Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe (2024)

Recipe from the Gerrero family

Adapted by The New York Times

Updated Dec. 7, 2023

Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe (1)

Total Time
35 minutes
Rating
5(6,753)
Notes
Read community notes

For as long as anyone can remember, wedding receptions in Pittsburgh have featured cookie tables, laden with dozens of homemade old-fashioned offerings like lady locks, pizzelles and buckeyes. For weeks ahead, sometimes months, mothers and aunts and grandmas and in-laws hunker down in the kitchen baking and freezing. These peanut butter and chocolate cookies were part of the spread at Laura Gerrero and Luke Wiehagen's wedding in 2009. Though peanut blossoms were popularized by Freda Smith in a 1957 Pillsbury Bake-Off competition, this version of the now-classic cookie came from the bride's family. —The New York Times

Featured in: The Wedding? I’m Here for the Cookies

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Ingredients

Yield:5 dozen cookies

  • cups all-purpose flour
  • 1teaspoon baking soda
  • ½teaspoon salt
  • 4ounces (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
  • ½cup smooth peanut butter (or other creamy nut butter)
  • ½cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
  • ½cup light brown sugar
  • 1large egg
  • 1tablespoon milk, half-and-half, oat milk or nut milk
  • 1teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Nonstick spray or vegetable oil for cookie sheet (optional)
  • 5dozen (one 11-ounce package) Hershey’s Kisses, foil removed

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Nutritional analysis per serving (60 servings)

100 calories; 6 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 13 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 9 grams sugars; 1 gram protein; 44 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe (2)

Preparation

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  1. Step

    1

    Sift together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. Using an electric mixer, cream together butter, peanut butter, ½ cup granulated sugar and light brown sugar. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat until well blended. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing thoroughly. If the dough is very soft, refrigerate for about 1 hour.

  2. Step

    2

    Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray, oil or line a cookie sheet with nonstick liner and set aside. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. (For a precise number of cookies, divide the dough into 5 pieces, and shape each piece into 12 balls.)

    Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe (3)
  3. Step

    3

    Roll cookies in sugar and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake until very light brown and puffed, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and lightly press a candy kiss into center of each cookie, allowing it to crack slightly. Return to oven until light golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from oven, cool completely and store in an airtight container.

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6,753

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Kay

My grandmother, Freda Smith from Gibsonburg Ohio, created these cookies and was the Bake-Off prize winner. It is true she did not win the Grand Prize but her legacy lives on through these cookies. She would love that they became so beloved by so many. My mother and I made a TV commercial for Pillsbury flour in 1965 because Freda had passed away. What a gift she gave us. Enjoy her Peanut Blossoms and know a wonderful woman from Ohio created them for her Grandkids.

Alyssa Kleiman

The recipe is wrong because it says it makes 5 dozen when it really makes 22 cookies

Esme

Longtime family tradition to use semisweet chocolate chips instead of Kisses. A less sweet chocolate makes them less cloying, there's a better chocolate-to-bite distribution, and the chips soften and then don't entirely harden after cooling. It's what's up.

SugarFree

For easy storage - and, I'd argue, easier eating - push the chocolate kiss in upside down! The point will melt a bit as you push it in, there will be a chocolate bite right in the middle of the cookie, and a perfectly lovely chocolate dot on top. Another tip: if I run out of kisses before I run out of dough, I bake as usual, use my mini mortar pestle to indent the middle after 9 minutes, then fill the indentation with a spoon of homemade salted caramel. Always a jar in the fridge. Yummy!

Kelly

These turned out great and I did get 5 dozen. I used a food scale to divide the dough into 5 equal weight balls, them divided each ball in half, those sections in half, and formed 3 cookies out of each section. Cooked 7 minutes, added the kiss, then 2 to 3 more minutes just as described. Perfect!

JB in NJ

I have for years sworn by ATK's peanut butter cookie recipe--forget smooth, go chunky and up the peanut factor by adding crushed dry roasted peanuts--if you love peanuts, you can't beat it!

ssstrom

I rolled theses in turbinado sugar before baking, which gave them a lovely golden color and more sophisticated look.

Jamie Lynn

If you only got 22 cookies, they must be HUGE! I get about 60 out of a single batch.

Laura

These cookies are especially tasty with dark chocolate kisses and all natural (unsweetened) peanut butter.

Mary B.

This recipe was an entrant in the 9th Pillsbury Bakeoff in 1957. Although it did not win the $45,000 prize, it certainly has become a classic American cookie. It has been Enjoyed by many for many decades!

L-siz

Another way to make these amazing is to replace the Hershey's kiss with a miniature Reeses peanut butter cup. Follow the exact same recipe just put a cup in instead of a kiss. Next level. No need to use a mini muffin tin as I've seen in other Reeses peanut butter cup recipes.

vivianruth

I have a different recipe for the same kind of cookie. It uses a larger ratio of peanut butter to other ingredients (e.g. ¾ cup peanut butter, but same amount of butter, egg). Thus the other recipe (from about.com) has a stronger peanut flavor, which I prefer.

Laurie

Do you out the chips in the dough or mound on top after baking? The kisses mainly annoy me because it's hard to store the.

CC

I've never made these before but of the 4 different cookies I made for my office cookie swap, these were the ones that were gone the fastest. I did use chunky instead of smooth, because I like chunky better. They were amazing.

Jo

Do you use fresh ground peanut butter, or something processed, like Jif?

