Easy Wild Blueberry Breakfast Cookies With Ricotta

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Moms everywhere will appreciate the ease of feeding kids these wild blueberry breakfast cookies on the go. Packed with nutritious ingredients like egg, ricotta cheese, coconut, ground oats, and wild blueberries, they are a filling energy boost first thing in the morning. With a dash of fresh lemon juice and lemon zest, these sweet macaroon-like cookies are a delicious start to your day. The soft and chewy cookie has the perfect blueberry lemon flavor that everyone loves. Pack a few of these when you need a satisfying snack, or pick me up.

I was reading more and more posts about moms struggling with having their kids eat before school. I recalled my school career and how I found it hard to stomach breakfast before school; I often skipped meals altogether. I know now that wasn’t ideal, and as a mother, I have struggled as well to get the kids to eat first thing in the morning. Breakfast cookies are a great answer to that problem. Mothers become masters at disguising healthy food in the simplest ways, and what is a more straightforward way than handing your child a cookie for breakfast? 

This kid-friendly recipe is sure to be gobbled up by all. I made it first with a bag of frozen blueberries I grabbed at the local grocery store. But I find tame blueberries, well, tame. They lack the deep blueberry flavor we associate with this delicious, heart-healthy summer fruit. This is why I returned on a mission to scour the freezer section for wild blueberries. Wild blueberries are believed to have higher levels of certain antioxidants due to their exposure to natural environmental stressors. And they are perfect packages of sweet, juicy berry flavor. 

After successfully procuring the wild blueberries, I went ahead with recreating my recipe. The result is a soft, slow-baked breakfast cookie that is filling. I eat three cookies with my morning coffee and am satisfied for hours! 

wild blueberry cookies on wire rack

Why you will love this blueberry coconut breakfast cookie

Make ahead. A big batch of this beautiful recipe will last a week in the fridge. That’s good news; now you must keep the kids’ hands off them between meal times. 

Healthy ingredients. They contain healthy, nutritious ingredients like wild blueberries, unsweetened coconut, ricotta cheese, whole eggs, and ground oats. 

It makes mornings more manageable. Instead of running through many cereal bowls after breakfast on busy mornings, you can hand out cookies. That’s pretty easy. 

Yum. Cookies are delicious, and when homemade with love, they are even better!

If you love blueberries you will also enjoy our old-fashioned blueberry crumble squares!

Let’s make this wild blueberry lemon cookie recipe!

We make this breakfast cookie in one bowl. The process is straightforward once we have all the ingredients at hand. The first thing you will need to do is grind the oats. Tossing some into the blender and pulse for a few seconds is simple. That’s it. Your quick oats will create a find powdered ingredient that is similar to oat flour. They are ground to hide the flake texture because ground oats absorb more liquid in the recipe than straight oats would. 

In a large bowl, measure the ricotta cheese, replacing milk and oil in the recipe. Add to that the sugar. I used one cup of white sugar for the right amount of sweetness. If you wish to use less sugar, reducing it by no more than a quarter of a cup would likely be alright. Alternatively, you can replace 1:1 with coconut sugar. Crack those eggs and add to the bowl as well. Beat the ingredients together until they are well blended. To do this, you can use a hand mixer, stand mixer, or straight by hand. As I grew up off the grid, I make all cookies by hand, so I am accustomed to the method. 

Add the ground oats, flour, baking powder, and salt when blending the ingredients. Mix the ingredients together well. It’s looking moist. That’s okay. The unsweetened shredded coconut will add a bit of dryness to that landscape. Blend the coconut well and add the lemon zest and freshly squeezed lemon juice. I recommend squeezing a lemon over a cup or small bowl so you can scoop out the seeds more easily. If you are using a tool like a lemon squeezer, it will keep the seeds from ending up in the juice. 

Stir the lemon juice in, and then add the last ingredient, the magical wild blueberries. We’ve used frozen berries, but you can use fresh fruit. Here’s a little fact about wild blueberries. They have much more color imparted from them as you mix them vs. tame blueberries. So you want to be gentle, not dye the cookie blue. If visual appearance isn’t necessary, blend them in more briskly. That’s it to make the cookie batter. It’s a super easy recipe. 

The next step is, of course, getting them in the oven. But before you do, it’s important to note two things. The cookie dough is wetter than most, and the coconut loves to stick to the cooking surface. I first made these on parchment paper and discovered it was a trick to getting them off. So, I recommend using cooking spray on your parchment to remove the baked cookies easily. 

