Are they dessert or breakfast? Does it really matter? You’ve landed in blueberry paradise and you’re going to love every single bite! These soft blueberry muffin cookies are irresistible. Packed with blueberries and brightened with a hint of lemon, these cakey cookies taste like muffin tops and are so easy to make. Top with sparkling sugar and a sweet lemon glaze for a truly unforgettable treat!
As soon as I made a successful batch of lemon ricotta cookies, I knew I was in trouble. A giant new world of soft cakey cookies was right in front of me and I couldn’t soften butter quickly enough (check out that trick if you haven’t already—it might come in handy!). While dense and chewy cookies will always have my heart, I have definitely undervalued soft, cakey cookie for too long.
Adapted from my blueberry muffins, these blueberry muffin cookies tastes like a cross between blueberry muffins, blueberry scones, and butter cookies. You will INHALE them.
Tell Me About these Blueberry Muffin Cookies
- Texture: The super-soft cookie contrasts beautifully with the crunchy sugar-coated top and crumbly edges. (Same great textures you experience when you eat scones.)
- Flavor: Rich buttery centers with juicy sweet-tart blueberries, a sugary coating, and a tangy lemony glaze. What’s not to love here?
- Ease: Simple. With fresh, easily accessible ingredients, anyone can make these mouthwatering cookies.
- Time: With minimal chill time, you can have 3 dozen cookies prepped and ready to bake in about an hour.
Video Tutorial
Blueberry Muffin Cookies: What Works & What Doesn’t
Here are a few tips and helpful hints I learned while testing these blueberry muffin cookies.
- Be careful with those blueberries. Fold them in very gently. If you’re too rough with the batter, the berries can burst and tint your cookie dough green.
- Minimal dough chilling. The dough is thick—sort of like a cross between cake batter and cookie dough. When you have an especially thick cookie dough, that usually means it’s sturdy enough for minimal dough chilling. Just cover it and pop it in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes before scooping and baking.
Choosing the Right Ingredients
Even if you have a shocking amount of self-control around baked goods, these blueberry muffin cookies are too tempting to resist. These key ingredients/additions will make sure of it:
- Coarse sugar: For a contrast of texture, the cookies can be sprinkled with coarse sugar before going into the oven. You could also sprinkle it on top as the baked cookies cool. Either way, you’re promised a sparkly crunch. I love adding coarse sugar to my strawberry biscuit cookies, too.
- Lots of blueberries: Every bite of this cookie has a juicy blueberry. They’ll burst open, leaving beautiful purple streaks down the tops, which look beautiful under the lemon glaze. (Who isn’t a sucker for a pretty cookie?)
- Lemon glaze: Smooth lemon glaze finishes the blueberry muffin cookies. This glaze is slightly different from the lemon glaze on my lemon ricotta cookies. I subbed some half-and-half in for the lemon juice so it’s a little creamier. You can skip the dairy entirely and just use all lemon juice if you prefer.
While these blueberry muffin cookies taste good without the crunchy sugar topping and lemon glaze, they definitely taste better with both.
Use a Cookie Scoop
This is a thick and sticky dough, so a cookie scoop is ideal. Scoop 1.5 Tablespoons of dough for each cookie onto the baking sheet, evenly spacing them 3 inches apart. I like this cookie scoop for measuring the dough.
If You Love Blueberries
See my full list of 25+ Blueberry Dessert Recipes. Or here are some favorites:
Blueberry Muffin Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 32-36 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Adapted from my Blueberry Muffins, these soft and cakey blueberry muffin cookies are completely irresistible. Packed with blueberries and a hint of lemon, these cake-like cookies taste like muffin tops and are so easy to make. Top with sparkling sugar and lemon glaze for a truly unforgettable cookie!
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/2 cups (313g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup (60ml) milk
- 2 cups (280g) fresh or frozen blueberries
- optional for a little crunch: coarse sugar
Lemon Glaze
- 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1–2 Tablespoons (15-30ml) half-and-half (or heavy cream or milk)
Instructions
- Make the cookies: Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on high speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. With the mixer running on low speed, add the egg, vanilla extract, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Beat on medium-high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients and milk. Beat everything just until incorporated. Do not overmix. Dough will be very creamy, sticky, and thick. With a spoon or silicone spatula, carefully fold blueberries into cookie dough. Handle with care because some may break a little. Cover dough tightly with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes and up to 2-3 days.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator. Scoop cookie dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons each, and place 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. If desired, sprinkle each with a little coarse sugar. Gives the cookies an extra crunch. Bake for 15-16 minutes or until a cookie springs back when lightly poked with your finger. (That’s how I test them!)
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.
- Make the glaze: Whisk the confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and half-and-half together until smooth. Add more confectioners’ sugar to thicken or more lemon juice/half-and-half to thin, if desired. Spoon over cookies. If applied lightly, the glaze will set within a couple hours.
- Glazed cookies will stay fresh covered at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for up to 3 days (see step 2), but you can also freeze it for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator before baking. Unglazed and baked cookies freeze well for up to 2-3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before glazing and serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowl | Silicone Spatula | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack | Coarse Sprinkling Sugar
- Blueberries: If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw. Frozen blueberries have the tendency to bleed quite a bit in the batter/dough. I prefer to use fresh.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Very tasty cookies. In addition to the 1 egg, I added 1 egg yolk. I did not have any problem mixing or handling the dough. All went well.
