Fresh lemon juice, lemon zest and freeze dried blueberries come together to make this tart but sweet cookie
Updated January 28, 2023
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Heading into this new year with so many recipe updates (and upgrades!) that I’m finding myself a bit overwhelmed! But I knew I needed to update the Blueberry Lemon sugar cookies for quite some time. I knew it could be better, and I was not giving the flavor combination the justice it deserved. Hoping this update will demonstrate what a delish combination it can be within a sugar cookie.
So as I still look to make recipes easier we are once again coming in with a no chill recipe, woot woot! Saving us hours out of our busy days with these no chills. I had more ingredients in the previous recipe version and I was really trying to simplify it but bringing in more of the flavor components. So we are approaching this recipe just a bit differently than the others. And not to scare you away, but I highly recommend reading my sugar cookie recommendations and approaches with these roll out recipes HERE.
Prior To Baking
Lemon Zest & Sugar: this recipe we are going to zest our lemon on TOP of our sugar…and then you are going to take your fingers and pinch that zest and sugar together until very well combined. It will leave the sugar feeling just slightly wet, but what you are doing is spreading those delicious lemon juices onto the sugar. It will help develop our lemon flavor within the cookie without having to resort to a lemon extract.
Lemon Juice: I am all for using natural ingredients as much as possible, and so I use a full tablespoon of lemon juice in this recipe. The combination of the lemon zest sugar and lemon juice provides a tart but subtle flavor to the cookie. I don’t want the lemon to overpower the blueberry so I’ve found this amount to work perfectly for me.
Freeze Dried Blueberries: this recipe does NOT use fresh blueberries. Fresh blueberries will contain a bit too much moisture and make it a bit more difficult to achieve a rollout cookie (no spread), so we are using freeze dried blueberries here. You can find them on Amazon, Target or your local grocery store.
Butter: you are going for room temperature butter here, but you also do not want your butter TOO warm. You will know your butter is ready if you press a finger into it and it slightly indents against it. If it pushes in too far and kind of mushes out than you have gone too far. You can still use as is but you will need to chill the dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour before baking.
Storage: you can store these at room temperature in a secured ziplock bag for up to 3 days, or in a freezer safe ziplock bag for up to 3 months. To defrost, simply remove entire bag without opening from freezer and place on kitchen counter. Allow to come to room temperature before opening the bag.
If you find that your dough is a bit too soft after mixing (slightly sticky), just lightly flour the bottom parchment paper and the top of the dough. Roll out and cut as you normally would. I would do this between each roll out/cutting to make it easier.
No Chill Blueberry Lemon Sugar Cookies
Equipment
- 1 stand mixer with paddle attachment
- 1 fine mesh strainer
- 1 lemon zester
- 1 kitchen scale optional but recommended
- 1 blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 3 cup bleached all purpose flour 390 g
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 220 g
- ¾ cup sugar 150 g
- 1 cup freeze dried blueberries 34 g
- 1 ea large egg, room temperature
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 1 ea zest of lemon
Instructions
Combining Lemon Zest & Sugar
- Add sugar to a small bowl and set aside.
- Zest lemon above the sugar. Once fully zested, use your fingers to pinch in the zest and sugar. Do this for a few minutes to fully add the oils of the zest into the sugar. Set aside.1 ea zest of lemon
Making Dough
- Preheat oven to 350 °F.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add butter, sugar, fresh lemon juice and salt. Mix on medium high until creamed – about 2 to 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Scrape down bowl as needed.1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, ¾ cup sugar, 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice, ½ tsp fine sea salt
- Add egg and mix on medium low until fully incorporated. Scrape down bowl as needed.1 ea large egg, room temperature
- In a blender or food processor, add freeze dried blueberries and grind down for just a few seconds. Place fine mesh strainer over stand mixer bowl and sift blueberry powder in. Discard remaining seeds or large blueberry pieces left in strainer.1 cup freeze dried blueberries
- Mix on medium low until blueberries are fully mixed in. Scrape down bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, add flour and baking powder and sift well. Add to wet ingredients.3 cup bleached all purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder
- Mix dry ingredients on low until about half the flour has been absorbed. Then turn on one notch higher and mix until dough begins to pull onto the paddle attachment and away from the bowl.
Rolling Out Dough
- Place dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll to ?" thickness (or your desired thickness). If you find the dough to be slightly sticky, just lightly flour bottom of parchment paper and the top of the dough prior to rolling out.
- Cut shapes and place on baking sheet at least 1" apart.
- Bake for 9 minutes, or until you see very light browning along bottom edges.
- Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. Allow to completely cool before enjoying or decorating.
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