Regular cookies bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit generally. However, I found these cookies wanted to burn on the bottom, so I reduced the oven temp to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and baked them longer. The longer baking process allowed the cookie to spread more and have a nicer bake on the bottom of the cookie. Because this recipe makes 24-26 cookies, it will require two dozen bakes each. So, give yourself enough time to bake these 20-minute cookies. 

Cookies can be dropped by the tablespoonful onto a cookie sheet. You can use a cookie scoop, but the cookies may be a different size to the ones baked here, depending on the size of your scoop. Be careful to leave an inch and a half between each cookie to allow for spread. 

After baking the wild blueberry breakfast cookies for twenty minutes, check for doneness. An adequately baked cookie will be dry to the touch on top and bounce back when pressed slightly. You will also notice that the edges of the cookie are turning a darker golden brown. Light golden means the cookie needs another minute or so.

Remove your baked breakfast cookies from the oven and cool on a cooling rack before putting them in an airtight container. These cookies must be stored in the fridge as they are made with ricotta cheese. If you are making a batch just for yourself, you can freeze these cookies for up to one month! Let cool before packaging for the freezer. Remember to label food in the freezer so you know it’s best before the date. 

Ingredients:

Ricotta Cheese acts as both the fat and the dairy in the cookie recipe. The cheese adds protein to the breakfast cookies. 

Quick Oats: These are ground into a finer powder before being added. Oats are a significant source of dietary fiber. In this recipe, they act as a binder and help to absorb and retain the moisture of the cookie dough. The ground oats also bring a subtle nuttiness that complements the rest of the cookie. 

White Sugar: Known for aiding in sweetness and the overall texture of the finished baking, white sugar is a readily available sweetener in most homes. It should be noted that it is low in nutritional value.

Lemon: This cookie recipe uses freshly squeezed lemon juice plus the zest for the most profound citrus flavor, enhancing the blueberries’ flavor. Lemon is also known to be a good source of vitamin C. 

Wild Blueberries: These small juicy berries can be found frozen in the grocery freezer section of some grocers. They can also be purchased as fresh berries from your local farmer’s market in the summer if you live near wild blueberry patches. This recipe used frozen wild blueberries because they are more economical than fresh, handpicked summer berries. 

Unsweetened Shredded Coconut: Contains natural healthy fats and brings more fiber to the wild blueberry breakfast cookies while creating a chewy texture. Coconut contains natural oils and fibers that can help bind the ingredients together in your wet cookie dough. As the coconut absorbs moisture during baking, it forms a cohesive mixture that holds the other ingredients together, preventing the cookies from falling apart. 

Eggs: I used large eggs in this recipe. Having grown up in the country, I don’t subscribe to organic vs non-organic. In fact, the best eggs are farm fresh with chickens who have access to healthy foraging. But any egg will work in your baking to bind the ingredients and add richness and depth to the cookie dough. 

White All-Purpose Flour: This cost-friendly ingredient provides structure and stability to the cookie dough due to its gluten content. This flour also gives a softer, fresher bakery texture to the cookies. 

Salt: This is used to enhance the flavor of the cookie while also adding to the cookie’s ability to rise properly. 

Baking Powder: This leavening agent helps to create a fluffy rise to the blueberry oatmeal cookies. It also acts to ensure a consistent texture throughout the cookie. 

wild vs tame blueberry comparison

Substitutions and Add-Ins For The Cookie Recipe.

Ricotta Cheese: This neutral-flavored cheese brings a high protein to the breakfast cookie. Replacing this with something similar, like cottage cheese that has been blended to a similar consistency, would work. If you choose to use blended cottage cheese, it’s important to remember that you may need to adjust the additional salt. 

Quick Oats: These have been ground to a fine powder for this wild blueberry breakfast cookies dry ingredients. That step created a soft cookie base for the other ingredients and allowed for better moisture absorption. If you would like to skip the grinding process and use straight oat flakes, it will result in needing to adjust the overall moisture content in the recipe. As well, cookies will bake with a different mouthfeel overall. Alternatively, you can use oat flour instead of the ground oat flakes. 

White Sugar: Brings a sweetness to an otherwise sugarless recipe. You can replace the sugar with coconut sugar, stevia, or honey. When using sugar replacements in your cookie recipe, it’s essential to consider how they will affect your cookies’ sweetness, moisture, browning, texture, and flavor. You may need to adjust your recipe to achieve the best results. Experimentation and testing may be necessary to find the perfect balance of ingredients for your desired cookie outcome.

