30 October, 2013
Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
Yields: About 4 Dozen cookies
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, slightly softened
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup sugar plus ¼ cup sugar, divided
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 bag of Hershey’s Kisses or Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, or both, unwrapped
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°
In a small bowl, stir the flour, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk and set aside.
In a medium size bowl, use a hand mixer to beat butter and peanut butter.
Add 1 cup sugar and beat until fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla, beat until mixed.
Add flour mixture and combine.
Using your hands, roll dough into 1 to 1 ½ inch balls and then roll the balls in sugar to coat.
Place rolled balls on parchment paper covered baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
Remove from the oven. While hot and still on the baking sheet, gently press an unwrapped Hershey’s Kisses candy into the center of each cookie. The pressing will anchor the chocolate and create pretty crackles in the cookies.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Notes:
There are lots of recipes and variations for this recipe, but this is my tried and true version.
Do not use all natural or organic peanut butter in this recipe. My preferred brand is Peter Pan Smooth.
An 8.5 ounce bags of kisses should contain 50-54 wrapped kisses, which should be plenty for this batch of cookies plus a couple extra for the cook’s helper – especially if your helper unwrapped all those kisses for you!