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Desserts

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Peanut butter blossoms are soft peanut butter cookies rolled in sugar, with a milk chocolate kiss pressed into each one straight from the oven.
Recipe Peanut Butter Blossoms
  • Difficulty Easy
  • Preparation 30 minutes
  • Cooking 12 minutes
  • Servings for about 48 cookies

Peanut butter blossoms are among the most baked Christmas cookies in the United States: balls of soft peanut butter dough rolled in sugar and baked, with a milk chocolate kiss pressed into the center of each one the moment they leave the oven. The warm cookie cracks around the chocolate like the petals of a flower, hence the name.

They were created by Freda Smith of Gibsonburg, Ohio, who entered them in the 1957 Pillsbury Bake-Off as Black-Eyed Susans; the contest renamed them, and in 1999 they joined its Hall of Fame.

Quick to make and loved by children, they are a fixture of holiday cookie trays and cookie exchanges.

Ingredients for about 48 cookies

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Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 190 °C (375 °F) and unwrap the chocolate kisses, so they are ready when the first tray comes out. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, the granulated sugar, the brown sugar, the baking soda and the salt.
  2. Add the shortening, the peanut butter, the milk, the vanilla extract and the egg, and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until you have a stiff dough with no dry flour left.
  3. Put the sugar for rolling in a shallow bowl. Shape the dough into balls about 2.5 cm (1 inch) across, roll them in the sugar and set them about 5 cm (2 inches) apart on ungreased baking sheets, without flattening them.
  4. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until golden. As soon as the tray is out of the oven, press a chocolate into the center of each cookie, pushing it down hard enough that the edges of the cookie crack.
  5. Move the cookies to a wire rack and let them cool completely, about 1 hour, until the chocolate has set. Shape and bake the rest of the dough in the same way. Finally, remember to download our App with exclusive content and fewer ads!

Variations and Alternatives

Replace the shortening with the same weight of softened butter for a richer, slightly flatter cookie. Dark chocolate kisses or other small chocolates work too. For a chocolate that stays glossy and keeps its shape, some bakers press it in 2 minutes before the end of baking and finish the cookies in the oven.

Tips

Use a regular creamy peanut butter: natural peanut butter, the kind that separates, makes an oily dough that spreads more. Do not flatten the balls before baking. Press the chocolates in immediately after baking, while the cookies are soft, so the edges crack instead of crumbling, and let the cookies cool completely before stacking them, as the chocolate stays soft for about an hour. Peanuts are a major allergen: let your guests know.

Storage

Keep the cookies in a single layer, or with parchment between the layers, in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. Baked cookies freeze for up to 3 months. Balls of dough rolled in sugar can also be frozen and baked from frozen, adding 1 to 2 minutes.

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