These blueberry lemon cookies have a bright lemon sugar cookie base studded with fresh blueberries and white chocolate chips.
Why this Recipe Works
We use cream cheese in addition to butter to make these blueberry lemon cookies soft and STAY soft! While the sugar rolled on the outside of the cookies gives them a light and crispy exterior, while maintaining a tender interior.
The lemon flavor comes in a few different ways, the first being lemon zest. The lemon zest adds so much wonderful flavor, way more than the lemon juice alone ever could! Only a little bit of lemon juice can be added to this dough to avoid making the cookies cakey. We add just a little bit of pure lemon extract to make that lemon flavor really shine through in these blueberry lemon white chocolate chip cookies. .
The lemon pairs perfectly with the juicy blueberries and white chocolate and comes together for the perfect soft and chewy cookie!
Ingredient Notes
- Cream Cheese. Cream cheese makes these cookies soft and rich and keeps them soft for days.
- Sugar. We use only granulated white sugar in this recipe to keep the cookies light without overpowering the lemon sugar cookie flavor.
- Lemon zest & Lemon Juice. The lemon zest and juice adds a punch of fresh lemon flavor to these blueberry lemon cookies. Be careful to not get any of the pith (the white part of the lemon rind) when zesting your lemon—it is bitter.
- Lemon Extract. Lemon extract amps up the lemon flavor that we get from the lemon juice and zest without adding too much extra liquid.
- White Chocolate Chips. White chocolate chips add sweetness, a little texture, and pair perfectly with the lemon and blueberry flavors.
- Blueberries. You can use fresh or frozen blueberries, see our FAQ section for all the tips and tricks if you want to use frozen blueberries.
How to Make this Recipe
- Take your room temperature butter and cream cheese and cream together with the sugar until the mixture is completely smooth and fluffy (about 2 minutes).
- Add in your egg, vanilla, lemon juice, lemon zest, and lemon extract and beat the mixture again for 1 minutes.
- Add in the dry ingredients—salt, baking soda, and flour. Gently mix until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.
- Gently fold in the blueberries and white chocolate chips, trying not to mash them.
- Scoop 3-4 tablespoons of dough and roll them in sugar. Freeze the cookie dough balls for at least 1 hour before baking. (This is my favorite microplane to use for zesting lemons, and this is my favorite cookie scoop, I almost always use the 4 tablespoon one for perfectly sized cookies every time!)
- Bake the cookie dough balls at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 13-16 minutes—the edges of the cookies should be just barely golden. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool the blueberry lemon cookies completely before eating.
Frequently Asked Questions and Expert Tips
In this recipe you can use fresh or frozen blueberries. I’ve found that fresh works best, but in a pinch frozen blueberries will do. Frozen blueberries tend to release more liquid when baked and have a tendency to streak the cookie dough with purple. If you decide to use frozen blueberries, add them to the dough while still frozen (do not thaw)
Freezing the cookie dough is an important step in this recipe. This dough, because of the high amount of butter and the addition of cream cheese, is SUPER soft. So because the dough is looser than your typical cookie dough you need to freeze it to help the cookie maintain its shape in the oven. If you don’t freeze the cookie dough before baking them you’ll find that your cookies will melt into puddles and the texture of them won’t quite be right.
After you’ve creamed your butter, sugar, cream cheese, and eggs together, you’ll add in your dry ingredients. It’s important that you only mix this in until the flour and other dry ingredients just disappear. If you over mix the cookie dough the gluten in the flour will start to develop and your cookies will lose their tender texture and become dry and tough.
When you add in the blueberries, try to do it as gently as possible. The blueberries are fragile and have tendency to mush. So be careful when incorporating the blueberries so we can avoid mashed blueberries and streaking in these blueberry lemon cookies.
How to Store this Recipe
Room Temperature. These blueberry lemon cookies are okay at room temperature for 2-3 days. I don’t like to keep them in an airtight container because I’ve found the blueberries tend to make the cookies go a little soggy. I like to cover them loosely with a cloth overnight.
