Blueberry Muffin Cookies
actually, two new cookies!
new on bbs
Blueberry Muffin Cookies
Big thick levain inspired lemon cookies with lots of fresh lemon flavor, studded with fresh blueberries and chunks of white chocolate. These cookies have crunchy/crispy edges and softer middles.
also new
Blueberry Cookies
Chewy blueberry cookies with crispy edges; made with freeze dried berries and chunks of white chocolate. Naturally colored!
related
Strawberry Cookies
Also made with freeze dried berries but this one has no add ins (it does have a glaze!) and yields a thinner, chewier cookie.
updated
Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Soft and tender make ahead muffins made from an oil based & buttermilk batter.
From the June Archives
2024: Raspberry Coulis (for all the toppings and fillings)
2023: Brown Butter Ice Cream (with vanilla, obviously)
2022: Lemon Raspberry Pie & Lemon Brownies (the first makes for such a stunner with all it’s layers, the second looks deceptively simple but packs a punch)
2021: Honey Donuts (deep fried!)
2020: Strawberry Cheesecake (made from slow roasted strawberries)
a baker’s review
“Wow. This was so much fun to make. And it was perfection. Not too sweet, not too tart. The perfect medley of both. I went ahead and added that meringue on top as suggested and the 1/4 cup of powder sugar in the shortbread. 😗👌 it was the perfect touch.” Sarah on Raspberry Lemon Bars.
weekly reads
“When food is blocked at the border, when aid trucks are stalled, when bakeries are bombed and farmland flattened, it is no longer about denying supplies. It is about denying life. And that is why the world must understand: this is not a famine of nature—it is a famine by design.
Truckloads of aid sit idle at the border, turned away or delayed for weeks by Israeli decisions, while inside Gaza, parents grind animal feed into flour and children scavenge for scraps in the rubble. The market barely holds together. There’s a very limited number of vendors behind makeshift tables, selling scraps: a bit of rice here, a bag of flour there. A few days ago, a friend of mine saw a starving woman walk up and hand over a gold bracelet, probably a wedding gift, asking quietly for a bag of flour. The seller glanced at her, then looked up at the sky, as if he was wondering how much longer any of them have. And everywhere, the same soft, worn-out questions pass from mouth to mouth: Where can I find bread? Where can we get water?” What it Feels Like to Starve, The Nation.
“When I reflect on Juneteenth, one of the many things I think about is how the food and cooking methods enslaved Africans brought with them played a huge part in the culture and cuisine that define America today. Without their contributions, soul food would not be what it is today, and many foods we've come to know and love would be missing from American cuisine. Looking into these traditions has given me a greater understanding and appreciation for the food that has shaped me as a person and an American. I hope that sharing this perspective can help you find appreciation for the contributions that Black America and our traditions have made to America's culture.” How Juneteenth and Black America helped shape U.S. cuisine, NPR.
“Our food system is killing us. Designed in a different century for a different purpose – to mass produce cheap calories to prevent famine – it is now a source of jeopardy, destroying more than it creates. A quarter of all adult deaths globally – more than 12 million every year – are due to poor diets. Malnutrition in all its forms – undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity – is by far the biggest cause of ill-health, affecting one in three people on the planet. Ultra-processed foods are implicated in as many as one in seven premature deaths in some countries. Every country is affected by malnutrition but it is the poorest, most marginalised people who are most likely to become malnourished, get sick and die too soon. Our food system is also sickening our planet – generating a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and driving a raft of environmental harms…. The global food system has been captured by a few rapacious transnational companies that profit from public ill-health while using an array of tactics to stop governments getting in their way. When viewed through the prism of power, this is more like a heist than a dietary transition.” It’s time to stop the great food heist powered by big business. That means taxation, regulation and healthy school meals, The Guardian.
a baker’s note: on blue(?)berries
I shared a photo of those blueberry cookies on IG a few months ago to mixed reactions: some people were put off by the gray-ish exterior and teal interior, others were into it, and some thought it was black sesame. I’ve been working on this recipe for a while and knew the color was going to be an issue for skeptics; years before I had shared a photo of some blueberry cupcakes which were teal colored inside. People couldn’t believe they were naturally that shade; they thought I either used food coloring or edited the photo. In fact it was neither.
If you look at the step by step photos in the post you’ll see the dried berries I used were purplish; these were from trader joes. In previous tests I had used the good & gather brand and the berry powder was more gray/navy colored. I understand this has to do with the blueberry’s variety and specifically its skin; blueberries appear blue to us because of chemicals in the berry’s skin called anthocyanins, natural pigments that can appear red, purple, or (less commonly) blue, depending on their pH level. So, depending on the variety of blueberry, the skin may be more reddish or blueish purple.
When the berries are broken down (by mashing or cooking), the pigment from the skin seeps out and colors the inside too, again, that color or shade depends on how much pigment is contained and it’s pH. But, and here’s the fun part: when there’s baking soda in the recipe, and even if you have a more purplish variety, the cookies (or cupcakes!) will still turn teal colored. This is due to a natural chemical reaction: baking soda is alkaline and raises the pH level of the berries, causing the anthocyanins to change color. But, but - something even more fun - if you then lower the pH level of the mixture, by adding an acid (and enough of it), you can coax the anthocyanins to go back to their neutral level. If you add a lot of acid, and it becomes acidic (a pH <7), it will turn the mix a reddish purple.
Some visual aids to supplement this little lesson: there are two blueberry bars on the blog, one is lemon blueberry (emphasis on the lemon) and one blueberry (it also has lemon, but less). You can see the difference in color and how the bars with more lemon are more reddish purple. Also, I have had this blueberry ice cream recipe and I add a little note about what kind of blueberries to use, an option to add lemon, and what these will do to the color of the final churned product. I have made this ice cream sans lemon before and with bluer blueberries and I swear it turned so offensively gray that I didn’t want to share the photos (in the recipe video you can see it grayer before churning than it is in the final photos - I added lemon at a later stage ;)).
p.s. This isn’t to say you should add lemon to the blueberry cookies. If you do, you may get a prettier purple color but the cookie will also be cakey due to the extra liquid, and more lemon in flavor than blueberry. If you are okay with this and potentially some structural/texture changes, then you might want to experiment with how much you need to add to get to your desired color (bearing in mind when baked the edges will turn brown from the sugars caramelizing anyway, ..ok maybe I’m trying too hard discourage this…). Otherwise, just embrace the natural-chemical-reactive color! :D
sam