Soft peanut butter cookies with a Hershey’s kiss in the center? Yes please! These Peanut Butter Blossoms are a classic cookie, perfect for your Christmas party or to enjoy year round.
And make sure to try my Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies, No-Bake Peanut Butter Balls, and Soft Peanut Butter Cookies too!
- Fills that chocolate-peanut butter craving. I love any dessert that combines chocolate and peanut butter, but these classic cookies hold a special place in my heart. 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!
- Perfect texture. They’re soft and chewy on the inside with a crackly exterior. Add the Hershey’s kiss to the center and enjoy while it’s still melty and you have an irresistible cookie!
- Easy to prepare. These Hershey peanut butter blossoms are made with less than 20 minutes of hands-on time! The dough is so simple to prepare and they bake quickly but do note that the dough needs to chill for 2 hours first.
Looking for more cookie recipes? Try my Easy Sugar Cookies and Gingersnap Cookies too!
What Are Peanut Butter Blossoms?
A peanut butter blossom is an iconic cookie, featuring a soft and moist peanut butter cookie topped with a chocolate kiss. They’re known for the crackly texture and are surprisingly easy to make!
You don’t need anything special for this peanut butter blossoms recipe – just classic kitchen regulars, peanut butter, and Hershey’s kisses! Scroll down to the recipe card below for measurements.
- Creamy Peanut Butter: I do not recommend natural peanut butter, as it doesn’t have the necessary consistency and can dry out the cookies.
- Butter: Bring your butter to room temperature.
- Sugar: You’ll need both granulated sugar and brown sugar for the cookie dough, plus extra granulated sugar for rolling the dough.
- Egg
- Vanilla Extract
- Baking Soda – Helps the cookies rise in the oven.
- Kosher Salt – Balances out all the sweetness.
- All-Purpose Flour – Be sure to measure properly to avoid dry cookies.
- Hershey’s Kiss Candies: You could also use miniature peanut butter cups or another little chocolate!
Variation Ideas
Here are a few easy ways to customize your peanut butter blossoms!
- 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! Scroll down to the recipe card below for more detailed instructions.
- Make the dough. Mix the peanut butter, butter, and sugars on medium speed until creamy. Add in the egg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt for 30 seconds. Turn the mixer to low and add in the flour, mixing until just combined.
- Chill. Cover the dough and chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
- Bake. Roll the dough into 1 1/2-inch balls and roll each one in granulated sugar. Place on the bakings heet and bake for 8-9 minutes, until the cookies are just set.
- Add the Hershey’s Kiss. Gently press a Hershey’s Kiss into the center of the warm cookies. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Tips for Success
Here are a few helpful things to keep in mind when making your peanut butter blossom cookies.
- 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.
Proper Storage
- Room temperature. Store your cooled peanut butter blossoms in an airtight container for up to 3 days. To keep them extra moist, add a piece of bread to your storage container, followed by a layer of parchment paper, and the cookies. You may also want to stack the cookies in alternating layers of the kisses up and down, so they don’t get mushed.
- Fridge. You can also store these in the fridge for about 5 days.
Can You Freeze Peanut Butter Blossoms?
Yes, you can freeze both the baked cookies and the dough.
- To freeze the baked cookies: Peanut butter blossom cookies will last for up to 3 months in the freezer. Once cooled, transfer the cookies to an airtight freezer-safe container. Thaw on the counter before enjoying.
- To freeze the dough: You can also freeze the balls of dough ahead of time. I like to flash freeze the balls on a baking sheet, then transfer to an airtight container. Thaw them in the fridge, roll them in the sugar and bake them as usual.
- Red Velvet Snowball Cookies
- Soft Gingerbread Cookies
- Melting Snowman Oreo Cookie Balls
- Snickerdoodles
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.
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These are great! The recipe was easy, and I brought them in for my workplace cookie event. Everyone loved them – thank you!
So glad you loved these!
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!