In the Freezer. One of my favorite ways to eat them is to freeze them! The cream cheese in the blueberry lemon cookies keeps them soft even when frozen. Plus freezing them is a great way to store them long term. You can freeze these lemon blueberry cookies for up to 2 months. But we all know they won’t last that long!
If you're a fan of blueberries and lemon check out these other favorites!
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Blueberry Lemon Cookies
blueberries, and sweet white chocolate chips. The sugar on the outside gives
them a crispy exterior, while the inside stays nice and soft.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup butter room temperature
- 4 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar + 5 tablespoons for rolling cookie dough in
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 teaspoons lemon extract
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 3 cups flour measured correctly
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and either grease or line 2 baking sheets, Cream together butter, 1 ¾ cups of sugar, cream cheese, for 2 minutes until smooth and fluffy. Add in egg, vanilla, lemon extract, lemon juice, and lemon zest and beat for 1 minute.
- Mix in salt, baking soda, and flour by hand until flour is just combined. Then gently fold in chocolate chips and blueberries—try not to mash any of the blueberries.
- Place 5 tablespoons of sugar in a small bowl. Scoop about ¼ cup of dough and roll the ball of dough in the sugar. Freeze the dough balls for at least 1 hour before baking (You need to the freeze the dough or you’ll end up with cookies that look like puddles).
- Bake for 13-16 minutes until the edges of the cookies are just barely golden. Let cookies sit on the cookie sheet for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. If you make small cookies be sure to decrease the baking time.
Notes
Nutrition
originally posted August 22, 2018
Hi, this cookie recipe sounds amazing! I’d love to give it try.
Do the cookies have cheesecake flavour? Because the recipe requires cream cheese.
Hi Lori, the cookies do not have a cheesecake flavor. The cream cheese just gives the cookies a soft tender texture.
- Alyssa
This is one of my favorite recipes EVER! My sister even requested I make them in place of a birthday cake for her last year. I've made it several times, and for Christmas I made them using oranges (including orange extract), fresh cranberries, and semi-sweet chocolate in place of the lemons, blueberries, and white chocolate chips. I did slightly alter the amount of orange juice and extract that was used when doing this, and they were AMAZING. Truly a huge hit. It makes me so sad that it's so hard to find cranberries outside of the holiday season. This is such a gem of a recipe and I'm so glad to have found it! I will say though, that my cookies never spread much and are a very fluffy, tall, round cookie. I don't mind it at all and think it's a bit of a signature aspect of them when I make them, but I've followed the recipe to a tee and never had them really spread.
Love the idea of using this recipe with orange and cranberry! I'm definitely going to try that during the holidays when fresh cranberries are available. If I make mine on the smaller side they don't spread too much, they still taste good, I just like big cookies 🙂
- Alyssa
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I FEEL GUILTY BECAUSE THEY TAST SO HEALTHY AND FRESH. JUST ADDED A COOKIE ADDITION TO MY HOUSE
Can I freeze these for days before baking? I would let them thaw a little before baking
Hi Natalie, I've never frozen the cookie dough for longer than an hour. However, I have had a few people report back that their cookies turned out fine after doing so! I would recommend letting the cookie dough sit out for about 30 minutes before baking. Let me know how it goes!
- Alyssa
I have been making these for a few months. I keep the frozen dough balls on hand. I bake them right out of the freezer and they're always perfect. They're thick but that's okay. They are everyone's favorite cookies. Thank you for sharing. I am about to try them with strawberries. Wish me luck!
Can I use gluten free flour?
Hi Amber, I have personally never tried using gluten-free flour in this recipe. I have had a couple people tell me they've used 1-to-1 gluten-free baking flour with good results. If you do try it, I'd love to hear how it turned otu!
- Alyssa
I think I froze mine too long and so mine also did not spread very much. I froze mine approx. 2 hours. but they taste so delicious! I love them so much!
love love these!
