Today’s post is all about an old favorite, peanut butter blossom cookies. I’m sure you’ve had them and/or made them many times. They are a staple Christmas cookie in our house, rarely to we not make them. They are cookies our boys liked to help with, being a big help by pushing the Hershey Kiss into the cookie then happily eating the ugly ones. Funny how many ugly ones we had when they were young. The strange Christmas that 2020 brought us had me waxing nostalgic to the messy kitchen table covered in cookie decorating mayhem and those little hands pushing Hershey Kisses into cookies. This year there was no giant cookie tray to take to our friends Christmas Eve open house after church, our oldest son opted to stay in Oklahoma and our traditional Christmas dinner with our dear friends was not to be.
I still baked, just not as much. I still made these cookies but, I played around with them.
Some people put the kiss on the cookie before baking, I’ve done it that way as well. Some people like a big cookie surrounding their kiss. Others prefer a medium sized cookie framing the kiss. That’s how I normally make them. This year, I decided to play with my new bite-sized cookie scoop. At 1/2 tablespoon, this scoop makes the perfect bite-size treat. Perfect for popping it in your mouth and devouring before anyone notices. C’mon, I can’t be the only person that does that.
I get 30 cookies per cookie sheet with this tiny scoop, it makes a lot of cookies! Since I was experimenting, I started with only one sheet. The little morsels looked so cute when I pulled them out of the oven I could have left them just like that. But, this was a peanut butter blossom experiment so I quickly pressed in 30 Hershey Kisses and admired how good they looked. Each kiss was framed with a circle of peanut butter cookie, almost like a little wreath. I let them cool just a bit then took a few to my expert cookie taster, Mark. He was on a call so I quietly set the cookies on his desk, a few minutes later he came out with an empty plate and a big thumbs up.
I scooped, baked and pressed kisses until the giant bag of candy was empty. I still had cookie dough so the rest became regular old peanut butter cookie that I dipped in chocolate later. Two recipe wins in one batch, it was a great day!
We were supposed to camp with Mark’s cousin over New Year’s but plans fell apart. He loves these cookies so I made them again for our next camping trip with them. This time I made some small, some regular sized.
My recipe of choice comes from Betty Crocker. It never fails, why change.
Start by whisking together the flour, baking soda and baking powder, set aside. Pour extra sugar into a shallow bowl for cookie rolling, set aside.
Next, beat together the brown sugar, sugar, peanut butter, butter and eggs until creamy, scraping the bowl as needed.
Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Scoop your dough then roll in the sugar before placing on a parchment lined cookie sheet. If using a 1-tablespoon scoop, I get 12-15 on a sheet. If using the tiny 1/2 tablespoon scoop, I get 30 per sheet.
Bake 8-10 minutes for the 1-tablespoon size and 6-8 minutes for tiny cookies. I like to turn my cookie sheets at the halfway point.
As soon as you pull the cookies out of the oven, gently press a Hershey Kiss into each cookie. Let the cookies cool for a while while the kiss resets before stacking. In the winter on my counter it’s a few hours, in the summer it’s a lot longer. So much so that I move them into the dining room so they’re out of the way, and so I won’t see them and eat them.
Peanut Butter Blossoms
- 3 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 4 Tablespoons sugar in a flat bowl
- 1 large bag Hershey Kisses
Preheat oven to 375°
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.
- Beat both sugars, peanut butter, butter and eggs in mixer until creamy and well combined.
- Slowly stir in dry ingredients.
- Scoop dough, roll in sugar and place on cookie sheet.
- Bake 8-10 minutes for regular sized cookie scoop and 6-8 for mini sized scoop.
- Remove from oven and immediately press one Hershey Kiss into each cookie.
- Allow to cool completely before storing.