Hello 2024! You are so very welcome.

The Percy Jackson book series means a great deal to me, so to be writing a recipe based on the latest book to screen adaptation of this wonderful story is a real joy. My blue chocolate chip cookies are directly inspired by the first instalment. Gear up, half-bloods. Let’s dive in.

Contents

• The Bake
• Top Tips
• The Recipe
• The TV Series
• Recipe Card

The Bake

As mentioned above, one of the key themes throughout the books is the blue food that Percy eats. We get a glimpse of this early on in Percy Jackson and the Olympians in the form of blue candy.

Blue is Percy’s favourite colour, the same as his Mum, Sally’s. Percy explains in the first book that Sally’s partner, Gabe, claimed that there is no such thing as blue food. It is in this instance that Sally starts to purposely go out of her way to make and buy blue food for Percy.

A firm favourite are her blue chocolate chip cookies. As the first season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians is an adaptation of the first book, it felt only right to recreate these iconic cookies.

Blue chocolate chip cookies make a very tasty and very theme appropriate viewing snack.

It’s been a hot minute since I made cookies specifically for Flavour of the Film. My first cookie recipe being my Spider-Man NYC cookies which are always a hit. I love cookies so I’m excited to bring you this PJO inspired recipe!

Like with my Spider-Man cookies, I put a mix of different sugars in including dark brown sugar because I think the texture is really delicious. If preferred, you can replace the dark brown sugar with light brown sugar in equal parts. Just be mindful that different sugars can create different textures!

When it comes to the colour: the brighter, the better.

I opted for a seafoam blue colour as it is entirely appropriate, but you can choose your desired shade.

You can use food colouring in the form of liquid or paste. Or, for a more natural route, you can use blue spirulina powder. I’m sticking with my usual oil based liquid blue food colouring as it’s what I have on hand.

As always, to get the best results with your cookies, you want to make sure to chill the dough before it goes anywhere near the oven. This makes sure that your cookies don’t spread too much during baking and keep a better shape. I learned this mostly thanks to Jane’s Patisserie’s cookie recipes.

My blue cookies are made with milk chocolate chips.

This is because that’s the standard for a regular chocolate chip cookie. But, as usual, this recipe can be altered to suit your personal preference.

White chocolate chips are your thing? Go for it. Prefer a richer and darker taste? Swap the milk chocolate chips out for dark chocolate chips in your blue cookies. It’s completely up to you.

To finish, I sprayed my cookies with edible silver glitter. Why? Because I love edible glitter, but also because it adds that little mythical, magical essence to the cookies.

Top Tips

• Getting the blue to come through in these cookies can be a challenge. I’ve already had questions about it on my Flavour of the Film socials, so here is my best advice. Try to get an oil based liquid or paste food colouring. The colour spreads more effectively through the oils in the cookies (the butter being the primary element).
• Add the food colouring into the wet ingredients. Don’t get too hung up on getting the right colour at this stage, especially if using food colouring rather than blue spirulina. You can massage more blue food colouring into the dough before chilling.
• The lighter the blue food colouring that you buy, the better the end result of your cookie colour. I ended up using a mix of baby blue with a dash of navy to give it some oomph.
• Do not skip the chilling stage! These kinds of cookies bake best when they’ve had the time to really firm up in the fridge. This is because the butter has had time to solidify a little more, meaning the cookies don’t spread and flatten more than they need to when baking.
• Avoid baking the cookies for longer than instructed in the recipe. Thick cookies like these continue to bake on the trays as they cool. This gives you the slightly crisp outer and soft centre combo, which is supreme.

Every half-blood or demi-god is unique so why can’t your Percy Jackson and the Olympians themed blue cookies be the same?

To all of my fellow PJO fans, let me know your thoughts on my Flavour of the Film socials. If you are waiting for the entire season to be released before watching, I really hope you enjoy it! These blue chocolate chip cookies are a real treat and are so fun to make. The perfect viewing treat whilst watching Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

P.S. I watched my Mum eat one of these blue cookies whilst sipping on a glass of Diet Coke. In any other situation, I would have been repulsed. But, in this case, it was entirely appropriate. It was like Dionysus was in the room.

Happy baking, happy eating!

The Recipe

Ingredients

Blue chocolate chip cookies:

• 125g [4.5 oz] unsalted butter   room temperature
• 75g [¼ cup + 2 tbsp] caster sugar
• 70g [¼ cup + 2 tbsp] light brown sugar
• 30g [2 tbsp + 1 tsp] dark brown sugar
• 1 medium or large egg
• 300g [1¾ cups + 2 tbsp] plain [all-purpose] flour
• 1 tbsp cornflour  optional
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda [baking soda]
• ½ tsp salt
• 200g [7 oz] chocolate chips of your choice
• 1-2 tsp strong blue food colouring or 2 tsp blue spirulina
• Edible silver glitter   optional

Serves: 12

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Chilling time: 1 hour

Baking time: 8 – 10 minutes

Cooling time: 30 minutes

Method

Blue chocolate chip cookies:

1. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper/baking parchment and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg and blue food colouring or blue spirulina and beat in. You can add more blue food colouring later if needed.
4. Sieve in the flour, then spoon in the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and the cornflour (if using) and mix in until a dough is achieved.
5. Add more blue food colouring here if needed and gently knead it in. Avoid overworking the dough as much as possible.
6. Press in the chocolate chips. 
7. Shape your dough into up to 12 equal balls. Sit them on the trays with 6 on each tray, leaving a generous amount of space in between each ball.
8. Chill the cookie dough pieces in the fridge for at least 1 hour or in the freezer for 30 minutes. Do not skip this step as you could end up with flat cookies!
9. After about 50 minutes of chilling, preheat the oven to 200°C [390°F] or 180°C fan. 
10. When ready, bake the cookies for around 8 to 10 minutes, until slightly dry looking on the top. They shouldn’t need pressing down before baking as they may spread too much, but this personal preference. Do not bake for longer than the allotted time: they will continue baking on the trays after.
11. After the allotted time, leave the cookies to continue baking on their trays for at least 30 minutes. 
12. Spray with the glitter if using. Then your blue chocolate chip cookies are ready to eat!

These mythical blue chocolate chip cookies are best eaten on the day, but will last for a further 4 or so days. If desired, you can warm them through in the microwave for 20 seconds or in the oven for 2 minutes.

Raw dough will last no more than 48 hours in the fridge but can be frozen (wrapped) and then baked from frozen at the same temperature for a couple of minutes longer. Just be sure they are baked all the way through. Enjoy!

The TV Series

As the proper little bookworm that I was growing up, I was always looking for more to read. Fantasy and dystopian science fiction were my go-to genres because they were the best escapes.

When I discovered the Percy Jackson series, I was all in. Greek Mythology mixed with present day life was enough to get me hooked. Hooked enough to read all five Percy Jackson books over and over again, and then read the Heroes of Olympus series repeatedly, too. 

I mentioned in my Hercules recipe post that I am fascinated by Greek Mythology, and I genuinely mean it. 

The stories, the myths, the legends. The truths.

That’s partly why I loved the Percy Jackson books so much. Alongside Rick Riordan’s brilliant style of storytelling, of course.

Now, many will know that the first two books were adapted into films a while back. They weren’t all that faithful to the original content, which was frustrating to say the least. While they boasted a talented cast (that were playing 16 year olds instead of 12 year olds), the films just didn’t do the books justice.

They left out so many core details from the books that the fans really love. Annabeth’s invisibility cap and the blue food that Percy’s Mother makes for him come to mind. Not to mention Grover’s entire personality…

It was disappointing for so many PJO fans. 

Jump forward a few years…

And it was revealed that the series would be adapted again. This time for television by Disney+. An adaptation that would give Rick Riordan – the creator of the PJO world – an integral role in its production.

There it was: a glimmer of hope.

Those who have read my Harry Potter cake recipe will know how passionate I am about an accurate book to screen adaptation. There isn’t always scope for a completely faithful screen version of some books, especially in cinema. Even more so when they contain a lot of integral parts to the plot.

But, with a story like Percy Jackson’s, TV is the ideal host for a faithful adaptation. After all, when a story is about a 12 year old finding out he is a demi-god – a son of Poseidon no less – and quickly discovering a whole world of myth and legend that turns out to be true, there is so much potential.

We’re only halfway through the first season of this new adaptation but I can already say that I am loving it.

There are so many details from the books that feature in the series!

A geeky but heart-strong Grover! The Camp Half-Blood t-shirts! Percy’s blue food! The characters are 12 years old, like in the first book: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief!

Even more details that I won’t mention so that I don’t reveal spoilers!

You can really see the impact that giving Rick Riordan a proper role in the production has had. It just goes to show how paying respect to the original content – and the original creator of said content – can make all the difference in a well made book to screen adaptation.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians was co-created by original author Rick Riordan alongside Jonathan E. Steinberg.

The directors of the series include Anders Engström, Jet Wilkinson and James Bobin. 

The writing team is a team made up by Daphne Olive; Rick Riordan, Jonathan E. Steinberg, Joe Tracz, Monica Owusu-Breen, Andrew Miller and Craig Silverstein.

Playing our beloved characters are the very talented Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson, Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase and Aryan Simhardi as Grover Underwood. 

Alongside the main trio are the excellent Virginia Kull as Sally Jackson; Glynn Turman as Chiron, Charlie Bushnell as Luke Castellan, Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse La Ruse, Timm Sharp as Gabe Ugliano, Jason Mantzoukas (any Brooklyn Nine-Nine lovers here?) as Dionysus, and more.

Plus, Lin Manuel Miranda shows up, which I am thrilled about.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a triumph in my eyes so far. I’m incredibly excited for the next few episodes of this first season and I really hope this show continues for many more seasons. Enough to adapt all five of the books!

Recipe Card