bake for 12-14 minutes or so until the edges are getting golden.
Tips and tricks
- Make sure to weigh the flour: Different methods of measuring flour (ie: scooping directly or spooning into a scoop) will result in different amounts of flour so, when baking, a kitchen scale is your best friend, making sure you get the exact amount you need. Plus, no need to wash up cups.
- If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw them first. Add them to dough cold, don’t mix the dough too heavily and you will need to bake slightly longer.
- If you don’t roll them in sugar, the cookies will spread more.
- All ovens vary: Rarely does the temperature on the dial reflect the actual temperature inside the oven so I recommend keeping an oven thermometer inside your oven at all times so you can keep a close eye on the exact temp. Also, different ovens circulate air differently so what takes 12 minutes in my oven might only take 11 or maybe 14 in yours.
- Bake a test cookie: This will help you work out exactly how long to cook a batch in your oven to get your blueberry lemon cookies the way you like them.
- Don’t overcrowd the trays: These cookies will spread so don’t overcrowd the baking sheets.
- If you want to make them nice and round when they come out of the oven, place a larger cookie cutter over the top, then swirl it around the cookie a few times to reshape it and also to thicken them a little.
- Pan-banging time! When you take the baking sheet out of the oven, give them a good hard rap on the benchtop 2-3 times. This will help the cookies sink a little and get that gorgeous craggy, cracked top.
Variations
These lemon blueberry cookies are so versatile. You could swap the blueberries for dried cranberries. The lemon will still compliment them beautifully or swap to orange zest instead. You can also add in some white chocolate chips which go really well with blueberries.
You could also add a lemon glaze or white chocolate drizzle over the top of the cookies once they cool.
Add a touch of lemon extract for an even more intense lemon flavour. Don’t use lemon juice though as it will add too much moisture to the dough and they’ll spread too much.
Yield and storage
This recipe makes about 16 lemon blueberry cookies.
They need to be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container if you used fresh or frozen blueberries and should be eaten within 3 days. If you used dried or freeze-dried blueberries, they can be stored in the pantry (still in an airtight container) for 4-5 days though they will stale a little as time goes on and the edges will lose their crispness.
These cookies will keep in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw them at room temperature for 30-45 minutes and eat immediately once thawed as the moisture released from the blueberries may cause the cookies to get soggy patches.
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Ingredients
- 130 g salted butter, melted (9 tablespoons/ 4 ½ oz)
- 260 g plain flour (all purpose flour) (2 cups /9 ¼oz)
- 2 teaspoons cornflour (US cornstarch)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarb soda)
- 1 cup caster sugar or white granulated sugar
- ¼ cup not packed lemon zest (3 medium lemons or 2 large) (15g/½oz)
- 1 large egg, room temp
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup fresh blueberries (150g/5.3oz)
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar or white granulated sugar, extra
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- Whisk and rubber spatula
- Large baking sheets
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan forced) / 350F. Line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper.
- If you haven’t already, melt the butter then leave to cool for 10 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornflour and baking soda. If you're using unsalted butter, add a ¼ teaspoon of salt too. Mix well and set aside.
- In a separate large bowl, massage the lemon zest into the sugar until it looks like wet sand. Add the butter, egg and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
- Add the flour mixture and mix with a spatula until just combined.
- When the flour is 90% mixed through, add the blueberries to the dough. Fold gently so you don’t break the blueberries until just combined.
- Use ¼ cup sized scoop, packing it in, to scoop balls of dough or roll roughly golf balls size balls of dough. Roll the tops of the cookie dough balls in the extra sugar then transfer to the baking trays, sugar side up. Space the cookies about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for around 12-14 minutes until turning golden on the edges – don’t overbake.
- Take the tray out of the oven and give it a bang on the worktop 2-3 times. If you like, and they've spread out of shape, swirl a larger cookie cutter around the outside of each cookie to reshape it into a circle.
- Allow them to cool on the trays for 5 minutes before using a spatula to help to transfer them to a cooling rack. Once cool, they will firm up and be crispy on the outside and soft and chewy in the middle.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- For best results you should always weigh ingredients like flour and sugar. Kitchen scales like these are relatively cheap but if you can’t weigh the ingredients, use the spoon and level method (don’t scoop).
- All ovens vary – check for doneness 2 minutes before the recipe suggests. They should be golden at the edges and dry on top. If they need longer, bake a little more.
- Blueberries: Using fresh blueberries, try to choose small, firm berries. If using frozen blueberries, wild blueberries are great as they’re smaller. You can also use dried blueberries (a bit like dried cranberries in texture) or freeze-dried blueberries which are super crispy.
- If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw them first. Add them to dough cold, don’t mix the dough too heavily and you may need to bake slightly longer.
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4 Comments on “Lemon Blueberry Cookies”
These cookies are great!! Already made them two times this week 👍🏾👍🏾
Thank you for the recipe:)
So happy you love them Dasha. Thanks for dropping back with a review.
Too dry had to add lemon juice. Maybe I should have added more melted butter. Haven’t tasted yet.
Hello Margaret. Maybe you added too much flour? Did you weigh your ingredients? This dough is definitely not dry so sounds like something’s gone wrong with the measures.