Vibrant Chewy Blueberry Cookies are a naturally colored purple cookie bursting with fresh blueberry flavor.
Naturally colored and flavored bright purple cookies are a new exciting blueberry dessert recipe and way to use up all your seasonal berries!
Blueberry dessert recipe
I am a sucker for vibrant purple foods. Or any naturally colored foods for that matter. Having grown blueberries for a few years now I’m always looking for recipes that use fresh and frozen blueberries. There’s Blueberry Lemon Crisp, Blueberry Butter Cake, Blueberry Lemon Gelato and even Blueberry Quinoa Salad. But these Chewy Blueberry Cookies are my new favorite blueberry recipe.
A delicious (all natural) vibrantly colored chewy blueberry cookie made from just a handful of ingredients. I based the recipe on this genius, tik tok viral vegan blueberry cookie recipe from Justine Snacks. Her original recipe is a delicious blueberry dessert without eggs or milk that also calls for vegan butter.
My version’s adapted for use with regular butter and really the only other changes I’ve made to her creation was the additional step of rolling the cookies in sugar before baking. I really like how this dusting of granulated sugar results in a cookie with beautiful crackle like crisp exterior in contrast to its soft chewy interior.
Ingredients
- Frozen blueberries – fully defrosted. Pureed if desired for brighter more vibrant color. Feel free to substitute fresh berries in place of frozen in this blueberry cookies recipe. Simply ensure that the fresh berries are juicy and fully pureed before adding to the batter. Or try these berry cookies made with strawberries, raspberries, cranberries or blackberries instead!
- All purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Unsalted butter
- Salt
- Baking powder
- White chocolate chips – or try one of the other mix in variations listed below.
Substitutions for white chocolate chips in blueberry cookies
- Make blueberry cheesecake cookies by substituting frozen cheesecake balls for the white chocolate chips. Simply combine cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla into a thick cheesecake like mixture. Roll into tiny balls and freeze in a single layer on a baking sheet.
- Sprinkle on a homemade streusel topping made from butter, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon to make blueberry streusel cookies.
- Make blueberry lemon cookies. Stir a teaspoon of lemon zest into the batter and use lemon juice to make a lemon glaze for the finished blueberry cookies.
Step by step instructions
- Thaw frozen berries and soften butter ahead of time. The longer you can allow the berries to thaw and release their juices, the better. Alternately speed up the process by heating berries slightly either over a low stovetop or short intervals in the microwave.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cream softened butter and granulated sugar until light in color and super fluffy in texture.
- Add thawed berries and all of the berry juices and whip forcefully on high speed until berries are fully emulsified and incorporated.
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Reduce speed to low and gently stir in being careful not to over mix. Add white chocolate chips or other alternate mix in then cover tightly with plastic wrap.
- Chill blueberry cookie dough batter until fully stiffened and no longer slack, this can take from 1-3 hours. To speed up the chilling process you can place the dough in the freezer.
- Scoop into small balls using a cookie scoop or tablespoon and roll in remaining granulated sugar until fully covered.
- Place on light colored or parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake until lightly golden around the edges but not yet brown, 8-10 minutes.
- Cool blueberry cookies slightly, only about 1 minute to prevent sticking, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Enjoy!
Tips for vibrant cookies
Follow these tips for soft, chewy, vibrantly colored purple cookies with strong fresh blueberry flavor.
- DO NOT drain the juice, add it all to the batter. I repeat – do NOT drain the blueberry juice. If frozen berries are not super juicy after defrosting puree blueberries into essentially a thick juice with as few to no little bits remaining before adding to whipped butter and sugar.
- Fully whip the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy then add the defrosted (but NOT warm) blueberries and all the juice. And forcefully whip until fully emulsified and incorporated into the butter. Then add dry ingredients with a light hand and mix only until just combined being careful not to over mix.
- Completely chill the dough before rolling. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate or until no longer slack and loose. It can take from 1- 3 hours. If dough is still super soft after an hour, chill longer or place in the freezer to flash chill.