Jennie

For anyone who, um, forgot to add the peanut butter to PEANUT BUTTER blossoms, I just learned that you can pull the dough sans peanut butter out of the fridge, break it up into clumps, put into the (recently washed) bowl of your mixer, add the forgotten peanut butter, and beat until it's well incorporated. The rub is that you have to remember that you forgot the peanut butter. ;) Made 4 doz. Baked at 350 for 8 mins plus 1 min more when topped with the kiss. Very presentable pb blossom!

soph

these are perfect!! normally i’m not a huge peanut butter fan but these were amazing

kmg

Making the 5 dozen cookies results in a nice bite size cookie with a good cookie to chocolate ratio. Yummy

lara

These cookies are my new favorite recipe! Super easy and forgiving, and the perfect peanut butter cookie texture.

ley

Made as written except used Demerara sugar and a dark chocolate wafer on top. Tried one at cooking time indicated (for only slightly larger than indicated size) and it tasted like flour and baking soda so cooked a bit longer. Still tasted, as my husband said, “farinaceous.” And the Demerara sugar was unpleasantly crunchy. I used a natural PB and wonder if this was part of the problem, but this was not what I was hoping for!

Denis

Last year I used the ATK peanut butter cookie recipe and just added the kisses to make them into blossoms. This recipe resulted in a cookie of a better texture, for blossoms, so I'll use the ATK recipe only for "regular" PB cookies in the future, and this one for blossoms. I think rolling in sugar makes the cookies too sweet, plus skipping saves a step. And using dark chocolate kisses is an absolute necessity IMHO. I doubled the recipe with great results. Fantastic cookies. Will make every year.

julia

perfect cookies, no notes.

Marian

Based on another person’s comment, I tried rolling the cookies in both turbinado and regular sugar. After ample comparison testing, I think the turbinado wins out. It adds an extra crunch that is very satisfying, and the cookies do turn a lovely toasty brown.

Ruthie

Double the peanut butter for more intense flavor. Otherwise perfect! Helpful to use a scale to divide dough into 60 and keep balls same size

Kathy

I used unpasteurized peanut butter (Trader Joe's - not sure if it is unpasteurized exactly but the oils pool). The dough needed more moisture and I should have added another bit of milk. Outcome was great though - delicious. I could have gotten more cookies if the dough had held together better.

CS in CO

I’ve made this recipe for over 7 years for my family’s Christmas cookie exchange. These cookies are delicious, easy and are always a hit!

kiss cookie obsessed

I have a simpler recipe that I swear is perfection — one egg, one cup peanut butter, one teaspoon of vanilla. That’s it! Mix and cook at 325 for 8 minutes. I make my own dairy-free kisses using molds too, but only because I’m lactose intolerant.

sharie

Delicious, but got about 45 cookies, not 60.

Rue

I made these for the first time and love the recipe. Perfect blend of PB and chocolate

JLW

Plus 2 Tblsp milk

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Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my peanut butter blossoms so crumbly? ›

Rescue dry peanut butter blossom cookie dough with oil or milk. According to baking site Creme de la Crumb, if you find your cookies to be crumbly, it is because you've used too much flour.

What are the basic ingredients for peanut butter cookies? ›

What to use instead of Hershey's Kisses? ›

Use peanut butter cups: Instead of Hershey's kisses, feel free to press Reese's mini peanut butter cups (or any brand of pb cups that you love best) into the centers of your cookies.

How to fix crumbly peanut butter cookie dough? ›

To avoid this, try using as little flour as possible while preparing to roll your dough. Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.

Does Jif peanut butter raise blood sugar? ›

Individuals with diabetes need foods that can help manage blood sugar and weight. Peanuts and peanut butter can be a powerful ally to reaching success. Peanuts and peanut butter have a low glycemic index, which means they don't cause blood sugar to rise sharply.

What is the most sugary peanut butter? ›

Smucker's Goober Peanut Butter

This series of spreads is particularly high in calories with 220 calories per 3 tablespoons. Each jar contains a whopping 21 grams of added sugar as a result of processed ingredients like fructose corn syrup.

Is there too much sugar in peanut butter? ›

There's quite a bit of sugar in peanut butter, which has naturally occurring sugars from peanuts. But some brands add even more sugar to their recipes, which is why you may want to avoid sugary brands.

What is the paper strip in Hershey's Kisses called? ›

That parchment paper strip is called a “plume”. Originally the paper plumes were also referred to as identification tags, possibly because they looked like miniature brand flags.

Why are Hershey Kisses so expensive? ›

And Hershey is far from alone. As BBC reported, Cadbury also identified the rising costs of ingredients, including both cocoa and sugar, as one of its major challenges to come. And while inflation certainly plays its part, much of the increase in cost appears to be out of their control.

What is the outside of a Hershey Kiss called? ›

The term "niggly wiggly" is not commonly associated with the paper in a Hershey's Kiss. It's possible that there might be a misunderstanding or miscommunication. The paper strip found in the packaging of Hershey's Kisses is often referred to simply as the "plume" or "tag."

Why did my peanut butter cookies crumble apart? ›

Why are my cookies dry and crumbly? This is most likely a classic case of using too much flour. It's crucial to properly measure the flour in this recipe, as even 1 extra tablespoon of flour can completely change the structure of the cookies. You also might have over baked them!

Why is my homemade peanut butter crumbly? ›

Why? Because you don't have to do anything. Simply let your machine go for 5 minutes or so and watch your nuts transform into a luxurious butter. They'll turn sandy and crumbly at first, but then you'll start to see them gradually clump together, until they'll finally smooth themselves out into a creamy butter.

Why are my peanut butter cookies gritty? ›

The oils in natural peanut butter tend to separate, causing cookies to spread and take on a gritty texture. You can use it, but conventional peanut butter is preferred for the best cookie texture.

Why is my homemade peanut butter gritty? ›

Homemade peanut butter will always have a rougher texture than the commercially-prepared stuff. That being said, you can achieve creamier peanut butter with a few tips: Use a good-quality food processor. A powerful food processor or blender will make a difference.

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