Wild Blueberry Cookies

These wild blueberry cookies are soft, cakey drop cookies studded with whole berries and brightened with lemon zest. Wild blueberries are smaller and more intensely flavored than cultivated ones, so each tiny berry packs a punch of tart sweetness.

The berries get tossed with the dry ingredients before mixing into the batter. This coats them in flour, which prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the cookie. If you’re using frozen berries, fold them in at the very end while still frozen. They’ll thaw during baking. Fair warning: the dough turns purple as frozen berries bleed, which looks wild but tastes just as good.

Lemon zest in the creamed shortening lifts the flavor and keeps the cookies from tasting one-dimensional. These bake up puffy and soft, more like a little blueberry muffin top than a crispy cookie.

Kitchen Tips

• Don’t thaw frozen blueberries before adding. Thawed berries release too much juice and make the dough soggy.
• Work quickly once the berries are in the dough. The longer you handle it, the more the berries break and stain.
• Drop by teaspoonfuls and leave space between cookies. They puff up more than they spread.
• Pull them at the first sign of light browning on the edges. Overbaked blueberry cookies dry out fast.

Variations

• Add a lemon glaze drizzle after cooling for extra citrus punch.
• Fold in white chocolate chips alongside the blueberries for a sweet contrast.
• Use butter instead of shortening for richer flavor, though they’ll be slightly flatter.