Peanut Blossom Cookies
These peanut blossom cookies have intense peanut flavor with a delightful chewy, sturdy cookie base and a Hershey Kiss to top it all off.
I scanned through my cookie section a while back and was shocked to find I didn’t have a recipe posted for the popular and classic Peanut Blossom Cookies (you know, the peanutty cookie base topped with a Hershey Kiss?).
I grew up eating these babies and they were some of my favorite cookies of all-time. I’m pretty sure they’ve been around a long time. I figured in my little brain that it wouldn’t be hard to come across a great recipe and post them for you. Simple, right?
Uh, ok, so either I have some serious issues in the kitchen (could be a very possible option) or else the four recipes (no kidding, four!) I tried were lacking in what I ultimately wanted because these cookies failed on me every time I tried them with several popular recipes out there – one time flat, one time dry and tasteless, another time completely lacy and burned, and the fourth, well, ok, I’ll admit that was probably my fault because I had run out of peanut butter at this point and subbed nutella and while nutella is divine on it’s own – it made a terrible substitution in these cookies.
All of this is to tell you that I finally turned to the America’s Test Kitchen for their version. I had actually seen it before but wasn’t sure I wanted to go through the extra work of grinding up the peanuts.
I wish I would have been a bit less lazy and tried them sooner. This time, I bit the bullet and added the 3-second step into my day and seriously came out with the best Peanut Blossom Cookies in the universe. No lie.
Intense peanut flavor with a delightful chewy, sturdy cookie base and the cute, little, delicious Hershey Kiss to top it all off. What’s not to love?
Phew. I’m so happy to have conquered the Peanut Blossom Cookie quest. I will now sleep better at night knowing I have a go-to recipe resting in my archives. I hope you will, too.
One Year Ago: Buttery Cornmeal Crescent Rolls
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Peanut Blossom Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cups (391 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup roasted salted peanuts
- 1 cup (227 g) butter, softened but still cool
- ¾ cup (159 g) packed dark brown sugar
- ¾ cup (159 g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (255 g) creamy peanut butter
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1-2 bags of Hershey's Chocolate Kisses, any variety, wrappers removed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and make sure an oven rack is positioned in the middle of the oven. Line two aluminum rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper, silpat liners or lightly grease with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together, 1 ¾ cups flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. In a food processor or blender, process the remaining 1 cup flour and 1 cup peanuts together until finely ground and well-combined. Stir the peanut flour mixture into the bowl with the flour, salt and baking soda/powder.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer (hand mixer or stand mixer), until the mixture is light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add the peanut butter and continue to beat until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition, until incorporated, about 30 seconds, then beat in the vanilla, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl, if necessary. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture in two batches, mixing until incorporated. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes until it is fairly stiff.
- Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and space 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes, until the outsides are set and the edges are just barely beginning to crack. Working quickly, remove the sheet from the oven and press one Hershey Kiss into the center of each cookie. Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake for another 1-2 minutes, until the cookies are lightly golden and the Hershey Kiss is glistening (but not melted into a puddle).
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 3-4 minutes before removing the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough and Hershey Kisses.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from America’s Test Kitchen
Love this recipe!!!!!! Very pleased!
These came out great. I used my #60 cookie scoop, which is about 1 Tbsp & 1″ and I wound up with 60 cookies. The peanuty flavor is great with your peanuts addition.
My only other changes were for high elevation baking: increase heat to 375, slightly reduce baking soda & baking powder, and then usually I reduce bake time but this took a little experimentation. I ended up baking well-chilled/refrigerated balls for 8 minutes, put on the kisses, then baked an additional 1 minute.
Thanks for the recipe! It’s a keeper!
I have individual packed salted peanuts, could I use those instead of roasted peanuts? I wasn’t sure how much flavor would be lost and if it was a substantial amount and if it would be worth the trouble.
Probably!
This version is amazing! I’ve been making another version for years and wondered if it would be worth trying this one instead of my tried and true recipe. Well, this recipe is amazing and will be my go-to from now on.
Glad you loved it, Laura – thanks for letting me know!
I just made these for our Super Bowl party tomorrow and they are amazing. I used my small cookie scoop and came out with 79 cookies However, they are so good I know we will not have 79 tomorrow. Thank you for another wonderful recipe.
Made these yesterday and they were delicious! Thanks!
20 years ago a very young married mom at church couldn’t figure out how my kisses stayed in such a nice shape. After talking around the subject, I finally figured out that she added the kisses before she baked the cookies! I think she got a recipe from her friend with no directions. So now every time I see these cookies I think of that sweet 19 year old mom and all the things she yet had to learn!
Wow Mel! I have made these three times now… Always Perfection!! YuM YuM!! Problem is- I eat wayyy too many!
