BLUEBERRY MUFFIN COOKIES!!

Blueberry Muffin Cookies

I should clarify, that’s a blueberry muffin cookie with a few raspberries. I added the raspberries for a bright shot of berry tartness that the blueberries alone could not provide. Remember awhile back when I was flipping classic desserts into cookies, eg. Cinnamon Roll Cookies, Banana Bread Cookies,Coffee Cake Cookies, Pecan Pie Cookies, Carrot Cake Cookies. I went back to that with this one. Keep reading to find out the two key ingredients to turning a classic blueberry muffin into blueberry muffin cookie.

And no, these are not muffin tops . The crumb is softer and these Blueberry Muffin Cookies are missing the hardy dome exterior of a muffin top. But I did keep the streusel topping for a little bit of crunch and an extra added kick of sweetness. To give the body a more cake-like texture I added in some cottage cheese. Oh, yes I did. I could have used sour cream and you can too if you don’t have cottage cheese on hand, but I prefer the cottage cheese as it seems to provide more moisture and a denser crumb.

So aside from the cottage cheese, you might be wondering what is up with the cornstarch in the cookie. The cornstarch not only provides a soft chewy element to the cookie, but it also helps to keep the dough together especially if you are using frozen blueberries since they will sweat moisture into the cookie dough while waiting between baking sheets.

A few notes:

• Use fresh or frozen berries, the result is minimally different. But to save you from asking, I preferred using fresh berries, since more of them burst open during baking.
• To shortcut this recipe skip the streusel topping for some chunky raw sugar. That way you can still have a crunchy textural contrast with a little less fuss – just brush the tops of the cookie dough with some heavy cream and sprinkle coarse raw sugar on top.
• Make sure the cottage cheese is completely pureed or else you will have white chunks of cottage cheese in your cookies.

BLUEBERRY MUFFIN COOKIES

Makes about 3 dozen 2inch cookies | Preparation: Heat oven to 375 degrees F and line bake sheet with parchment paper.

Ingredients:

Streusel Topping

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 8 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Muffin Cookie

• 10 tablespoon of unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brwon sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup of cottage cheese, pureed
• 1 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 4 oz raspberries
• 6 oz blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Instructions:

To make streusel

1. Place flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. Add cold butter into bowl and using a pastry blender or a fork cut butter into dry mixture until it resembles small pellets. Set aside.

To make muffin cookies

1. Place butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat and heat until butter becomes brown and smells nutty. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
2. Place granulated sugar and dark brown sugar in a stand mixer bowl fitted with a whisk attachment and beat until blended. Add in melted butter and beat until combined. Add in egg and beat on medium high until mixture becomes light and opaque, about 3-4 minutes. Add in vanilla and pureed cottage cheese and beat until combined.
3. Change whisk attachment to paddle attachment.
4. Sift together cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt, then add this mixture into wet mixture and beat until combined. Turn mixer to low and gradually add in flour and beat to combine. Add in raspberries and give mixer two to three turns to crush raspberries into the dough. Turn off mixture and fold in blueberries. Dough will be sticky.
5. Drop two tablespoons on parchment lined bake sheet. Bake one tray at a time for 8 minutes. Remove cookie filled bake sheet and heavily sprinkle streusel on top of cookies and gently press onto cookie, about 1 tablespoon per cookie (don’t worry if it spills onto the bake sheet). Return baking sheet to oven and bake for another 4 minutes. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on bake sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.