Blueberry yogurt cookies with lemon cream cheese frosting—soft, moist cookies with juicy blueberries topped with a cream cheese frosting make a fun after-school treat!
“Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken.” –Bill Dodds
Yesterday Squirrel asked me several times to explain what holiday it was and why we were celebrating “labor.” I remember being so excited to get past labor day when I was younger, because I waited for my first day back to school with eager anticipation. The weeks before that first day were filled with trips to the store to stock up on things like pencils, paper, and three-ring binders. I loved planning out everything for the start of school. Things are a bit different in our school district here, because Squirrel had her first day of school at the beginning of August!
I meant to share this with you last week, for the August edition of Lucy Eats!, but August hit our family like a tornado, and so scheduling got thrown out the window. Lucy is as excited as Squirrel to get back to school.
Lucy Eats! August with Back-to-School Blueberry Yogurt Cookies, Illustration by Mike Collins, Text by Deborah Collins, tikimachine.com
To celebrate the back-to-school excitement, we decided that little Lucy and the Fujilings needed a special after-school treat, so I dreamed up these blueberry yogurt cookies and topped them with a lemon cream cheese frosting. This is a drop cookie (cookies are formed by dropping spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet with a spoon), because the batter is very sticky.
These cookies don’t have any butter or oil in them, so they’re healthier than the normal cookie. The finished cookies are soft and moist. I decorated our cookies with some decorating gels in primary colors to give them a more festive feel.
Having to do homework doesn’t seem so bad when you’ve got cookies to help get you through it, right?
So happy Back-to-School days from the Fujilings, the Tiki Machine team, and Lucy!
*Added note, 2/07/13: There has been some discussion in the comments about calling these cookies “cookies.” Some have noted that they have a muffin-like texture. I would agree! As noted above, these cookies are soft and moist. I chose to call them cookies based on the definition of cookie found in my go-to source for food classification: The New Food Lover’s Companion, by Sharon & Ron Herbst, which says, “A cookie can be any of various hand-held, flour-based sweet cakes—either crisp or soft.” The definition explains that there are six basic cookie styles, one of which is a drop cookie, which “is made by dropping spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet.” Muffin, muffin bite, cookie…whatever you choose to call them, they’re delicious!
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Blueberry Yogurt Cookies with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes about 48 cookies
* Recipe Notes: These cookies are soft and moist, reminiscent of a muffin top! I used fresh blueberries, but frozen work great too. The cookies are also delicious without the frosting.
For the blueberry yogurt cookies:
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh blueberries
For the lemon cream cheese frosting:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1. Make the cookies: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease several baking sheets, or line them with silicone baking mats, and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the sugar and yogurt, then blend in the egg and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together, then blend it into the wet yogurt mixture. Gently fold in the blueberries.
4. Drop tablespoonfuls of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches of space between each cookie. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the cookies start to barely brown at the edges. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for two minutes, and then move the cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Some of the blueberries will burst during baking—this is to be expected and will not affect the taste!
5. Make the frosting: Beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Slowly add the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice and beat until creamy, about 3 minutes. Stir in the lemon zest. Spread on top of the cooled cookies. These cookies are best eaten within 1 to 2 days.
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FUJI my angel, you combined two of my favorite things: blueberries and cookies. They look scrumptious! Also, the girls are so grown up! *sniff* When did that happen?! I will be making these post-haste, as the niece currently sitting on my lap is pointing to your pictures and shouting “Cookies! Cookies!” in my ear. I guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow! LOL!
I’ve had them and they are delicious!
I love the back-to-school feel, the sense of new beginnings and focus on learning and growing. How fun to tie in a special treat to the old traditions!
The Fujilings are darling (I don’t have to tell YOU that!) and these cookies look like my kind of cookies. Can’t wait to try them.
I too love lemon and blueberries. Iwill buy blueberries immediately. Thank you for your creativity.
Seriously adorable children! And the cookies sound awesome too! I just discovered your blog, btw, and I could not agree more about feeding kids interesting “adult” food!
Rachel they cookies are great and your girls are getting so big!!! and they are gorgeous, just like their mama :)
Can you use frozen blueberries?
Yes!
Wondering the same thing as Kristin above. We live in UP of Michigan and pick wild Blueberries. I have alot frozen and I’m always looking for new ideas to use them. I think I’ll try this, s
ounds yummie.
@Laura — Yes, you can! I love picking and freezing wild blueberries…lucky you!
These look delicious, but can you use regular non-fat yogurt instead of greek?
@Keri — Yes…maybe! I haven’t made these with regular yogurt, so I can’t give you a definitive answer. The problem is that regular yogurt has higher water content than Greek yogurt (30 to 50% more), so by using regular yogurt you will be adding more liquid to the batter than would be added with Greek yogurt. For the best results I would strain the yogurt first to reduce the extra liquid. You’ll have to start with more yogurt than the recipe calls for…maybe 2 1/2 cups to be safe, and strain it through some cheese cloth. Either way, I’d love to hear how your cookies turn out if you try them!
