These blueberry oatmeal cookies are just like chocolate chip cookies, but made with white chocolate, frozen blueberries, and a little chopped fresh rosemary.
When I came up with the recipe for my version of the best chocolate chip cookies, my goal was to have a recipe that can easily be tweaked to modify it. This blueberry oatmeal cookies recipe is just one of many creative ways you can adapt that recipe with chunks of white chocolate and fresh or frozen blueberries.
If blueberries aren't your thing, you can always try these thick chewy oatmeal cookies with chunks of milk chocolate and peanuts. Other options if you are big on oatmeal are these plain thick oatmeal cookies baked in a muffin pan so that they all have a round uniform shape and to limit the spread of the cookie dough as they bake, or even crispy oatmeal raisin cookies, which are old-fashioned oatmeal cookies from my grandmother's recipes.
Baking cookies in ring moulds or a muffin pan is a great way to stop cookie dough from spreading without making any other changes to your recipe, like in this thick oatmeal cookie recipe. For these cookies, I wanted a recipe that didn't require a ring mould to stay thick when the dough bakes in the oven.
If you want to bake cookies that are thicker, without having to use a muffin pan or ring moulds, the simplest solution is to add more flour to the cookie dough, which yields a thicker dough that doesn't spread.
The higher the proportion flour you have in your recipe, relative to the butter, sugar, and eggs, the less the cookies will spread.
These cookies are a variation on the classic chocolate chip cookie recipe, adding oats and replacing the dark chocolate with white chocolate, while also incorporating blueberries into the cookie dough. Make sure to take the time to properly measure your ingredients before mixing the dough: a little extra butter or a little more oats may drastically change the texture, resulting in thinner or dryer cookies if you aren't careful. The French baking term for this is called mise-en-place.
When you want to add berries to cake batters and doughs, especially when they are very thick. It can be helpful to freeze the berries so that when you mix them in, they don't burst open, adding too much water to your mixture. This is a trick I learned for the honey blueberry muffins and it works well, even in the dough for these blueberry white chocolate cookies!
Remember when baking with blueberries, the pH of the cookie dough, muffin mix, or cake batter will have an impact on the colour of the blueberries and you might find that the blueberries turn green as they bake.
Tools to bake the best oatmeal blueberry cookies
There are tools, equipment, and bakeware that I use when I make these oatmeal cookies. If you plan to make cookies often or bake more regularly, these are some of the baking tools you might want to consider investing in. This short list of items will make your baking sessions easier and more successful!
- Cookie scoop: this style of cookie scoop comes in a variety of sizes. Some call it a "disher" and it's the most reliable scoop I've found (available on Amazon). They can handle firm doughs without breaking because the release mechanism is separate from the handle! This gives you a better, firm grip on the handle, without the risk of breaking the leaver.
- Baking sheets: invest in large baking sheets, also known as half sheet pans, with the following dimensions: 13"x18". The larger the better, but make sure they fit in your oven before investing in bigger sheet pans. I like the Nordic Ware sheets (available on Amazon) and they come in a variety of sizes (quarter sheet, half sheet, big sheet). You can also find cheaper pans. Just make sure you opt for light Aluminum pans, not the pans with a darker finish because cookies on darker pans will brown/burn more quickly on the bottom!
- Parchment paper to prevent sticking: I prefer to bake cookies on Aluminum pans lined with parchment paper. I have baked with Silpat and silicone baking mats in the past, but I much prefer baking with parchment. Silicone is insulating and this will have an impact on how long it takes to properly bake the cookies and this will reduce browning as well. If you like gooey, underbaked cookies, silicone mats like the Silpat are your best bet (available on Amazon). If you prefer chewy cookies, opt for parchment paper—I use the Kirkland brand roll available on Amazon.
- Electric hand mixer: most of us used to make cookies with a good old wooden spoon, but now I don't have the stamina, the arm strength, or the motivation, honestly. I have used an electric hand mixer from Braun (Multimix HM5100 available on Amazon) to make these cookies and it works well. I've also used the KitchenAid Artisan mixer. Both work!