- Then it It really all comes down to time and temperature. I.E bake dough cold dough and do not over bake the cookies. Cookies will spread and turn out cakey and browned if the dough isn’t properly chilled, or if the cookies are baked too long.
How to substitute fresh berries for frozen
To substitute fresh blueberries, puree the berries and ensure that the fresh berries and juice still equal ⅔ cup AFTER being pureed. It should take at least a cup or more of fresh blueberries to measure ⅔ cup pureed berries. Do not measure the berries dry or else there will not be enough blueberries in the batter. If the fresh berries are not super juicy you can go the extra step of heating them a bit to release a little juice before pureeing and measuring to ensure correct measurement and substitution. But you must chill after heating. Or you can simply freeze the frozen berries then defrost and proceed with the original recipe.
How to serve
Serve warm or at room temperature. Delicious with a glass of ice cold milk, turned into an ice cream sandwich or even crumbled in a breakfast yogurt parfait.
How to store
Stored tightly covered at room temperature Chewy Blueberry Cookies will keep their amazing soft texture for up to 5 days.
Make ahead freezer cookies
To make ahead of time chill dough then scoop into little balls and place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Cover and freeze until firm and transfer to a freezer bag to store until ready to bake. Bake from frozen adding a few minutes to the overall cook time.
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar plus ¼ cup more for rolling
- ⅔ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ⅔ cup defrosted frozen blueberries defrosted but not drained
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Thaw frozen berries and soften butter.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cream softened butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.⅔ cup granulated sugar, ⅔ cup unsalted butter
- Add thawed berries and all juices. Whip on high until fully incorporated.
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt and gently stir into creamed ingredients. Add white chocolate chips. Then cover tightly and chill 1 hour or longer, until no longer slack.
- Place remaining ¼ granulated sugar on plate. then scoop blueberry cookie batter into small balls and roll in granulated sugar to cover.
- Place on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake until lightly golden around the edges but not yet brown, 8-10 minutes.
- Cool blueberry cookies slightly, only about 1 minute to prevent sticking, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Video
Nutrition
Leslie Sawmiller
I have never seen blueberry cookies before but this is the best idea ever! I’m a big fan of baked blueberries so I know this will be amazing!
Lana Roper
I just made these but I used regular chocolate chips instead of white because that’s all I had and they turned out really good. Love the blueberry taste just the right amount of sweetness. I will definitely make these again!
Claudia Lamascolo
these are so pretty I will be making these for a Veterans pot luck coming up thanks so much!
Michele
Loved these blueberry cookies. I followed your tip to puree the blueberries and add that to the batter. They had lots of blueberry flavor and were so pretty!
Jacqueline Meldrum
Those are the most amazing colour. I just want to reach into the screen! Beautiful photos too!
Lauren Michael Harris
These are the prettiest blueberry cookies. My kids LOVE blueberries and are going to love making these cookies with me this weekend!
Stephanie
Can the cookies be frozen after baking?
Tristin Rieken
Absolutely! Although I suggest freezing the dough before baking to make ahead of time this blueberry cookie can also be frozen after baking if you prefer. To freeze baked cookies allow them to fully cool then either wrap individually or stack cookies with parchment paper between them and freeze in an airtight container for up to two months. Thaw at room temperature and enjoy!
Jim
After watching the video again I realized that my batter didn’t have the same consistency as the batter in the video. I believe the difference lies in the blueberries that I used. I used fresh blueberries. My batter was very dry. The balls that I rolled were solid. One thing that I would change would be to not roll the balls in sugar. The cookies were way too sweet for me. I might try drizzling some dark chocolate on them or roll them in cinnamon for a variation.
