Bite-Sized Lemon Blueberry Cookies!!

Baking.

My most favorite thing to do. Ever.

And here's how I made these beauties:

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup granulated sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
Juice of zested lemon
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 (3.4 oz) package lemon instant pudding mix
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Fresh Blueberries

Guittard Lemon Apeels (I got them at Gygi)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray mini muffin tins with baking spray.

2. In a small bowl, rub the granulated sugar and lemon zest together, using your fingers. In a mixer, add the lemon-sugar mixture to the butter, lemon juice & brown sugar and beat until creamy. Add in the dry lemon pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla extract. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

3. Using a mini ice cream scoop, drop by the scoopful into the mini muffin cup. Bake for 9 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges. Remove cookies from oven and immediately push two Apeels into the center of the hot cookie. Once you've given the Apeels a chance to melt a little bit, top with fresh blueberries. Transfer to a cooling rack to avoid over-browning the outsides.

Due to the fresh blueberries, for best results, eat right away!! :) But if you must store them, keep them in an air-tight container on the counter. Refrigerating will cause the Apeels to harden. 

NOTE: For the vibrant yellow color for photography purposes, I added lemon food coloring to the wet mixture prior to adding the flour mixture. So if yours don't turn out as yellow, don't worry! They're still as yummy! ;)