Lemon: The results will be vastly different if you wish to replace the lemon with shelf-stable real lemon juice. The reason is that shelf-stable lemon juice is often made using the entire lemon, including the pulp. This produces a more bitter flavor than a freshly squeezed lemon’s brightness. This will make a noticeable difference in your baking. 

Wild Blueberries: Grow in the wild as the name implies. Whereas tame blueberry cultivars used by blueberry farms are bred for size and appearance, wild blueberries are much smaller and generally have more flavor. If you want to substitute the frozen tame variety, I recommend adding two cups to the batter. Alternatively, using raspberries would make for another great flavor combination. Fresh blueberries can be used in this cookie as well.

Unsweetened Shredded Coconut:  This ingredient is needed to help bind the cookie together. I don’t recommend replacing or subbing. 

Eggs: There are many great egg alternatives. Like flax seeds, some could also bring great nutritional value to this cookie. Feel free to experiment if you are living with egg allergies. 

White Flour: This is an essential ingredient. However, if you wish to replace it, I recommend experimenting to see what best suits your lifestyle needs.

You may be wondering why there is no vanilla extract in this wild blueberry breakfast cookie recipe. We rely on the lemon juice and its zest to enhance the cookie’s overall flavor. 

soft breakfast cookies stacked

Expert Tips, Serving and Storing Suggestions:

Tip #1: Add two cups instead of a half cup if you use tame blueberries. 

Tip #2: Be sure to grease the baking sheet to prevent cookies from sticking. Remove cookies right away from the pan as well.

Tip #3: Use the right amount of freshly squeezed lemon juice in the recipe for the best flavor. Artificial lemon juice is not recommended. 

These wild blueberry breakfast cookies can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for one week. They are very moist with juicy blueberries and ricotta cheese, so keeping them longer may result in mold development. Consuming the cookies within a few days of baking or freezing them for longer-term storage is best. 

When freezing the cookies, allow them to cool completely before packaging. You can freeze them for up to one month in a freezer bag. Remove from the freezer and let thaw in the fridge as they contain cheese. 

The perfect amount of cookies for breakfast on the go is two or three of these soft berry-filled cookies. However, don’t let that stop you from snagging another later as a healthy snacking idea in the midday. 

Have you tried these sweet wild blueberry breakfast cookies? We would love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment below the recipe card. We love hearing from you, our readers.

Easy Wild Blueberry Breakfast Cookies With Ricotta (1)

Easy Wild Blueberry Breakfast Cookies With Ricotta

Amber Bondar
These sweet and easy wild blueberry cookies have bright citrus flavor from the lemon and a chewy texture from the unsweetened shredded coconut. The cookie base is made with ricotta cheese and has ground oats for added fiber. Enjoy two or three of these cookies for a perfect grab and go breakfast that satisfies.
No ratings yet
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine American, Canadian
Servings 24

Equipment

  • 1 Large Mixing Bowl
  • 1 Teaspoon
  • 1 Tablespoon
  • Mixing Tool
  • Blender *For grinding oats
  • 1 Cookie Sheet
  • 1 Wire Cooling Rack
  • parchment paper

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Cup Ricotta Cheese
  • 1 Cup White Sugar
  • 2 Lrg Eggs
  • ¾ Cup Ground Oats
  • 1 Cup White Flour
  • ¼ Tsp Salt
  • 1 Tbsp Baking Powder
  • 1 Cup Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
  • Zest From Whole Lemon
  • 2 Tbsp Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
  • Cup Frozen Wild Blueberries

Instructions
 

  • In the blender grind up the oat flakes until they resemble fine powder. Set aside.
  • In a large mixing bowl measure the ricotta cheese, white sugar, and cream until well blended.
  • Add in the eggs and cream until smooth.
  • Measure the flour, oats, baking powder and salt into the bowl.
  • Blend the dry into the wet ingredients.
  • Add in the lemon juice and zest. Blending thoroughly.
  • Add in the coconut and stir until evenly distributed.
  • Fold in the blueberries mixing only until just blended.
  • Drop by tablespoonful's onto grease parchment paper on cookie baking sheet.
  • Bake in low temperature 325℉ oven for 20 minutes or until the top springs back to touch and the edges are deep golden brown.
  • Remove from oven and take off of parchment paper to cooling rack.
  • Allow to cool completely before storing in airtight container in the fridge.
  • Cookies last one week in the fridge. One month in the freezer.
Keyword blueberry, breakfast cookie, grab and go snacking, sweet snacking
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