Blueberry Season! Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies

Blueberry Mini Pies from The Painted Pie in Stone Harbor, NJ

Jersey, or more particularly, Hammonton, NJ, is known as "The Blueberry Capital of the World".  The place earned this designation from Ronald Reagan, who visited Hammonton during his Presidency and the moniker has stuck thereafter.  Not surprising then to find some of THE best blueberry pies at the Jersey shore.

The ones above were snapped in a patisserie in Stone Harbor called the Painted Pie, which is famous in this area for its delectable Key Lime, its coconut macaroons and best of all its dairy-free chocolate rings.  (I meant to photograph these too, but ate mine before I had the chance.)

With blueberries understandably on the brain, I had the bright idea of experimenting with a previously tried and tested recipe for Vanishing Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies.  This recipe was kindly supplied by Quaker Original Oats on the underside of their tub of whole oats.

I'd already jiggled around with the recipe last week, replacing the raisins for semi-sweet choc chips and yep, these guys lived up to their name!

These choc chip oatmeal cookies vanished in no time.  Thanks again to Quaker Oats for your recipe. (For more wonderful ideas using whole oats, see Quaker's website.)

Cookie dough is looking good - just got to keep the kids'  fingers out of the bowl

first batch of blueberry oatmeal cookies was just too sloppy because of the berries.  I added another 1/ 2 cup of the oats and baked for 10 minutes longer which resulted in...

Perfection!  Bursting with fresh blueberries - these oatmeal cookies were divine.