Chocolate Kiss Peanut Butter Blossoms have been our family’s all-time favorite Christmas cookie recipe for decades!
This recipe has been around a long time. One of the big conglomerate companies created the recipe many years ago, and people have used it and adapted it ever since. My sister began rolling the dough in colored red and green sugar many years ago to make this a Christmas-themed peanut butter kiss cookie. Brilliant idea! They have been a favorite of ours to make for the holidays ever since.
How to make Chocolate Kiss Peanut Butter Blossoms:
One of the things I love about Chocolate Kiss Peanut Butter Blossoms is how easy they are to make. You just combine all of the ingredients in one bowl and mix them together with a hand mixer. That makes the peanut butter cookie dough. Then the dough is rolled into balls (about 1 tablespoon per ball). And then the balls of dough are rolled in sugar. You can certainly use regular white sugar for rolling. If you want a festive look, then roll the balls in red or green sugar… or a combination of the two. They will look so pretty on a platter if you use the two colored sugars (found in your market’s baking aisle).
Adding the Kisses:
When the peanut butter cookies are baked, they flatten out a bit. As soon as they come out of the oven, you will place a chocolate kiss right in the middle of each cookie. It’s super helpful if you have room in your freezer if you can pop the baking sheet into the freezer for a few minutes to “set” the kisses. The kisses become a little soft after they are placed onto the hot cookies, so it’s best if you can cool them off quickly when they are chilled. If it’s cold outside, you can even place them outside for a few minutes (in a safe place away from animals!)
Making these cookies gluten-free:
This year, I made two versions. I baked a double batch of the regular recipe as written below. And I also baked a gluten-free version of these Chocolate Kiss Peanut Butter Blossoms since we have a couple of gluten-free relatives with us this year for the holidays. It was simple to make them gluten-free. I used Cup4Cup flour in place of the all-purpose flour, and they turned out great. If you have a GF substitute flour that is your favorite, you can try that too.
Chocolate Kiss Peanut Butter Blossoms freeze well! Make them ahead, and freeze them until you’re ready to serve them. You can make them all year long without the red and green sugar! Enjoy 🙂
Chocolate Kiss Peanut Butter Blossoms
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ½ cup smooth peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- ½ cup shortening
- 1 large egg
- sugar, for rolling
- 48 chocolate kisses, unwrapped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except rolling sugar and kisses. Use an electric mixer to blend very well.
- Shape dough into balls using rounded teaspoonfuls. Roll balls in sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and top each cookie immediately with a kiss, pressing down firmly as cookie cracks around the edges.
- If possible, place the cookie sheet in the freezer until kisses harden again. Otherwise, let sit for several hours on a wire rack, in a cool place until kisses firm up.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
