Holiday Baking 101: Classic Cookies (Recipe: Hershey’s Peanut Butter Blossoms)

Once upon a kitchen, long, long ago, I went on a cookie rampage.

It was the midst of a holiday season and I had just moved into my first home. Oven-bent on becoming the Martha Stewart of holiday baking and equipped with only the bare necessities in a tiny, galley-style kitchen, cookie sheets soon lined my counter, cooling racks filled my table, and wisps of flour and sugar drifted haphazardly to the floor, cascading into soft, snowy mounds of sweetness. In a heated frenzy, I baked four dozen each of seven varieties of cookies, and repeated this feat the next weekend, and the next weekend, and the next, until Christmas arrived. I (and everyone I knew) reveled in my cookie glory. We ate and froze cookies until we could eat and freeze cookies no more.

After two seasons of maintaining this holiday-baking madness, I began loathing cookies—didn’t want to see them, shape them, bake them or serve them, much less eat them or freeze them. It took fourteen, subsequent years of devout cookie avoidance before my veil of cookie disgust lifted and I began a more manageable tradition. Choosing just four, favorite recipes and limiting myself to two dozen each, I spent one glorious weekend baking my way into holiday-cookie bliss, a tradition I’ve maintained for two seasons; this will be my third.

No matter what stage of cookie glory you find yourself in, I thought it might be nice to get a head start on holiday baking plans. Beginning with a classic cookie highlight, Hershey’s® Kisses® Peanut Butter Blossoms were the first cookie to ever leave a lasting impression on me. If you’re planning to serve or give away home-baked gifts this holiday season, it helps to make cookies you love.

Hershey’s® Kisses® Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

(recipe courtesy Hershey’s)

• 48 Hershey’s® Kisses® Milk Chocolates, unwrapped
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup Reese’s Creamy Peanut Butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F for baking.

Using an electric mixer, beat shortening and peanut butter together until creamy. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar, beating until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beating dry ingredients into wet mixture until dough forms.

Using your hands, shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll shaped balls in granulated sugar; turning completely to coat. Place sugared balls of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for easy clean-up.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree F oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until cookies turn a very pale brown. Immediately remove sheet from oven and press a Kisses® Chocolate into the center of each cookie. Carefully remove cookies from cookie sheet to wire rack and allow to cool completely. Store airtight.

Yield: approximately 4 dozen cookies

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Tagged as: cookie recipe, Hershey Kisses Peanut Butter Blossom Cookie recipe, holiday baking plans, holiday cookie recipes, peanut butter cookie recipe, peanut butter cookies with hershey kisses recipe