I wanted to make these frosting-less, but still wanted a little punch of lemon to compliment the blueberry. SO I added the zest of a couple Meyer lemons to the batter (they’re at WalMart right now! Score). I would definitely recommend! And now I feel a little less guilty consuming three of these at a time… :)
@Mackenzie — I’m a lemon zest addict…so I totally understand!
This looks really good and I am a big cookie lover. I just printed your recipe and I am going to give it a try. Thank you. I followed your link from Pinterest.
Can you substitute whole wheat flour for AP flour?
@Sommer — I haven’t made these with whole wheat flour, so I can’t tell you for sure what the results will be! Whole wheat flour will change the texture of the cookies, so I would only substitute half of the AP flour with whole wheat.
These look great! Will be making some tomorrow. :)
Have you ever tried freezing them? Just wondering how long they would keep.
Thank you! :)
@Amanda — I haven’t tried freezing them…they never last long enough! LOL But they should be fine (they will freeze similar to muffins). Just make sure they have cooled completely, then wrap them tightly in foil, freezer wrap, or place them in freezer bags. I would use them within a month or so of freezing. I would thaw them completely at room temperature, so that you don’t dry them out!
These cookies taste amazing! Only thing is that it completely sticks to my baking pan, and I have to literally saw them out using a knife :( I also tried using parchment paper to no avail. Any suggestions?
@Daphne — I’m so glad! The two methods I use are greasing my baking sheets or using silicone baking mats. Make sure that whatever you do, that after taking them out of the oven you let them rest for 2 minutes (to let them finish setting enough to be moved), and then immediately move them to a cooling rack. If you want any longer, they WILL stick! @Heather, the commenter below, suggests using greased tin foil. Just be careful when you remove the cookies from the foil…I’ve had problems with bits of foil getting caught by my spatula when I remove cookies and getting stuck to the bottoms of the cookies! But it does make cleanup fabulously easy.
I just made a batch and had 2 new non-stick cookie sheets and one older baking pan…used the same method to grease all the bottoms. The cookies on the non- stick sheets came right off; the ones on the pan…what a mess.
I will only use the non- stick sheets in the future. Perhaps that is the cause of your issue.
Hello,
I just mde thsese cookies last night…I measured out all of the ingredients properly, however, the batter turned to be sticky. This made it very difficult to spoon in the blueberries and then put the batter onto the baking sheet. The cookies turned out very clumpy, not smooth and small like the ones in your photo above. Should I add less flour? The taste of the cookies were still great and everyone at work loved them…but I want them to be smoother, prettier and easier to spoon onto the baking sheet. Suggestions?
@Daphne, I put tinfoil on the baking sheet and then sprayed pam on the tinfoil…worked like a charm and no sticking..less mess too!
@Heather — This is a stickier batter, which results in a wonderful tender moist cookie, but it does make it harder to work with! I use two spoons—I scoop out some batter with one spoon, and then use the second spoon to gently scoop the batter from the 1st spoon onto the baking sheet.
This looks wonderful! Making them while I’m home for the weekend to take back to share with sorority friends at school since it makes so many! However, it will probably be more than two days until they’re all eaten… Are they okay after two days or do they just taste better in the first day or two?
@Ellen — Unfortunately these cookies are best within the first day or two after you make them. After that they start to be a bit dryer and less tender!!
These were great and my husband, a blueberry lover RAVED about them. I used frozen blueberries and it worked out fine… Although these taste more like muffins than cookies.
@Bri — Yes, they definitely have a muffin-like texture. I chose to call them cookies because of their form.
I just made them – I decided to use half brown sugar and half regular sugar (measured it out in grams, 100g each so I didn’t screw up the recipe) and added some lemon zest to the batter, like someone else did, so I could skip the icing.
Reviewing it as a cookie I’m not that impressed- I understood they’d be moist on the inside, but I was expecting a crispy outside and not such a all-over doughy kind of texture. Mine (like someone else’s) came out really clumpy and were not as smooth and nicely shaped- they look more like drop biscuits.
However, like someone else said, these are more muffin-y than cookie-y. I’d rather call them Muffin Bites than cookies since that gives a much more accurate idea of what they’re like.
But as muffin bites, they get a 10/10. :) I was disappointed at first by how un-cookie like they were, but if you hold it up to the standard of a muffin it wins.
@Sam — Glad you liked them as muffin bites! I chose to call them cookies because of their form, and based on the definition of a “cookie” in The New Food Lover’s Companion, by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst.
Tried making these exactly to the recipe and they were a complete disaster. Texture like rubber even though they were most definitely not over mixed and took more than 20 minutes to cook through. Ended up throwing all of them away because no one in the house would eat them. I’m really disappointed because they look incredible.
@Tace — Bummer! I’m not sure what to tell you about what might have gone wrong!
Just found your lovely recipe on Pinterest, and made them promptly. They are delightful :-)
@Aimee — So glad you liked them Aimee! Thank you for taking the time to comment.
These look amazing! I am making them tomorrow to bring to work on Friday. Should they be refrigerated after you put the icing on? Or are they okay in a sealed container?
@Abby — Nope, they don’t have to be refrigerated if they are in a sealed container and eaten within a day or so!
