Soft peanut butter cookies with a Hershey’s kiss in the center? Yes please! These Peanut Butter Blossoms are a classic! This easy cookie recipe is perfect for your Christmas cookie tray, or to enjoy year round.
And make sure to try my Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies and my Soft Peanut Butter Cookies too!
Table of Contents
I love any dessert that combines chocolate and peanut butter, but these classic cookies hold a special place in my heart. They’re soft and chewy on the inside with a crackly exterior. Topped with a milk chocolate kiss or a peanut butter cup, they’re the kind of cookies that will make Santa come back for seconds!
These peanut butter cookies aren’t strictly for the holiday season, either. They’re a delicious dessert for any occasion, and they’re made in less than 20 minutes! I highly recommend keeping this easy cookie recipe in your back pocket for any time you need a chocolate-peanut butter fix!
What is a Peanut Butter Blossom?
A peanut butter blossom is an iconic cookie that’s especially popular around Christmas time. Some versions of these cookies are dry and crumbly, but not mine! This easy recipe makes soft & moist peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss on top. What’s not to love about that?
You don’t need anything special to make these cookies – just classic kitchen regulars! And of course Hershey’s kisses or another chocolate of choice.
- Creamy Peanut Butter
- Butter: Bring your butter to room temperature.
- Granulated Sugar: You’ll need some granulated sugar for the cookie batter and more for rolling the dough.
- Brown Sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla Extract
- Baking Soda
- Kosher Salt
- All-Purpose Flour
- Hershey’s Kiss Candies: You could also use miniature peanut butter cups or another little chocolate!
Variation Ideas
Candy options: If you want to mix things up a bit, you can also use peanut butter cups, marshmallows, jam, caramels or even Rolo candies instead of Hershey Kisses! Really whatever you would enjoy eating with a peanut butter cookie base will work.
Sugar options: You can also roll these in brown sugar, or turbinado sugar instead of granulated!
How to Make Peanut Butter Blossoms from Scratch
This recipe is very straightforward. The dough is chilled for a couple hours, rolled in sugar and baked. Then comes the Hershey’s kiss!
- Combine Butters & Sugars: In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the peanut butter, butter, 1/4 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium speed for 2 minutes until creamy.
- Add Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Soda & Salt: Add in the egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt and mix for 30 seconds until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add Flour: Turn the mixer to low and add in the flour. Mix until just combined.
- Chill Dough: Cover the dough and chill it for 2 hours.
- Heat Oven: Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Place the reserved 1/4 cup of granulated sugar in a bowl.
- Roll Dough in Sugar: Roll the dough into 1 1/2-inch balls and then roll them into the granulated sugar.
- Bake: Place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for 8-9 minutes, until the cookies are just set.
- Add Hershey’s Kiss: Gently press a Hershey’s Kiss into the center of the warm cookies.
- Let Cool: Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Tips for Success!
- Chill the Dough: Make sure you let your dough chill in the fridge for a couple of hours, otherwise your cookies will spread too much during baking.
- Refrigerate Kisses Before Use: If you don’t want your kisses to get melty, pop them in the fridge while you chill your dough. They’ll still get soft after they’re pressed into the warm cookies, but this will help the chocolate hold its shape.
- Keep An Eye on the Time: Avoid under baking or over baking your cookies – as soon as you notice them getting crackly on top, remove them from the oven. They should be lightly golden on the edges.
- Flat Peanut Butter Cookies? If this happens your dough is probably too warm. As mentioned above, this will make the dough spread too much during baking, leading to flat cookies.
How to Store Homemade Peanut Butter Blossoms
These cookies should be stored at room temperature in an airtight container. They’ll stay nice and fresh for three days. Want a crazy trick for keeping them moist? Add a piece of bread to your storage container followed by a layer of parchment paper, then the cookies.
If you want to keep the kisses on top looking perfect, stack your cookies in alternating layers. The cookies in the second layer should sit between the kisses of the cookies on the bottom so they’re not squishing them, and so on until all the cookies are stacked.