Wonderful, soft and yummy! Again, I halved the icing and there was plenty! I did have trouble not smushing the blueberries when scooping the dough out, but they turned out fine! Great flavor, and not too sweet, just the way I like it.
Hmmm… I used fresh blueberries in the dough and they exploded, lol! I think I will strategically place the blueberries next time! They’re such a great cookie! Easy, lots of Lemon flavour! I zested my lemons into the white sugar and used my hands to mix, then I added the brown sugar! Thanks so much!
What a lovely change (for this household) of cookies! We usually enjoy a soft chocolate chip, or ginger molasses and an oatmeal chocolate chip but today I felt like trying something new (to me). DELICIOUS! I love that the chill time is not much at all, and all the ingredients are usually in my fridge and pantry! I will definitely add these to my cookie rotation!
Wonderful! They turned out perfectly. I substituted 2 tablespoons more milk for the lemon juice and used coarse sugar as a topping. I didn’t do the icing. My husband says these are now his favorite cookies.
Another hit from Sally!
I made a couple of changes to these to use up ingredients I had on hand. I had tons of crumble topping for muffins left over, so I decided to use that to top these cookies instead of the lemon glaze. I also recplaced some of the blueberries with dark chocolate chips I wanted to use up.
The cookies turned out amazing. I need to figure out a way to get more of the crumble topping to stick to the top instead of rolling to the side, but even without any topping, these cookies were delicious. Like eating muffin tops! Will be experimenting with this one again.
Cookies were yummy but they get soggy when storing in an airtight container. Any suggestions on a better/different way to store?
Thank you
Hi Marsha! Because of the moisture in the blueberries, this can definitely happen. You could try cracking a corner of the container open to allow a little air flow.
Not wild about these. They didn’t hold their shape and were only ok.
I found the dough to be very thick. I followed the recipe to a T and could hardly blend the blueberries in! Unable to scoop onto the cookie sheet, I had to hand shape.it took much longer to bake, but we’re delicious. I need to know what went wrong. I would like to make again but I’m not sure it’s worth it.
Hi Barb, happy to help. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
These cookies were scrumptious! Fun to make too!
My husband raved about them!
Sweet! great, like always, thanks!!
Can lemon zest be frozen? I hate zesting…takes so long and hard to avoid pith, so can I do a batch and freeze?
Hi Ellen, definitely! We would freeze lemon zest for up to three months.
Zesting shouldn’t be hard or time-consuming. You probably need a new/better quality zester.
Love these they a hit in my family now, can we make it in the airfryer though?
these cookies are amazing fluffy and crunchy at the same time love the blueberries i made them a little thicker than the recipe suggests but it only added about 5-10 mins on the cook time overall amazing recipe i will definetly make these again
Hello Sally! Is it safe to keep them at room temp even though fresh lemon juice and milk are used in the glaze? Thanks!
Hi Chiara, Glazed cookies will stay fresh covered at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
I can not eat Lemon. I’m going to try omitting all the lemon stuff. I will let youkniw how it comes out.
Delicious! Tastes like summer sunshine!
Banger cookies loved them!!
Hi! If I use about 3 TBSP of dough, how much longer should I bake them?
Hi Brittani, we’re unsure of the exact bake time. Bake until a cookie springs back when lightly poked with your finger.
Came out a little flatter than I hoped but were delicious!
I’ve made these several times. They come out perfect every time.
We made these today and they came out as expected and were good but not our favorite cookie. We like the concept of the soft cake or muffin top cookie so we might try the pumpkin version you suggested or would like to see a chocolate option. We are going to make your lemon blueberry cake again in two weeks which is our favorite cake recipe, and the maple brown sugar cookies are still my favorite cookies. Thank you.
So good and comes together quickly. Definitely worth making
Hi! Love the taste of this cookies.
But I had a problem with the dough… it was too sticky ( left in the fridge for 2 hours but nothing changed) and the cookies in the end were far too soft.
I weighed all the ingredients with a scale and followed the recipe.
So I don’t understand what went wrong? Any tips, please?
Hi Eleonora, we’re glad you enjoyed the taste! It doesn’t sound like you necessarily did anything wrong. These are intended to be a very soft, cakey cookie—almost like a muffin top. The dough is quite sticky, even after chilling. A cookie scoop can help make working with the dough a little less messy. Thank you for giving these a try!
These cookies are delightful. Packed with rich blueberry & lemon flavors. I used frozen large blueberries. Blueberries stayed juicy. I made half the amount of glaze. I did not have a scoop so I just weighed 40 gram balls. Beautiful cookie.
Loved the flavor and texture
Can I hydrate dried blueberries in place of fresh or frozen ones?
Hi Maline, we can’t see why not!
Absolutely yummy with mid-morning latte. I’m going to try the banana nut scones next time.
I added some white chocolate chips to the recipe and it was so good
Surprisingly delicious! Manages to be both muffin and cookie, has great flavor and texture, very unique.
Thank you for this lovely recipe – I subbed the blueberries for frozen blackcurrants and topped them with some Streusel. I also only had oat milk at hand and it worked perfectly. They are divine!