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Calling all peanut butter lovers! A classic peanut butter chocolate kiss cookie for your Christmas cookie platter! These peanut butter cookies get a Hershey’s chocolate kiss pressed into the center after they are baked. These cookies, also known as peanut butter blossoms, are ready in about 30 minutes or less!
When it comes to the holidays and Christmas time, I just can’t bake enough cookies. I usually stick to my favorites – Russian Tea Cake Cookies, Double Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, and Cut-Out Sugar Cookies.
A cookie I always loved and come to expect on Christmas cookie platters growing up were these traditional peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies, or peanut butter blossom cookies as you might know them as.
You know a soft chewy peanut butter cookie (that would be great as is), but gets even better after baking when a Hershey kiss gets plunked right in the middle of the cookie.
I always try to eat these by getting a little bit of a Hershey chocolate kiss and peanut butter cookie in every bite. It’s a challenge I sign up for every Christmas. A tough job. But someone has to do it, right?
For this peanut butter kiss cookie recipe, I started with my peanut butter cookie recipe, but I found that they quite get the shape I was looking for but with a little extra flour they held their shape perfectly to have a Hershey kiss get plunked down into the center.
These are the perfect cookie for your holiday cookie tray!Â
See Also:
- Pucker up and enjoy one of these homemade lemon cookies with easy lemon glaze drizzled over them!
- Coconut macaroons are an easy gluten free chewy coconut cookie. Dip in chocolate for an easy chocolate treat!
- Grab a jar of peanut butter and make these wonderfully easy old fashioned peanut butter cookies with criss cross pattern on top!
- Make these brown sugar chocolate chips cookies made with 100% brown sugar making them wonderfully chewy!
Why You Will Love This Peanut Butter Chocolate Kiss Cookie Recipe
- No Chilling Required – I love this cookie recipe for the sheer fact that they take about 10 minutes to mix up and can be immediately scooped and baked. No need to refrigerate the dough! One of my favorite Christmas cookies in about 30 minutes?! Yes. Please.
- Lots of peanut butter flavor – There’s a whole cup of peanut butter in this recipe so peanut butter lovers rejoice. I hate a peanut butter cookie that isn’t full of peanut butter flavor.
- Perfect for freezing – If you want to get ahead of your Christmas cookie baking, then you can go ahead and freeze the cookies, baked or unbaked, and they hold up wonderfully.
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Ingredients Needed
- 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour spooned and leveled – Make sure to measure your flour correctly or your cookies will come out dry and crumbly.
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated white sugar (plus additional sugar to roll cookies in)
- ¾ cup (160 g) packed light brown sugar – If you don’t have any make your own brown sugar!
- 8 tbsp (1/2 cup, 113 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature – I like to unsalted butter because it will cause the cookies to spread less than using salted butter. Bring to room temperature quickly so it will cream well with the ugar.
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 cup (270 g) smooth peanut butter – I like using a peanut butter that doesn’t need to be stirred so it doesn’t make for an oily cookie dough that separates.
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 24 chocolate kiss candies – Classic Hershey’s kisses
How To Make Peanut Butter Cookies
Preheat and prepare cookie sheets. Preheat oven to 375oF degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Make peanut butter cookie dough:
- Mix dry ingredients together. In a small mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add in the egg to the butter mixture and stir to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth and creamy.Â
- Add dry ingredients. Stir in salt, baking soda and flour until well combined.
Shape and bake cookies
- Shape cookies. Roll dough into 1 inch cookie dough balls. I like to use a small cookie scoop.
- Roll in granulated sugar.
- Bake cookies.. Bake these peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies for 10-12 minutes until edges are set and bottoms are golden brown.
- Press Hershey kisses into the center. Remove from the oven immediately press a Hershey kiss right into the center of the cookie. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
Recipe Tips
- Be sure to measure your flour correctly. Over-measuring your flour is going to result in a dry, crumbly peanut butter cookie. Read my full post on how to measure your flour correctly here.
- Use room temperature butter. By softening your butter properly (and here are 3 ways you can do that in a hurry!) will allow the sugar to punch tiny holes into the butter incorporating air into the dough. Cold butter won’t allow this to happen. So room temperature, unsalted, and you’re good to go.
- Don’t forget to take those eggs out early too. You also need a room temperature egg as well. Remember you want your ingredients all playing along well together. So a cold egg and room temperature butter just don’t play nice on the playground together. You’ll end up with butter that starts to seize up in your bowl. My trick? Put your eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 to 10 minutes and you’re good to go.
- Use a cookie scoop – For cookies that are all the same size and bake evenly I recommend using a cookie scoop.
- Line cookie sheets with parchment paper – For cookies that bake evenly on the bottom and release off the cookie sheet I recommend using parchment paper. Do not use wax paper as it can burn.