How Long Will These Cookies Last?
Your cookies will stay fresh for at least 3 days if you store them properly. They may start to get a bit drier on day 4, but they’ll still be delicious. You can transfer them to the fridge if you want to store them a bit longer.
Can I Freeze Peanut Butter Bossoms?
Yes! You can definitely keep these cookies in the freezer for extended storage. Frozen peanut butter blossoms will last for 3 months!
Let your cookies come to room temperature first, then transfer them to an airtight container. Thaw them overnight in the fridge before enjoying. You can also freeze the balls of dough ahead of time, thaw them in the fridge, roll them in the sugar and bake them as usual.
Print
Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 9 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 19 minutes
- Yield: 30 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Soft peanut butter cookies with a warm Hershey’s kiss in the center – these Peanut Butter Blossoms are a Christmas classic! And they’re easy enough to enjoy year-round.
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 24–30 unwrapped Hershey’s Kiss candies or miniature peanut butter cups
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the peanut butter, butter, 1/4 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium speed for 2 minutes until creamy.
- Add in the egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt and mix for 30 seconds until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Turn the mixer to low and add in the flour. Mix until just combined.
- Cover the dough and chill the dough for 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Place the reserved 1/4 cup of granulated sugar in a bowl.
- Roll the dough into 1 1/2-inch balls and then roll them into the remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar.
- Place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for 8-9 minutes, until the cookies are just set.
- Gently press a Hershey’s Kiss into the center of the warm cookies.
- Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Store airtight for up to 3 days.
Keywords: peanut butter blossoms, peanut butter blossom cookies, easy cookies, chewy cookies, christmas cookies, best christmas cookies
Want To Save This Recipe?
Find more recipes like this:
- These Red Velvet Snowball Cookies are super moist, chewy and festive for Christmas!
- My Soft Gingerbread Cookies are the ultimate hoiday treats. Every bite makes me hear sleigh bells!
- These Melting Snowman Oreo Cookie Balls are the easiest and most adorable Christmas Cookies ever!
PIN for later:
This recipe turned out great (unlike my thumbprint cookies ). Very easy to make and soooo tasty!
★★★★★
I love this recipe! I’ve used many different ones through the years, but these consistently come out perfectly! Just to make it a little easier, I roll the dough into balls before chilling, and just roll them in sugar when I’m ready to bake them. I appreciated the tip to chill the kisses, too….works out very nicely!
★★★★★
Tried to make these. The dough was so crumbly and hard to work with. An the recipe says an inch and a half umm….do you know how big that is we tried that big and they turned out terrible. And this recipe has to different sugar clarifications. Please review and actually try your recipe before sharing it to people.
Did you put them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes? I had no issues. Great recipe!
Good recipe if you are using crappy sugar-filled peanut butter. Found it did not work very well with all-natural peanut butter. I used cream cheese to help make it nice and sticky, worked well! Nice tip!
★★★
I used 1 cup of peanut butter as per the recipe. I think this was double the amount needed. The cookies spread out and were not a good texture when done.
A fun little variation… try adding a 1/2 block of cream cheese to the recipe. Keeps these super soft even after storing in the freezer
great tip!!
You’ve listed sugar twice…1/2 cup divided and then later on another 1/4 cup for rolling. I’m assuming this is redundant and that 1/4 Cup is used in the recipe and 1/4 cup for rolling. Can you please confirm.
ahh yes, sorry about that! You are correct…I fixed the ingredient list to read more clearly!
when you double the recipe it also has errors with the sugar quantities… i just made the receipe and only added 1/4 to the first part…hopefully it will not throw off the rest of the dough
Hi Shelly! I have used oodles of your recipes at work for the Long Term Care facility at which I work, and they are always popular (because they’re delicious). I am wondering if you see any reason that I shouldn’t be able to scoop the cookies and then refrigerate the dough. I need to make about 25 dozen of them, so scooping them first would make things easier.
Thanks for all the great reviews pies. Happy holidays!
That will work fine! You could even freeze the dough if you’re making it way in advance!