Recipe 1: White Chocolate and Blueberry Breakfast Cookies

I called these Breakfast Cookies for two reasons; they are not as sugary as most cookies, and they also remind me of blueberry muffins :)  Plus, they're pretty dense, so one or two would make a meal treat. This recipe makes about 3.5-4 dozen cookies, depending on how much you practice “quality assurance” throughout! 

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 package white chocolate instant pudding mix (vanilla or cheesecake instant pudding works too)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, divided in to 2cups, ½ cup, and ½ cup
• 8 ounces white chocolate chips (buy the standard 12 oz bag, and the remaining 4 oz can be used in the blueberry syrup, below)

 

Supplies/ Utensils

• Measuring spoons and cups (2 1-tablespoon spoons)
• Large mixing bowl
• Electric hand-held mixer, or else a whisk and a lot of determination
• Large baking sheets
• Greased foil for baking sheets (Crisco, butter, or margarine will work)
• Small pot
• Spatula/mixing spoons

Directions

Blueberry Syrup:  To make first, and add last!

1. Mix the ½ cup of water and the ½ cup white sugar in the small pan, and bring up to a boil
2. Add in the whole package of dried blueberries
3. Allow to boil for about 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. This reduces the mixture in to a sort of thin syrup. 
4. When the syrup is a deep violet color, take off of the heat  
5. While syrup is still hot, add in the 4 oz of white chocolate chips, and stir until well mixed.
6. Allow the syrup to cool (even refrigerate) while you make the dough.  If the syrup is still hot when it is used in the dough, it will melt the white chocolate chips in the dough

Cookie Dough (syrup is added last!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth 
3. Add in the eggs, and again whisk until smooth 
4. In ½ cup increments, add 2 cups of flour.  Whisk until smooth between additions 
5. Using a spatula, stir in 8 oz of white chocolate chips 
6. Add another ½ cup of flour 
7. Check the blueberry syrup that has been cooling.  If a slight skim has formed, then it can be added to the cookie dough.  Make sure to gently stir in, and don’t worry about getting it entirely mixed in; a little bit of a swirling color is fine! 
8. Let the dough set further for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. 
9. Using 2 tablespoon measuring spoons, ball the dough.  Press it gently between your palms to flatten slightly, and then place on prepared and greased baking sheet.  (These cookies do not spread very much, so when placing them, only a separation of about an inch is needed) 
10. Baking time varies!  These cookies do bake very fast (probably no more than 8 minutes), so keep an eye on them. Bake until you can see the edges have browned, then remove from sheet and on to a drying rack for at least 20 minutes. (See Tip #1 for over-baked cookies)

Tips and suggestions:

1. If the cookies come out of the over looking a little bit too brown or slightly over cooked, you can act quickly (while the cookies are still hot!) to save them.  Just get a little bowl of milk and using the back of a spoon, brush a little bit of milk all around the top of the cookie. They'll still be crunchy around the edges, but the center will be soft.
2. For a more gooey and sweeter cookie, replace 1/2 cup of flour with either brown or white sugar, and omit the white chocolate from the blueberry syrup.  Just keep in mind that these will spread out more when baked, and might require a cooking time adjustment.