Hi Mel! I’m so happy you have this recipe! I’ve never made these before, so I would be nervous to trust any other recipe to come out as well as yours always do! I am wondering what the difference between brown sugar and dark brown sugar is. I thought I still had dark brown sugar but I guess I’m out and they don’t sell it anywhere in our town! The nearest town that does sell it is an hour and a half away and i won’t be able to make it over there before I’d like to make them. Can I use brown sugar or is it best to wait until I can get the dark brown sugar? Thanks!!!
Hi Alyssa – I think light brown sugar should sub ok (dark brown sugar just has a little more molasses).
No I added the eggs, and they taste delicious…I just wanted them super smooth like yours. Picky picky. 🙂
Can I just say it makes me feel really really good knowing you have a busy family life, a bajillion blog follower comments to reply to and you reply to me?! Thanks for your help:) and for taking the time.
Hey Mel! How do you get yours so smooth? I am making them as we speak and they are coming out more cracked than Id like them to be. Thanks!!
Hi Ashlee – I’m not really sure I have a secret, sorry! Are you rolling the dough between your palms or using a cookie scoop?
Rolling in my palms. But I put them in the fridge over night- I got to the egg part and oops, didn’t have any. So maybe they stayed too long in the fridge??
No problem, Ashlee – I’m glad to be of help! So are you saying you didn’t add the eggs to the dough? If so, that is probably why the dough is cracking and not rolling well.
Im currently making these in my kitchen as we speak. The dough turned out delish and the look of them is just perfect. I cannot wait to taste these little babys! Thank you for the recipe Mel. 🙂
Needing help with blooming on the kiss after I froze cookies for storage….any ideas if it goes away as they warm up to room temp? Now I have 3 doz cookies I need in a week and I’m afraid to freeze them after seeing the white spots on the few I did freeze already.
I did cool them to room temp before I froze.
Hi Bev – the blooming most likely will not go away. I haven’t frozen these cookies so I can’t tell you whether or not your other cookies will have the same issues with the Hershey’s kiss. Usually the blooming happens if chocolate is heated too quickly or cooled too quickly (like if you melt chocolate and then shove it in the freezer). However, these cookies won’t keep well for a week at room temperature so your only choice may be to freeze them at this point and cross your fingers the other ones don’t bloom. Good luck!
I’m excited – I’m making this tonight for a girls camp fundraiser bake-off. I’m putting them into muffin tins and then topping them with mini reeses peanut butter cups. Doing a test run right now to get the size and cook time right. The dough tastes amazing!
I’ve made these twice now and they are really yummy. I made them yesterday for my young women. I taught a lesson on how they were born to be queens, and so I decided to use reeces peanut butter cups because I think they look like crowns. While I think the Hershey kiss ones are way cuter, the reeces peanut butter cup ones are AMAZING! I think they kick this cookie up a notch. Both are amazing.
We were just talking about these (and gingerbread drops) and the size of the Kiss. We think someone should invest a half-size Kiss that would be more proportional to the cookie. Either way it’s a good-memory cookie!
Oh, it was lucky because then we didn’t have to eat them all by ourselves, we had guests that helped 🙂
Loved these! They made a million for me, luckily I made them right before Thanksgiving because I needed to assure there was some chocolate around, that’s important to our family, I loved the ones w/ kisses, but I put some reese’s PB cups in some and liked those even more – you may have to love peanut butter for that. Anyway, thanks this was fun and delicious!
I found this recipe on Pinterest and am so glad I tried it. I have never liked this type of cookie because, although adorable, the peanut butter cookie part always tasted bland and way too sweet. My husband actually saw a picture of these and persuaded me to make them for him. WOW, these are fantastic! The ground peanuts add such good peanut butter flavor, and the cookie is tender and soft. This is going in my permanent recipe file. Thank you so much!
I was frankly surprised how good these were. I remember them from childhood, but being frustrated that there was only one hard chunk of chocolate to go with an entire cookie. My 4 year old daughter, however, kept on eyeing them on the top right corner of your site and wanted to make them (an indication of how often I am looking at your blog), so I gave in.
These are not the cookies I remember. The peanut butter cookie, on its own, is fantastic. And the hershey’s kiss stays soft after going in the oven for a minute. This recipe does make quite a bit. I started to panic about how many of these things I would have around (and thus ingest). Neighbours and relatives have peanut allergies– what to do? I was worried about freezing them with the chocolate. So, I froze the peanut butter dough in balls. A couple weeks later, I baked them from frozen for 11min. and then for 1 more minute with the Hershey’s kiss. I still have two dozen left in the freezer for a last minute treat (as long as the bag of Hershey’s kisses stays intact). I’m glad my daughter persuaded me to try these, because they are as tasty as they are cute.