My family just declared these the best cookies I’ve made yet! The texture and taste is amazing, thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
Those are some AMAZING smiles! Beautiful! Can’t wait to make these cookies this week.
I decorated the cookies and covered them an hour later for the night. When I woke up the hearts melted and have now disformed. Would you suggest I don’t cover them or put them in the fridge?
@AA — I’m assuming you used a second icing to decorate them with hearts, like I used the colored gel to decorate mine with letters? (Sorry, just making sure I’m understanding!) If the cookies weren’t completely cool, then the icing won’t set and will start to slide a bit, so I’m not sure if this might have been your problem. I haven’t had any problems with the icing, so I apologize, because I’m not sure what might have caused your problem! I always put my cookies in air tight containers after I’ve finished making and decorating them.
Have you ever used a sugar substitute?
@Angela Fry — For these cookies? Nope!
I used splenda baking mix (which cut the calories from 100 per cookie to 25 per cookie) and they turned out great. I’ve made them both ways now and can’t really tell a difference!
I wanted to make these last minute since i had a bunch of fresh blueberries on hand, but then i realized i only had strawberry greek yogurt. What do you think about substituting?
@alejandra — I think that would make a fun substitution! I’d love to hear how they turn out.
These cookies are awesome! My kids can’t get enough of them.
I haven’t tried these yet. Since they look muffiny and people say they have a muffin texture, how do you think they would turn out if you made them into muffins instead? I am no baker, so I don’t no the chemistry behind these sort of things.
I just made these for my kids and am wondering if maybe I did something wrong? Though I’m not sure how this easy recipe could be done wrong… haha. Anyway, mine came out kind of chewy. They are very good, but I was expecting more of a cookie/muffin type consistency. Either way, I’ll probably make them again– was just wondering if they are supposed to be chewy-ish.
These were really yummy! However, I’m not a huge blueberry fan, so I used raspberries instead. The tartness of the berries was a delicious compliment to the plain yogurt flavor. The only downside: I still have seeds stuck in my teeth. Haha but it won’t stop me from finishing off the batch, I’m sure!
Oh goodness, I bet your raspberry version was fabulous!
I love these cookies, i couldn’t fall asleep last night so i stayed up till about 3am making them, it was a great way to pass the time.
I had been waiting for blueberries to go on sale because i found this post a while ago and when my husband came home with 5 containers of blueberries the other day i knew what i wanted to do with them.
They turned out amazing, not as pretty as yours but the taste great. next time i do want to try and put the lemon in the cookies, it sounds like a good idea (I’m not a big fan of frosting but i am a big fan of lemon)
I am going to try and freeze some of them because its just me and my husband and it ended up making about 50 cookies. They make for a great healthier option at only 25 cals a piece.
Thanks for posting this great recipe
These are SO cute, I loved them. Instead of sugar, I used Stevia in the raw and they turned out fine. I also used frozen blueberries and it worked. I love how they a fluffy and all muffin like. They’re really cool. I think that these are an awesome summer cookie. :)
I tried making these today. I substituted coconut flour (to make it gluten free for my husband) and the mix was thick. I added a cup of water which made it smooth but did not stick. What percentage of fat are you using? I think that will make the difference on the recipe. My cookies were not wet at all – very crumbly and dry – any tips?
Okay – I am reading I needed to add 2 cups of water rather than 1 cup. 1 cup water to cup of flour. Going to try these again this week.
Just made these with a few mods! I halved the recipe (yes, whisked up the egg, poured half in the batter and then put the other half in a dish to fry up for my dog later…) I also only had vanilla nonfat Greek yogurt so I used that, omitted the vanilla extract and decreased the sugar by a little. I ALSO didnt have blueberries…so I added some cinnamon!
They turned into fluffy little cinnamon muffin tops! Yum!
My halved recipe made about 18 large (2.5in diameter) cookies/muffin tops.
OH! And while I was mixing I realized I used baking SODA instead of baking POWDER.
Still turned out yummy!
@ChiTownBaker — So glad they turned out!
These look delicious. I saw this post on Pinterest and repined it. Our four two year-old toddlers will love this! Thank you.
These look yummy. Coud I use Splenda instead of sugar for the cookies and frosting? Looking to reduce calories.
@Cindy — I haven’t personally made them with Splenda, so I can’t give you a definite answer. However, they should turn out, but the flavor will be slightly different. Good luck!
Cindy, go for it. I made them with splenda and cut the calories into a quarter of what they were, and they tasted just a delicious!
I am so making these soon!
I wanted to let you know that I featured this today in my “What I Bookmarked This Week” post – stop by and see!
Thanks Danielle!
Just pulled these from the oven. Delicious! I had regular plain whole-milk yogurt on hand. I used freeze-dried blueberries (if you’ve never baked with freeze-dried berries, they produce an incredibly potent, fruity flavor) so the additional moisture from the yogurt was absorbed by the blueberries. For lack of time, I sprinkled these with honey crystals prior to baking and left off the frosting. The result was an amazing “Blueberry Muffin-top Cookie”. Thank you so much for the recipe. I look forward to making these again…with the frosting!
@Autumn — LOVE freeze-dried berries! So glad you enjoyed the cookies!
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