These blueberry cookies are thick, chewy, and bursting with real blueberries! Made with fresh blueberry sauce and a little cornstarch in the dough, these beautiful blue cookies stay soft for days and taste like a bite of blueberry pie.
My fridge fruit drawer is bursting with summer berries lately. After having our fill of raspberry lemon bars, blueberry coffee cake, and several batches of blueberry muffins, I figured it was time for cookies!
These homemade blueberry cookies are bringing their A-game, and they are all the berry goodness you’re looking for! I wanted a soft-baked, chewy, flavorful cookie jam-packed with real blueberries. This recipe understood the craving and delivered! Instead of simply folding the blueberries into the cookie dough, I love how every bite of these blueberry cookies is infused with delicious, fresh blueberry sauce. I’ll show you how easy they are to make!
Why These Soft and Chewy Blueberry Cookies Won My Heart
- Made with real blueberries. Cooking blueberries down into a sauce makes it easy to fill every inch of dough with real blueberry flavor.
- Soft and chewy. I’m sharing my easy method for perfect soft-baked cookies. The outside gets coated with sparkly sugar for the BEST contrasting crunch.
- Easy to make. There’s a small amount of hands-on prep time, about 30 minutes, but these cookies come together without a ton of work. You could even swap the homemade blueberry sauce with store-bought sauce if you’re short on time.
What You’ll Need
You can make these cookies with fresh or frozen blueberries, and the rest of the ingredients are easy to find. Scroll down to the printable recipe card for the full recipe amounts and details.
Blueberry Sauce Ingredients
- Blueberries – Pick through your blueberries and remove any stems. Also, pluck out any mushy, fuzzy, or bruised berries while you’re at it.
- Sugar – Granulated sugar or brown sugar.
- Lemon Juice – Make sure to use freshly squeezed lemon juice, and not bottled.
For the Cookie Dough
- Dry Ingredients – Flour, baking soda, and salt. To avoid overmeasuring, measure the flour using a kitchen scale or the spoon and level method (spoon the flour from the bag into the measuring cup, then level it off).
- Cornstarch – Cornstarch is a pretty magical ingredient in cookie recipes! It makes the texture extra chewy, soft, and tender. It also helps to keep the cookies from spreading in the oven.
- Butter – Brought to room temperature.
- Sugar – I recommend white granulated sugar here, since you’ll use a portion of it in the cookie dough, and the rest to coat the cookies before baking.
- Milk and Egg – Any kind of milk will work. You can use whole milk, 2%, or your favorite non-dairy milk. Bring the egg to room temperature before you begin.
- Purple Food Coloring – Use liquid food coloring rather than the gel colors, as you don’t want the color to be too strong. We’re going for a soft blue hue, and not the Blueberry Girl from Willy Wonka. Another option is to use blue butterfly pea powder (blue matcha powder); just a teaspoon is usually enough, though the color might vary. If you’d prefer to make your cookies without any food coloring, that’s fine, too.
Can I Use Frozen Blueberries in These Cookies?
Yes, keeping in mind that you’ll either need to thaw frozen berries before you make the sauce, or cook them from frozen and simmer the sauce for longer so that the excess moisture evaporates.
Tips for the Best Blueberry Cookies
- Don’t overmix. Overmixing will make these cookies dense, flat, and tough, instead of soft and chewy.
- Chill the cookie dough. The blueberry cookie dough needs to chill for at least 3 hours in the fridge. This might seem like a long time, but don’t skip it! Chilling prevents the cookies from spreading while they bake.
- If you only have one baking sheet, you can bake the cookies in batches. I can usually fit 6 cookies on a standard baking sheet with enough space in between. Keep the remaining dough cold in the fridge (don’t leave it out to warm up on the counter).
- Avoid overbaking. Take these cookies out of the oven when they’re just starting to crack and set at the edges, but still soft in the center. Overbaking makes the cookies dry and crumbly.
- Don’t move the cookies too soon. After baking, let the soft cookies rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes. If you try to move them before that, they’ll crumble and break.