Tristin Rieken
Thanks so much for the comment, Jim! I appreciate your additional suggestions for alternative to the sugar coating. Cinnamon and blueberries are delicious together, maybe even a cinnamon heavy cinnamon-sugar coating? That being said, I do fear that the extra sweet cookies you ended up with may be due to the fresh berry substitution. This recipe is meant to have a very wet batter that must be fully chilled before forming into balls. If your batter was dry rather than wet it’s possible that your fresh berries were not juicy enough and therefore did not correctly emulsify with the butter as the recipe calls for creating a completely different type of cookie that may be overly sweet with the ratio of sugar in this recipe. In order to substitute fresh berries you must ensure that the fresh berries and juice still equal 2/3 cup AFTER being pureed and that you are not measuring the berries dry or else there will not be enough blueberries in the batter. If the fresh berries are not super juicy you can go the extra step of heating them a bit to release a little juice before pureeing and measuring to ensure correct measurement and substitution. I will update the post to better clarify how to substitute fresh blueberries for frozen. Thanks again!
Christina J White
I would give this recipe a Zero rating! Dough was a sticky mess to work with,I had refrigerated it for over 1 hour. Color of the cookies was more of a pink/red than purple. Cookies didn’t bake properly;they just “spread” and ran together and turned dark brown on bottom and were falling apart when attempting to take off baking sheet to place on cooling rack.Never “rose”,they are flat! Greasy on the bottom. What a waste of money,time and ingredients!
Tristin Rieken
Hi Christina, I am so sorry to hear that you were disappointed with this blueberry cookie recipe. Although not the most difficult cookie recipe to perfect, it IS a little fussy and there are a few possibilities for why your cookies were not vibrantly colored and were crumbly and brown instead of soft and chewy (my guess is that the butter and sugar were not fully whipped and that the berries were not fully incorporated) 1. Were the frozen berries heated and still warm when mixed into the dough? If the berries are warm it will heat the dough and affect results. 2. Was all the liquid from the frozen defrosted berries added? If liquid is discarded it will affect results. 3. Was butter and sugar fully whipped together until light and fluffy? Were the defrosted berries and all the liquid fully whipped in for what seems like an insane amount of time and smooth and emulsified? If not blueberry cookies will not be vibrantly colored and chewy and cookies will turn out instead flat and greasy. Again, so sorry you wasted your ingredients but I PROMISE that these are amazing and suggest trying again with these tips 🙂
Kerri S
I was so excited to find a use for my frozen blueberries. Unfortunately, I didn’t read the puree option for the blueberries, and mine have no blueberry flavor at all, most of them burned on the bottom from the sugar, and no pretty purple color! I’m also really missing what an extract would add to the flavor. Maybe a vanilla or almond? I do love the white chocolate addition though.
Next time, I’ll puree blueberries, maybe add some vanilla, and only dip the tops of the cookies in sugar. I’m not giving up on a blueberry cookie as a use for my frozen blueberries!
Tristin Rieken
Hi Kerri, thanks so much for your comment and your persistence with these blueberry cookies 🙂 I am confident that we can troubleshoot and get these yummy treats to work out for you. A few questions – 1. were the berries fully defrosted but not warm? 2. was all the blueberry juice added to the blueberry measurement? 3. were the defrosted berries and juice fully whipped into the whipped butter and sugar mixture? 4. was the dough fully chilled and firm before forming? Typically these cookies are VERY blueberry in flavor and color and if they aren’t it is due to one of these things. Pureeing the berries isn’t typically necessary unless you find the berries aren’t super juicy after defrosting. Also, you can totally skip the extra roll in sugar if you’d like.
Amanda F
These came out amazing! A tip though, don’t refrigerate after baking. They aren’t as good. I used fresh blueberries and I’ve had to make 3 batches because everyone has bugged me for more. Thank you for sharing!
Tristin Rieken
Thanks so much for your comment, Amanda! I’m so happy you (and your loved ones) love them 🙂 Yes, they should be stored at room temperature to maintain that soft chewy texture.
Krystle
They turned out so great!! We tried the recipe with our fresh picked berries and let me tell you!!! OMG, yummmmmm!!! My family loved them!! Thank you for sharing the recipe and I’m definitely bookmarking this recipe!l and making them again!