I made these today, they are awesome! My husband says they are the only peanut butter cookies he likes, so they must be special! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Diana – I’ve never frozen these so I’m not sure how they would fare. I know that chocolate usually “blooms” (gets those annoying white streaks or spots) if it is stored improperly, cooled to quickly, etc. I have no idea if the hershey kisses on these would bloom in the freezer. One way to avoid blooming is to make sure the chocolate doesn’t go through quick temperature changes. So maybe if the cookies were cooled completely and then stored in the freezer, it wouldn’t happen, but the only real way to know is to test it out. Good luck!
Perfect timing, Mel! I have to make 10 dozen of these for a wedding and wonder if you can tell me: is it possible to make and freeze these a week out without the kiss developing white spots on it?? I don’t know the chemistry behind why sometimes chocolate does that in the freezer but I’d like to avoid it if at all possible … can you help? Thanks so much!
I have a recipe that’s not a pb cookie and love it. It works, too, since my husband doesn’t like the pb/choc. combination – I know, what planet is he from? Also, I stick my kisses on right away and bake them with the cookie. They’re waxy enough that they don’t melt in the oven, and I love what it does to the chocolate.
I like to make these with Brach’s chocolate stars – I like that the chocolate part doesn’t stick up as much as it does with a Kiss. They’re easier to arrange on a plate or in a container for storing/sharing that way. Thanks for the great recipe!
classic. the bad news is that any hershey’s kisses that i purchase rarely make it to the pantry. 🙂
I’ll make this version next time I make these! Thanks for making a classic better. I did recently try ATK’s peanut butter cookies and am in total agreement that grinding the peanuts makes a HUGE difference.
These are so darn good! My little food processor didn’t crush the peanuts to a flour, but made it seem more like I used chunky peanut butter. They do have a great flavor. I wish Dove or Lindt made a kiss shape, because I love the kiss on top but Hershey chocolate just doesn’t compare to the good stuff. I was a little worried because I had to cook mine about 4 minutes longer and they still never started cracking until I put the kiss on…they ended up tasting great though. I ended up with about 50 cookies, and they weren’t small. Thank you Mel, again, for another great recipe. I will definitely make these again.
I just have to tell you how amazing your Tres Leches cake was. In fact I think I need to throw the 1/4th out that is left b/c I can’t quit eating it and I’m really not a sweet eater. We had it on Easter and also your cordon blue chicken recipe. SO GOOD!!
So I had these at a recent baby blessing, but they had baked them in a mini muffin pan and pushed Reese’s peanut butter cups in the middle (the small size). I had never had that way and they were really good! Love these cookies too!
Amy – I use salted butter.
It seems as if I never have Kisses when I want to make these cookies, so I just use chocolate chips and flatten the cookie a little before baking. Works great and the chocolate is spread through the cookie in chips instead of in one big chunk.
was wondering if you used salted or unsalted butter in this recipe. Thanks!
I love this recipe! Love that you have featured it.
saw something awesome on Pinterest that I tried the last time I made these… instead of the hershey kiss – I used a chocolate heart. (This was around Valentine’s Day – not sure if you can find them the rest of the year). Squish the heart in the warm cookie and you can put it back in the oven but you don’t have to. The heat from the cookie melts it just fine. I ended up putting them in the fridge for a bit after they had cooled to get the chocolate set up hard. Same wonderful taste but easier to pack/mail off….
Even though these are so simple, they are some of my favorite cookies! Thanks for sharing the recipe. A guilty pleasure, that’s for sure!
One of my favorite recipes of all time, I’m excited to try your version out!! I always sub the standard Hershey’s kiss for their caramel kiss, it adds a ton of moisture to the cookies…plus it helps if your hubby isn’t a huge chocolate fan!! Thanks for a new recipe, can’t wait to try it!
When I was growing up, Pillsbury had peanut butter dough in the infamous “roll of dough” and that’s what we used. My Lilly is home on Easter break and we made brownies last week and we gathered all the ingredients, measured, mixed, poured and baked. Then she commented that opening a box was easier. I have some work to do with that girl!
I shall have to try these. My recipe calls for ground oats. They are chewy, but I like the idea of the ground roasted peanuts. When you eat a peanut butter cookie you want to know for sure that is is peanut butter!
I always made these with my daughter but have never made these with my young boys. Thanks for the recipe and we are all looking forward to a day in the kitchen . I love the added peanuts in the flour!
Oh my gosh…you got my vibes. I was just going to start looking for a peanut blossom recipe since my son wanted Hershey kiss cookies to take to preschool for his birthday! I was going to make them tonight…thank you for being inspired! And I will let you know how they turn out….
I always forget about Peanut Butter cookies – but they are one of my husband’s favorites. I’m going to have to make these someday soon!
I remember my mom making these when I was young. I haven’t thought of these cookies in years. I made your key lime bars for Easter and everyone loved them!
They look so cute with the peaks 🙂 . Nice recipe
Such a classic!
Yum! I have never made Peanut Butter Blossom’s, and have always wanted to. ATK never dissapoints. Thank you for conquering the Peanut Blossom Cookie quest for us, Mel!