Recipe Variations
- Make chocolate cookies – Instead of the classic peanut butter make a chocolate cookie like my chocolate crinkle cookies, roll in powdered sugar and place a Hershey’s kiss in the middle after.
- Add sprinkles for the holidays – You can use green and red sprinkles on top of each Hershey kiss, or use red and white sprinkles for Valentine’s Day.
- Turn into Christmas tree cookie blossoms – Use cookie icing and pipe some onto the Hershey kiss in a circular pattern like a string of lights and add a few sprinkles so they look like little Christmas trees!
Recipe FAQ’s
Baked cookies will keep at room temperature for up to 2 days (they may keep longer but I think they are best enjoyed within a few days. ) I just store mine in a ziploc bag or an airtight container. You can make the peanut butter dough and refrigerate (up to 24 hours).
You can freeze the dough and/or cookies. Freeze baked cookies for up to 3 months, just thaw at room temperature. If you freeze the dough, when ready to bake just bake froze and then add a few minutes of baking time. Read here on How To Freeze Cookie Dough.
This could be because your butter was too warm when you creamed it, or you overmixed the dough as well. Try chilling your cookie dough next time. Making cookie dough ahead of time does magical things for it. It actually makes the dough better I think. It also helps the cookies from spreading too much.
This is probably because you added too much flour or you overbaked the cookies. When measuring the flour, it’s best to use a kitchen scale. But if you’re using a measuring cup, make sure to SPOON IN THE FLOUR, and LEVEL IT OFF. Do NOT pack it down into the cup, or scoop directly from the bag. And for baking, all ovens are different so make sure to set your timer, you can check 1-2 minutes early and bake in the center of your oven. They cookies should look set, and have golden brown edges.
Hershey named these cookies because of the fact that a Hershey Kiss is too big to be mixed into the cookie dough and is instead pressed into the cookie after baking.
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Here are some more of my favorite Christmas cookies to make during the holiday season!
Peanut Butter Hershey Chocolate Kiss Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour spooned and leveled
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated white sugar (plus additional sugar to roll cookies in)
- ¾ cup (160 g) packed light brown sugar
- 8 tbsp (1/2 cup, 113 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 cup (270 g) smooth peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 24 chocolate kiss candies
Instructions
- Preheat and prepare cookie sheets. Preheat oven to 375oF degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Mix together dry ingredients. In a small mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt until evenly combined.
- Cream butter and sugar. In the bowl of your stand mixer or a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).
- Add remaining wet ingredients. Add in the egg to the butter mixture and stir to combine. Mix in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
- Add dry ingredients. Stir in the dry ingredients until just mixed in. Do not overmix.
- Shape cookies. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and then roll in sugar.
- Bake and cool cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are set and bottoms are golden brown. Remove from the oven immediately press a Hershey kiss right into the center of the cookie. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
Notes
- Make ahead/storage: Baked cookies will keep at room temperature for up to 2 days (they may keep longer but I think they are best enjoyed within a few days. You can make the dough and refrigerate (up to 24 hours). These will also keep for 2-3 days at room temperature. I just store mine in a ziploc bag.Â
- Freezing: You can freeze the dough and/or cookies. Freeze baked cookies for up to 3 months, just thaw at room temperature. If you freeze the dough, when ready to bake just bake froze and then add a few minutes of baking time. Read here on How To Freeze Cookie Dough.
Christine Price says
Peanut butter and chocolate is already an unbeatable combination, so clearly this recipe was going to be a winner. They turned out delicious and will be made again very soon. There’s a great sense of nostalgia in eating these up.
Heather says
right?
Andrea says
My absolute favorite flavor combination in a fun cookie. The grandkids are going to love making these with me.
Heather says
that sounds lovely
Anjali says
This is one of my favorite cookies to make!! They’re perfectly balanced, nice and sweet, and the chocolate kiss center is the best!
Heather says
Excellent ANjali
MEGAN STEVENS says
Such a classic fun holiday dessert! We love these, and who doesn’t love this PB chocolate combo!? Nice to find a reliable recipe for a classic.
Heather says
thank you Megan, I love this classic combo. too
Tawnie Kroll says
These cookies are truly the best!! Making them for our Christmas party coming up, thank you!
Heather says
sounds fab!
Eliza says
What a sweet recipe! The combination of peanut butter and chocolate flavors is divine, and these are going to have a permanent place on our Christmas cookie rotation.
Heather says
Thanks for your sweet comment, Eliza! So happy you enjoyed 😀
Bunny Peterd says
We have a family allergy to peanuts. Is it possible to make these cookies with either almond butter or cashew butter?
Heather says
I haven’t tried using a different butter. I find those can be a bit “looser” and may affect the outcome. But maybe Sunbutter would work? I find that’s close in consistency to peanut butter.