Recipe from the Gerrero family
Adapted by The New York Times
Updated Dec. 7, 2023
- Total Time
- 35 minutes
- Rating
- 5(6,740)
- 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
- 1¾cups 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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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.
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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.)
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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6,740
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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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