Blueberry Lemon with Ginger Glaze Cookies

I love the taste of blueberries and lemon together in a cookie. Lemons are easy to zest, slice, juice, and blueberries come in dried or fresh. I found a great website all about blueberries called Baking with Blueberries; please look.

I have baked cookies with fresh blueberries, so I thought I would try the dried blueberries to see the difference. I did rehydrate mine because I wanted a plumper blueberry. Especially since the dried can look too small for me. Also, I wanted a glaze for my cookies, but I thought vanilla was too plain jane, so what if I added ginger?

I can't tell you how happy I was to find ginger paste. The ginger paste was the easiest way to get that fresh ginger taste without trying to grind up the ginger stalk—the perfect complement to my blueberry and lemon cookies.

Ingredients for Blueberry Lemon Cookies

COOKIE DOUGH

• All-purpose flour - My favorite brand is King Authur
• Cream Cheese - I grab 2 bars of Philadelphia Cream Cheese when I am at the grocery store. I can usually cut my butter in half and make up the difference in cream cheese.
• Butter unsalted - Land O Lakes Unsalted Butter has been my go-to for butter for as long as I can remember. It is consistent in flavor and performance.
• Powdered sugar
• Egg
• Sugar white
• Lemon juice
• Lemon zest
• Blueberries dried sweetened
• Baking powder
• Kosher Salt - I was taught that Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt was best for baking, so it is what I have always used.

GINGER ICING

• Powdered sugar
• Ginger paste Gourmet Garden Ginger Stir In Paste I chose this brand because it did not contain vinegar and had a fresh ginger taste. So easy to use.
• Milk - I used 2% milk for this icing.

Rehydrate Dried Blueberries

When I rehydrate the blueberries, I add the blueberries to a bowl and cover them in water. Then, I add a few lemon slices and let them float on top of the water. This, of course, is optional; there is enough lemon in this cookie that you can skip that part if you like.

Let them soak for about an hour and a half. Then, drain the blueberries and let them sit in the colander so that most of the liquid drains and you have plump blueberries.

Making Blueberry Cookies

So, you are ready to start prepping for the cookie dough. Zest and then juice a lemon into separate small bowls and set them aside. Weigh or measure the regular sugar and powdered sugar together into a bowl. If you are weighing the sugars, don't forget to hit the tare button between adding the two sugars.

Now in another bowl, do the same for the flour, baking powder, and salt. I run a whisk through to blend the three together.

Using a stand or hand-held mixer, add the butter and cream cheese and mix on a medium speed until blended well. Turn the mixer to a low speed and add the sugar.

Then turn the mixer to a medium speed and mix for a good 2 to 3 minutes. You want this to turn to a light color and fluffy looking.

Scrape down the sides and add the egg, lemon zest, and lemon juice, and mix for a minute. I scrape down the sides and across the bottom and turn the mixer back on for about 30 seconds.

Turn the mixer to a low speed and slowly add the flour mixture. It only takes about a minute to incorporate the flour. Try not to over mix after the flour is added. Take the bowl off the stand.

Add the blueberries to the cookie dough and carefully fold them into the dough. Try not to break them up too much or you will have blue cookie dough.

After folding in the blueberries cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.

Bake Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C or 180°C) and line a cookie sheet pan with parchment paper. Taking the cookie dough out of the fridge, grab a medium cookie scooper and scoop 12 mounds onto the sheet pan. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Leave them on the sheet pan for a minute or two before moving them to a cooling rack.

These do not spread hardly at all so I ended up with 14 cookie scoops in the second round. Just move them around so you can fit them in.

Ginger Glaze

Add the powdered sugar and ginger paste to a bowl. Add one or two tablespoons of milk and mix with a fork. You decide how thick you want the glaze. I added about 3 ½ tablespoons when I mixed mine.

Take a ½ teaspoon measuring spoon and add that much to the top of the cooled cookie. I then turn the spoon around and in a circular motion spread the glaze around the top so it starts to drip down the sides.

I love that you can see small pieces of ginger in the glaze. These are great summer cookies. Enjoy!