Making these for an event I am doing (I’m a caterer) and wanted to see if instead of freezing them, can I refrigerate the dough balls? Because we are doing a big batch, our freezer doesn’t have the capacity to hold the sheet pans, but our fridge does. I refrigerate my chocolate chip cookie dough for at least 30 minutes- hr before baking.. will it yield the same results?
Hi Monet, I haven't tested this out myself. I would guess if you refrigerated the scooped cookie dough balls for maybe two hours, it would give similar results as freezing for 1 hour. I would recommend doing a test batch before the event!
- Alyssa
I have a sub shop that used to have a cookie similar to this near me and stopped selling them.
I love the flavor but my cookies turn out soft and domes compared to yours pictured. This is the second time I have tried this recipe. I make no subs. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Cynthia, it's always hard to diagnose the problem exactly without being there. It could be a few different things... It could be that you are measuring the flour differently and ending up with too much flour. Or it could be that you are making your cookies smaller than 3-4 tablespoons, I've found when I make them smaller they don't spread as much. If those don't seem like they could be the issue, you could try skipping the freezing of the dough, this will help them spread more. I hope that helps!
-Alyssa
Simply amazing cousin proudly proclaimed “this is the best cookie I’ve ever had” made them twice and I’m obsessed thank you for providing this delicious recipe
Is the butter salted or unsalted?
You can use either. I typically use salted butter.
- Alyssa
I made these cookies today, all I can say is they are dangerous should not be left alone with them. Can you make this as a gluten free version ?
Hi Matthew, I have never tried making these gluten-free! But one of our followers has tried making them with a cup4cup gluten free baking flour and said they turned out great!
- Alyssa
Just made these yesterday and omg! What a hit! My hubby loves them, all my coworkers LOVE them, and same with my hubbys coworkers!! People have been asking for the recipe from me all day haha thanks!
They were fantastic!!!! Just made a batch, I made my balls too big so they didn't flatten out as much as the picture but they taste just as good!!!!! Super yum.
Yummy! I used fresh blueberries that I kept chilled so they wouldn't burst and would add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup next time. I used Meyer lemons for the juice and zest and no extract (since I didn't have any) and the lemon flavor was nice and strong. I might try chilling the batter before forming the balls as it was very mushy.
These are just out-of-this-world, over-the-top fantastic!
I made these today. Delicious. It made 50 cookies.
All purpose or self rising flour?
all-purpose!
- Alyssa
I made these last night and they were delicious. I made a test batch as I will now be making these for my son's wedding cookie table. The fresh blueberries and lemon just add freshness and the cream cheese makes them smooth and tasty. I made smaller ones (2T baller) and they stayed a little puffy but I like that.
Thanks for such a great recipe. I'll be making more this weekend. The fact that they can be frozen after baking makes these perfect for a cookie table.
I have approximately 20 dough balls in the freezer. Is this recipe intended to produce 1 cookie per ball?
Hi Gretchen, yes I usually get about 20-24 cookies depending on this large I make them. They’re designed to be bigger cookies, but you can make them smaller if you prefer.
- Alyssa
Hello,
What is the yield for this recipe in approximate # of cookies?
Thanks so much.
Hi it makes about 20-24 large cookies!
- Alyssa
Delicious! Great for a summer wedding cookie table. Received many compliments and was asked by several for the recipe.
Can you make these with dried blueberries?
Hi Jessie! You could but I don't think they'll be nearly as good as fresh blueberries.
- Alyssa
Flavor is great, but they never flattened like regular cookies or like they’re pictured. I tried letting my second batch thaw a bit, and manually flattening the dough, but they still stayed puffy. Perhaps too much flour?
Hi Angie, it could be a couple things. Like you suggested, it could be too much flour. The other thing I would check is size, I make my cookies with about 4 tablespoons of dough, if you make them smaller they may not spread as much as mine did. If neither of those is the culprit then I suggest skipping the freezing of the dough as you might not need that step.
Hope that helps!
- Alyssa
Delicious! These may be a new favorite!
Ours as well!