- You may have leftover blueberry sauce. If you have leftover sauce, save it as a topping for pancakes or blueberry crepes!
- Add white chocolate chips. Honestly, this is one of the best ways to bring extra indulgence to these cookies! Stir white chocolate chips into the blueberry cookie dough for pockets of melty chocolate.
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Make the blueberry sauce. In a medium pot over medium-low heat, combine the fresh blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Cook, stirring frequently, until the blueberries break down and the mixture thickens. This will take about 5-8 minutes. Set aside to cool.
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Combine the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
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Cream the butter and sugar. In another large bowl, cream the butter and 1¼ cups of white granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
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Add the blueberry sauce. Scoop 3 tablespoons of the cooled blueberry sauce out of the pot and mix it into the butter and sugar. (If you have extra sauce, put it in a mason jar for later. You can use it on pancakes.)
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Add remaining liquid ingredients. Add milk, egg, and dye. Mix until just combined.
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Add dry ingredients. Mix until everything is well combined and there are no dry bits of batter.
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Chill the dough. Cover your bowl with saran wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
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Prep your tools. Preheat your oven to 325ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Set aside.
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Pour sugar. Place the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar in a shallow plate. Set aside.
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Form the cookies. Scoop the chilled cookie dough and roll it into balls, using about 1 heaping tablespoon of dough per cookie.
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Roll in sugar. Place the rolled cookie dough into the sugar and roll it around to coat. Place the sugar cookie dough ball onto your prepared baking sheet. You will be able to fit 6 cookies on one standard baking sheet. (There needs to be space between the balls of dough.)
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Chill the extra dough. Once you have shaped your 6 cookies, place the cookie dough back in the fridge until you are ready to shape the next batch. Or, if you have two cookie sheets, you can start working on the next batch while the first one bakes. You just don’t want the cookie dough to sit on the counter and warm up.
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Bake. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until cracks form.
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Cool. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling for another 20 minutes. If you try to move the cookies before 10 minutes, they will be too soft and will break.
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 261kcal | Carbohydrates: 45g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 34mg | Sodium: 105mg | Potassium: 95mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 267IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 33mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
How to Make Blueberry Cookies
If you have two cookie sheets, you can start on your second batch of blueberry cookies while the first batch bakes. Otherwise, keep the dough for your second batch chilled in the fridge until it’s time to roll the cookies and bake. Let’s get started:
- Make the blueberry sauce. Add the blueberries to a saucepan with sugar and lemon juice. Cook over medium-low heat for 5-8 minutes so that the berries break down and thicken.
- Mix the dry ingredients. Meanwhile, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
- Combine the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and 1 ¼ cups of sugar. Then, stir in about 3 tablespoons of cooled blueberry sauce, followed by the egg and purple dye.
- Mix the dough, and chill it. Now, fold the dry mixture into your wet ingredients to make the cookie dough. Cover the bowl and pop it into the fridge for 3 hours.
- Prepare for baking. When it’s time to bake, preheat your oven to 325ºF and line your baking sheets.
- Roll the dough in sugar. Pour the last of the sugar into a shallow bowl or dish. Scoop the cookies into balls, roll each cookie in the sugar, and place the coated cookies on the baking sheet.
- Bake. These blueberry cookies go into the oven at 325ºF for 15 minutes. They’ll start to crack when they’re done, similar to crinkle cookies.
- Cool. Take your cookies out of the oven and leave them to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Afterward, move the cookies to a wire rack.
Serving Suggestion
Serve these cookies dipped in a steaming cortado or cinnamon dolce latte after dinner. Or, one of my favorite ways to enjoy them is to stuff a scoop of blueberry ice cream in between two cookies for a blueberry ice cream sandwich!
Storage and Freezing
- Store airtight. Keep these cookies airtight at room temperature and enjoy them within 3-4 days for best freshness. The cornstarch helps to keep the cookies softer for longer, but they’re better to eat sooner rather than later!
- Freeze a batch for later. You can freeze these blueberry cookies in a freezer bag or container for up to 1 month. Thaw them at room temperature before serving.