A respite. A bubble. A piece of the world untouched by the world. I often go back to Grandma’s house and the town of Coquille when I close my eyes.
I walk through Grandma’s woods, my feet crunching sticks my kid-self tied together with yarn. The creek is only steps away–heard but not seen through the trees. God knows how my 62-year-old grandmother built the stepping bridge across the ice-cold water.
I trudge through the deep sand at the park. My brother and I fly around and around on the old-school merry-go-round, begging Dad to fling us in circles just one more time. The rickety teeter-totter that swayed a little to the left if you launched too quickly from the ground. Two dinosaurs of the playground era–no longer found in lawsuit-happy America.
I boo along with the crowd at the Sawdust Theater, because the bad guy has just come on stage, twirling his mustache and threatening the heroine. We awwww and cheer and laugh and clap and throw popcorn and I wish a melodrama audience could follow me every day.
I try not to cry as I kill the car again while trying to find first gear in Grandma’s non-automatic tank. A truck rolls up behind me, trying to be patient as the obviously-new-driver rolls backwards a little down the hill. Dad encourages me from the passenger seat. “It’s fine. Take your time. He can turn around if he’s in such a hurry. Take a deep breath. Feel for the catch.”
I watch the hummingbirds flit faster-than-the-eye along the side of Grandma’s house and admire the flowers that love my Grandma. I breathe deep–the Oregon air, heavy with rain–my favorite smell in the world. It still doesn’t mask the smell of her garden. She had a greener thumb than the rest of us put together.
I grasp the little green basket gently, plucking only the largest, most blue berries. Like Grandma taught me. Little brother and I walk along each ledge of her tiered backyard, trying so hard not to eat too many. The less we eat, the sooner our baskets are full. The faster our baskets are full, the sooner we get blueberry cobbler or muffins or cookies. We sit at Grandma’s table, swinging our feet off dining chairs, our mouths stained purple, and knowing that everything in the world can be made right by eating blueberries.
Lemon Blueberry Cookies with Chia Seeds
Lemon sugar cookies were one of my Grandpa’s favorites. I’ve stuffed them full of blueberries because blueberries make me happy. And chia seeds are good for you, or so I am told. So these cookies are good for you, right? Infallible logic.
These lemon blueberry cookies are somewhere in between shortbread cookies and sugar cookies. Very light, very buttery (that seems like a contradiction, but it isn’t), and delightfully pretty to look at! They also do fantastically well at staying buttery and moist, even if you have to leave them out for a while, so they are great for parties. (I credit the lemon glaze.)
Cheers!
mikaela
32 cookies
Chia Lemon Blueberry Cookies! Lemon sugar cookies with juicy blueberries and a light lemon glaze! These cookies are buttery soft, melt in your mouth, and easy to make!
25 minPrep Time
10 minCook Time
35 minTotal Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- ~2 cups blueberries
- extra sugar for rolling
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
- 4-5 teaspoons lemon juice
- 3 Tablespoons chia seeds (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Beat in egg, lemon zest, and vanilla extract. Beat in 1 1/2 cups of the flour, the baking powder, and the salt. Stir in remaining flour.
- Use a medium-sized cookie scoop to scoop a walnut-sized amount of cookie dough into the palm of your hand. Flatten the dough between your palms and place three blueberries in the middle. Pinch the edges of the dough together and re-roll the dough into a ball. (This is so you don't smash the blueberries by trying to stir them in.) Place the cookie dough balls on the baking sheet, leaving about two inches between cookies.
- Measure out extra sugar (1/3-1/2 cup) into a shallow bowl. Use a drinking glass that has a flat bottom (at least a few inches wide) to flatten the cookies by dabbing the bottom of the glass against the cookie dough in the mixing bowl, dabbing it in the sugar bowl, and gently flattening each cookie dough ball. Flatten until it is the thickness of a blueberry! (Remember - no smashing blueberries.) Re-dab the glass in the sugar between each cookie.
- Once you have flattened all the cookies on a sheet, bake for 9-10 minutes until the bottom edges are just starting to brown. Remove from the oven, let cool on the pan for a minute or two, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Once the cookies have cooled completely, stir the powdered sugar, lemon zest, and 4 teaspoons lemon juice together in a small bowl. You want the icing to easily drizzle off the tip of your spoon, but not be as thin as water. Add another 1/2 teaspoon of juice or two if the drizzle is too thick. Drop a 1/4 teaspoon or so of drizzle onto the top of each cookie, using the back of the spoon to smear it over the top. Optionally, sprinkle each cookie with a tiny pinch of chia seeds. Leave the cookies out so the icing can set! Enjoy!
- Store in an airtight container with wax or parchment paper separating layers of cookies. (The icing does harden, but the cookies will slowly start to stick together over time if they aren't separated by paper.)
Notes
Don't have fresh blueberries on hand? These lemon sugar cookies still taste great without them!
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