Lemon Blueberry Cookies

Lemon Blueberry Cookies make the magical and classic lemon-blueberry combination shine. This trusted year-round recipe can be made with fresh or frozen blueberries, and the soft and chewy texture is nothing short of dreamy. Enjoy them with your morning coffee, for an afternoon snack, and of course for an after dinner dessert.

The flavors of tangy lemon and sweet juicy blueberries fill these utterly delicious, soft and chewy cookies.

There is a secret easy "trick" in this recipe that's similar to the trick in my cinnamon cookies with raisins, that make these blueberry lemon cookies a notch above all others.

The trick: The lemon zest is first rubbed into sugar to release its natural oils, and this is then steeped in melted butter. These two things combined intensify the lemon flavor.

I think you're going to love them!

Jump to:

• The Key Ingredients
• How to Make Lemon Blueberry Cookies
• Variations
• Can you substitute regular flour with gluten-free flour in cookie recipes?
• How to Store Them
• More Blueberry and Lemon Desserts
• Lemon Blueberry Cookies Recipe

The Key Ingredients

With many basic ingredients like white and brown sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, salt butter and eggs, it's likely you already have most of them in your pantry and fridge.

• fresh blueberries - Look for blueberries with smooth skin that are deep purple to almost black in color. Fresh blueberries are always my first choice, but you can substitute with frozen or dried. A bit smaller in size frozen wild blueberries are excellent. If you use either of the frozen blueberries, thaw them first, and if there's excess liquid, drain them also.
• lemon zest - The amount of lemon zest is key for the lemon flavor to shine through, so don't use less than the listed amount.

How to Make Lemon Blueberry Cookies

- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.

- Combine the lemon zest with ¼ cup of the granulated sugar and use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar. This intensifies the lemon flavor by bringing the natural oils to the surface.

- Add the butter to a small saucepan with the lemon sugar blend and the vanilla. Turn the heat to low to melt the butter. Once it's completely melted, turn off the heat and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk to blend and then gently combine it with the blueberries. This will help them not all sink to the bottom of the cookies.

- In another mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar and remaining granulated sugar with the melted butter-zest mixture. Mix it well, add the egg and mix until smooth.

- Make a well in the flour bowl and pour the wet ingredients into it. Use a rubber spatula to get every last bit. Then gently fold the two together.

Recipe Tip: If you really want to intensify the lemon flavor, add a teaspoon of pure lemon extract or lemon oil.

- Use a 1 ½-inch cookie scoop to scoop the cookie dough into balls -- the bottom of each one should be leveled off. At this point, they can be place close together.

- Gently cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Recipe Tip: Don't skip or shorten the refrigeration time, if you do, the cookies will spread more.

- About 15 minutes before you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F and line a a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

- Add the now refrigerated balls of dough to the new parchment-lined baking sheet. They should be spaced a few inches apart. You should have about 9 per sheet.

- Bake in the preheated 350°F oven for about 14 minutes, turning them about halfway through.

Recipe Tip: These are soft cookies. If you let the cookies go a couple of extra minutes in the oven, they'll be crisper and slightly more firm.

- Repeat until you've baked all of them.

- Let them cool on the baking sheets for about 10 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack. If you don't have cooling/baking racks, just cool the cookies on the baking sheets.

Variations

• If you want to add chocolate chips, white chocolate is lovely with lemon and blueberry. I also recently spotted cream cheese chips and lemon chips, which, if you can find them, would be fun. (I would add about 1 cup.)
• Glaze the cookies. You can follow the recipe for the glaze that's drizzled over my Cranberry Orange Cake. Just substitute the orange juice with lemon juice and omit the liqueur -- or not. 😉

Can you substitute regular flour with gluten-free flour in cookie recipes?

Yes, but results could vary a bit. For the best gluten-free version of these cookies, substitute with Cup4Cup Multipurpose Gluten-Free flour.

How to Store Them

• Once they're completely cooled, the lemon blueberry cookies can be stored in an airtight container, at room temperature a day or so. Since they contain fresh fruit, they will loose their crispness a bit faster than other cookies. ,
• If you don’t plan to serve them within the first day after baking them, you can freeze them.
• They can be kept frozen in an air-tight container for up to a month. (Longer is okay, but the longer they’re frozen, the more moisture they’ll loose.)

More Blueberry and Lemon Desserts

I hope you love every last crumb!