Our process involves Christmas music blaring, copious mid-process dough sampling (especially after the sugar is incorporated into the creamed butter and peanut butter, mmm), divvying the tasks of kiss unwrapping and dough making between two people, and hovering over the fresh-from-the-oven cookie sheets so as not to miss that perfect threshold between too hot and just warm enough to still be soft, but cool enough to safely consume. We are always impatient for that first bite of warm peanut butter cookie mingled with the melty chocolate kiss.
There’s a certain time during childhood when you start to become aware that your family’s traditions are not everyone’s family traditions. It’s still an odd idea to me that some people manage to celebrate Christmas without tin-fuls worth of peanut butter blossoms lying around, as many foisted off on Santa Clause as we can (un)reasonably hope he’ll consume. But with that realization also came an interest in what traditions take the place of our peanut butter blossoms in other families’ Christmases. What cookies do they make? Are they morning gift-openers or Christmas Eve openers? Is gift opening a frenzy, or an organized affair? For our family, present opening can be a multi-hour process, as we open presents one at a time and take breaks for Christmas breakfast and coffee refills.
Whatever your family’s traditions are, we wish you a happy, tasty, and tradition-filled Christmas!
Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 cup sugar (for rolling dough balls in)
- 1 lb Hershey’s kisses
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Add dry ingredients to a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Cream butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy.
- Add sugar and beat until combined.
- Add egg and vanilla and blend.
- Add dry ingredients and beat until just incorporated.
- Scoop dough into balls of desired size and roll in the sugar before placing on cookie sheet.
- Bake cookies for 8 minutes.
- Remove tray from oven and press one kiss into each cookie. Return to oven and bake for 2 more minutes.