By Week 437. Summer 2024. I am 41 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like grilled food and garden herbs and this is my life. This is the life I built.
The clinic was busy this week — spring puppies and summer emergencies and the constant, comforting cycle of animals who need care and humans who love them enough to bring them in.
Mason is 13 and navigating middle school with the quiet competence that has always been his way — focused, kind, certain of who he is in a way that took me thirty years to achieve.
Lily is 11 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.
I made berry crumble this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.
The berry crumble I made this week was really just an excuse to be in the kitchen with something sweet and purple-stained and alive — and these Lemon Blueberry Whoopie Pies are everything I was chasing in that same impulse: the brightness of lemon, the deep sweetness of blueberries, and the kind of handheld treat you can set on the counter and watch your kids grab without asking. Mason and Lily didn’t ask. They never do when something smells like summer.
Lemon Blueberry Whoopie Pies
Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 37 min | Servings: 12 whoopie pies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, roughly chopped
- For the filling:
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup fresh blueberries, mashed
- 1 tsp lemon zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Mix dry ingredients. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes.
- Add wet ingredients. Beat in the egg, lemon juice, and lemon zest until combined. Alternate adding the flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated.
- Fold in blueberries. Gently fold in the chopped blueberries with a spatula.
- Scoop and bake. Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake 10–12 minutes, until the edges are just set and the tops spring back lightly when touched. Cool completely on a wire rack.
- Make the filling. Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing well. Stir in mashed blueberries and lemon zest until the filling is light purple and creamy.
- Assemble. Spread or pipe a generous amount of filling onto the flat side of one cookie, then press a second cookie gently on top. Repeat with remaining cookies.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 310 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 44g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 160mg