Blueberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know I’m a bit late with this, but Memorial day cookies were promised, and here’s part two!  I figured most of the foodies and snacks at the memorial day bbq my sister and bro-in-law hosted (the ones with the Squid Buddy cuteness) would be red or not “themed” at all.  So blue cookies were in order.  What better way to use blueberries?!  Using the basic chocolate chip cookie base I used for all my chocolate chip cookie varietals, I made this one first, because I wanted cookies that were BLUE.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup + 2 tbsp bread flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup + dark brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• handful sliced blueberries (halves or quarters)
• 1/2 cup pecan meal
• handful chocolate chips
• blue food coloring

Directions:

1. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Beat sugar, butter, and vanilla until creamy.
3. Add egg and mix well.
4. Add as much blue food coloring as you want.  Mix well.
5. Gradually add flour mixture.
6. Stir in pecan meal and mix well.
7. Stir in blueberries, then chocolate chips.
8. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes at 375 degrees F.

The first time, they were super blue and tasted like chocolate chip cookies with blueberries in them.  The most interesting comment I got (and I agree with it) was “they don’t taste blue”.  I immediately remembered that we actually have a blueberry reduction goo that we got from Ikea.  Weird.  I had a new mission.  Cookies that taste blue.

 The following is an adaption of the above recipe.  These cookies are supposed to taste blue. (updates are in blue, har har).

Ingredients:

• 1 cup + 2 tbsp bread flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 2 tbsp blueberry reduction goo
• 3/8 cup + dark brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• handful sliced blueberries (halves or quarters)
• 1/2 cup pecan meal
• handful chocolate chips
• blue food coloring (i mean, unless you want to use it)

Directions:

1. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Beat sugar, butter, and vanilla until creamy.
3. Add blueberry reduction goo and mix well.
4. Add egg and mix well.
5. optional (Add as much blue food coloring as you want.  Mix well.)
6. Gradually add flour mixture.
7. Stir in pecan meal and mix well.
8. Stir in blueberries, then chocolate chips.
9. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes at 375 degrees F.

If you don’t use the blue food coloring, the blueberry goo turns the cookies a purplish-green color.  If you don’t care, don’t use the food coloring.  I seriously wasted an entire bottle on the first batch – so not worth it because it’s hard to find food coloring by individual colors.

These cookies DID taste blue.  I actually didn’t use as much blueberry goo as I have in the above recipe, because I assumed it would be similar to honey (you can substitute a smaller amount of honey for sugar to obtain the same sweetness).  It was similar (I used 1 – 1 1/2 tablespoons) but the cookies didn’t turn out overly sweet, so I could have used 2 tablespoons or more.  My husband liked them, but would have preferred a more intense blueberry taste (it was faint, but there).  You can make your own blueberry reduction goo, but I don’t have a recipe for that.  It’s probably very similar to the strawberry reduction I used to make Strawberry Mango Sangria.  Make your own blueberry reduction?  Let us know how it went!!

New mission:  Seriously Blueberry Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Coming soon?