My favorite Christmas cookie since I was a kid has been the Peanut Butter Blossom. They are so yummy fresh out of the oven with the melty chocolate. These cookies pair especially well with a hot chocolate on a cool day. Truth be told, I like to make these year round.
After making these for several years, I've changed to JIF recipe a bit so that it's more to my liking. You may not like my version of these cookies, but I am pretty sure you will.
Here's the major changes:
- Don't roll your dough in sugar. I hate biting into granulated sugar. It's gritty and I feel like it leaves a weird texture on your teeth.
- Add more peanut butter. Because there's never enough peanut butter in recipes!
- Add a little extra flour. Mostly to make up for all the extra peanut butter
- Use Hershey Kisses. Generic kiss-shaped candy is not going to work. Even Reese's Peanut Butter Cups don't really go well in these and I believe it's because of the oil ratios in the candy.
So here is my recipe:
- 20 or so unwrapped Hershey Kisses
- 1 cup of Peanut Butter (I like using the Natural Peanut Butter from Aldi or JIF Creamy Peanut Butter)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar (if you don't have brown sugar, you can use granulated sugar)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Egg
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 1/3 cups of all purpose flour
1. Fire up the oven to 375*F. If you're using convection like I do, I bake these at 365*F.
2. Use a stand mixer if you have one. Mix together the peanut butter, butter, and sugar. Add in the vanilla, then the egg. Add in the soda and flour.
Note: The dough should be almost mixing itself into a ball in your stand mixer. It should be greasy and slightly sticky. If it's not sticky, you've added too much flour. Don't despair though, add a tablespoon or two of milk and you should be good to go! If your dough is super sticky, add a little more flour.
3. Take off your jewelry. You'll thank me later.
4. Roll the dough into balls about 3/4" - 1" in size and place on an ungreased baking sheet.
5. Bake the balls for 8 minutes. They should have a nice light golden brown on the bottoms when they're done.
6. As soon as you take these out of the oven, stick those unwrapped Hershey Kisses in the dough. The cookies will get little cracks in them - this is a good thing! Then let the cookies cool on the pan for 3 minutes before putting them on a cooling rack.
7. EAT! Enjoy some of these while they're still warm. Get chocolate all over your face. Totally worth it!
I hope you enjoy my version of these cookies!