Tristin Rieken
Yay, Krystle!! Thanks so much for sharing your experience with this blueberry recipe. Would you mind sharing the method you used with the fresh berries? Did you puree them fresh, use them whole or did you flash freeze the fresh berries and proceed as the recipe directed?
Krystle
I just microwaved them for a bit to let the natural juices come out and followed the recipes as stated. The second time I did freeze them and they turned out the same from the first batch, if not better. And for the third time, lol, It’s a family favorite since it’s blueberry season hehehehe I added some macadamia nuts and let me tell you!!! that added little crunch made it just a little more special. Thanks again for sharing and will be definitely trying your other recipes!!
Tristin Rieken
oh my gosh, YES to the macadamia nuts!! I’m so glad you and your family love this blueberry recipe 🙂
GLORIANNA Fogarty
For the cinnamon struessel version do you add it before or after baking?
Tristin Rieken
I would make your favorite crumble streusel topping (you can find a few of mine on my rhubarb crumble and blueberry butter cake recipes) then top each cookie with a bit before baking. Squeezing the crumble together tightly then freezing for a bit before topping the cookies will make for the most noticeable (and crispiest!) crumble topping. I hope this helps 🙂
J. Vermeulen
I made these last night using fresh blueberries. I pureed enough to make 2/3 cup. Had no white chocolate chips, so I used semisweet and half the amount. They came out great. I took them to work and every last one was taken. Thank you for an unusual recipe. Reminded me a little of scones, just not as dry. Awesome.
Tristin Rieken
ahh 🙂 🙂 Thanks SO MUCH for coming back to let me know how they turned out 🙂 Love your addition of semisweet chocolate chips.
Jo
Tried these blueberry cookies. They were good but the bottom of the cookie was brown and a little crunching. I used frozen berries and I just blended them in so maybe not enough juice. Will try again. I know they are suppose to be chewy but they almost were a little doughy in the middle but almost burnt on bottom. I will keep trying. All in all they were good.
Dianne
The cookies turned out great. To keep the dough firm enough to roll, I put it in the freezer between batches. Do the cookies need to be refrigerated because of the blueberries and butter?
Tristin Rieken
Glad you like them 🙂 No need to refrigerate instead store blueberry cookies at room temperature in an airtight container to maintain the soft texture.
Joseph
Not much of a Blueberry taste, white chocolate chips over power the taste of the Blueberry.. 2nd time I made them was better with out the white chocolate chips,. 3rd time,I made them I added 180 grams of Blueberrys instead of 2/3 cup and pureed them and added 1 teaspoon of Blueberry extract.. Now they taste like like real Blueberry.. No White Chocolate Chips…
Tristin Rieken
Thanks for sharing your results, I’m usually not a huge fan of white chocolate and typically opt to leave them out too or just use one of the other white chocolate substitution suggestions that I included in the post. Because these are a naturally colored and flavored cookie the flavor will vary greatly based on the quality of the ingredients and how flavorful/juicy your berries are to start with, I love that you persevered and added more pureed blueberries and ended up happy with the results after your third attempt 🙂
Vanessa
I made this recipe with fresh blueberries and a cream cheese frosting on top. They taste good but the texture really failed me. The middle tasted like underbaked cake batter and it was really pasty and sticky, but I couldn’t bake them for any longer otherwise the sides and the bottoms would burn. I baked them at 400° for 18 minutes total. The parts that were cooked all the way through were the sides which were crispy but still very cake like, which isn’t really ideal in a cookie for me. Maybe I made my cookies too big so they just didn’t cook evenly?
Tristin Rieken
yes, 18 minutes is WAY too long to have to bake these. They shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes max. So, I do think that it was most likely the size of your cookies. Thank you so much for pointing that out. The cookies they should be small, about 1 1/2 inch cookie rounds of cookie dough. I will update the post to make this more clear. Thanks so much for the comment, I really appreciate it 🙂
michele
These are really good, and very easy to make. I subbed pistachios for the white chocolate, and added a bit of cardamom, which I think goes well with blueberries. I look forward to messing around more with this recipe.