Peanut Butter Blossoms

My mom and I have been making peanut butter blossoms for years at Christmastime. It is a well-known and well-loved recipe which came originally from Crisco, although my mom and I slightly modified the recipe to exclude...well...the Crisco. Instead of the butter-flavored shortening that the original calls for, we just use regular butter in a 1 to 1 swap. This doesn't work in every recipe, because while shortening is 100% fat, butter is only about 80% or so fat. However, for these cookies, a 1 to 1 swap of butter for shortening works fine, because of the added fat of the peanut butter. You can use crunchy or creamy peanut butter, but make sure it isn't reduced fat.



Another quick note: this recipe only has one egg, and little flour, which means it is on the firmer side just how my family likes it. But, if you want a softer cookie, you can either add an additional yolk into the batter or an extra 1/4 C of flour, and pull them out of the oven a minute or so early to let them finish cooking on the rack.

The first thing you do is get out a bag of dark chocolate Hershey's Kisses. You can use the milk chocolate if you really want, but I think the dark ones taste better.

Unwrap about 5 dozen kisses in preparation. Go ahead and have one.

Now, cream the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy.

Then, add in the egg, vanilla, milk and peanut butter. Do yourself a favor and give the measuring cup and spatula a quick spritz of butter spray before you measure the peanut butter, it will make getting the peanut butter back out of the cup a lot easier. And as for the milk, I used 2% because it is what I had. I know that my mom has gone so far as to use the lowfat half and half because that's all she had, and both work fine. Mix until everything is well-combined.

Now add the flour and baking soda, and mix until combined. Using a #60 scoop, scoop out dough and roll into a ball.

Then roll the ball into sugar and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 for 8-11 minutes. The cookies will just start to crack when they are done.

Bring them out of the oven, and immediately press a kiss down into the center of the cookie. The kiss will start to melt, and this will make it stick to the cookie. But don't be afraid to push down, you need to push hard enough to displace the dough around the kiss.

Remove the cookies to a wire rack when you are done putting kisses in all the cookies on the sheet.

Now, and this is the most important part: leave them alone. The heat of the cookies will melt the kisses, but the kisses will hold their shape and resolidify as long as you don't try to pack them away for several hours. It will take a while for the chocolate to solidify properly. If the kiss is shiny, don't touch it and don't try to put the cookie away. Once the kiss is matte, give it another 30 minutes, and then tentatively investigate the kiss -- if it seems solid, then you can pack the cookies away, with layers of wax paper between the cookie layers.

I consider this recipe to be a Christmas classic. It is easy, tasty, and relatively high yield (somewhere between 4 and 4 1/2 dozen). If you don't already make them, and you like a great peanut butter cookie, consider adding this to you Christmas cookie list!

Peanut Butter Blossoms
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1 stick butte, softened
• 1 egg*
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp milk
• 1/2 C peanut butter
• 1 3/4 C AP flour*
• 1 tsp baking soda
• Sugar for rolling
• Hershey's Dark Chocolate Kisses

   *see blog text for additional details

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Unwrap 5 dozen Hershey's Kisses
3. Cream together butter and sugars until fluffy
4. Add in egg, vanilla, peanut butter and milk, and mix until well-combined
5. Add in flour and baking soda, and mix until combined
6. Using a #60 scoop, scoop out dough and roll into a ball
7. Roll dough balls in sugar, and place on parchment-lined cookie sheet
8. Bake 8-11 minutes, until cookies begin to crinkle
9. Press a Hershey's Kiss in the center of each cookie, and remove cookies to wire rack to cool completely
10. Let cool completely (several hours) until kisses are no longer shiny before packing away.