- Large bowl with a rubber or silicone grip on the bottom: if you are going to make cookie dough with a hand mixer, invest in a GIANT 8 quart stainless bowl with a rubberized bottom so it is stable on the counter and this way, the bowl won't dance around as the mixer runs. This set from Amazon will do the trick. Or buy a stainless bowl without a rubberized grip and nest it in a damp towel to stabilize it while mixing.
- Kitchen scale: I cannot stress enough how much easier it is to measure out ingredients by weight. If you are interested in making the switch to a digital scale, I like this OXO Good Grips kitchen scale available on Amazon. I use it all the time and it takes standard AAA batteries which you probably have on hand most of the time.
Blueberry oatmeal cookies with white chocolate and rosemary
Equipment
Ingredients
- 150 grams (1 cup) fresh blueberries preferably wild blueberries which are smaller and sweeter
- 188 grams (1½ cups) all-purpose flour
- 95 grams (1 cup) rolled oats (or large flake oats) also called old fashioned oats
- 2.5 mL (½ tsp) baking soda
- 2.5 mL (½ tsp) Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 10 mL (2 tsp) finely chopped fresh rosemary
- 115 grams (½ cup) unsalted butter softened
- 100 grams (½ cup) granulated sugar
- 100 grams (½ cup) light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 5 mL (1 tsp) pure vanilla extract
- 45 mL (3 tbsp) pure maple syrup
- 90 grams (⅔ cup) white chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 175 ºC (350ºF). Line a couple of sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Place the blueberries on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and freeze while you make the cookie dough.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and fresh rosemary. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter with the two sugars until they are well mixed with a wooden spoon (or in the mixer if you prefer).
- In a small cup, whisk together the egg, vanilla, and maple syrup.
- Drop this mixture into the bowl with the creamed butter, a little at a time, stirring well with each addition.
- When the egg mixture has been incorporated, pour the dry ingredients into the bowl. Stir to combine.
- Dump in the white chocolate chunks and the frozen blueberries, folding them in carefully.
- Scoop heaped tablespoons of the cookie dough onto a big parchment-lined sheet. Chill the cookies for 15 minutes.
- Bake the cookies for 12 to 16 minutes in the oven or until the edges are beginning to brown. Note the baking time is entirely dependent on your oven and how cold the cookie dough is.
- Let cool before transferring to a rack. I stored these on the wire rack, uncovered, overnight, so that the cookies dried out a little. The next day you will have perfectly chewy blueberry cookies, whereas fresh from the oven, they were a little moist and cakey.
Sean says
I understand exactly what you mean. Summer is almost too much at times - you wait and wait for it, then it lands upon you with a million things to do (and things to eat) and before you can even take stock of it all it feels like it's fall again. I think the feeling is especially poignant for those of us working so intimately with food - we know that the seasons are short and our desire to produce something new, exciting, delicious, etc. is linked inextricably to that ever-ticking seasonal timeline. But I must say, I agree with the approach you've taken here. I think I'll just have a cookie and a cup of tea next time, and try to worry about it a little less. Life is pretty good with a cookie.
Sofia says
I love the combination of blueberries, white chocolate, and rosemary! So intriguing! beautiful photographs too. Summer always does feel too short but all the seasons have something to look forward to 🙂
Mardi (eat. live. travel. write.) says
I'm wondering where the summer has gone and along with it my big ideas of cooking and baking projects. I love the sound of these - intriguing flavour combo!
Elaine says
Don't worry Jennifer, many of us feel the same way. Plus it's been very hot to turn on an oven! Enjoy everything that summer offers, sunshine, warmth and blue skies. Splashing in a pool can create some great memories too! Bar B Qs with friends are great ways to enjoy those summer moments. It's never long enough to get through the To-Do list.
P.S. there's a small typo Rosemarry in the recipe title.