EASY Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe - House of Nash Eats (2024)

Simple, classic, and iconic, thesePeanut Butter Blossomsare Christmas baking at its best! They aresoft and chewy, coated in crackly, sparkling sugar, and topped with a chocolate Hershey's Kiss. They are one of our all-time favorite Christmas cookies!

EASY Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe - House of Nash Eats (1)

Table of Contents

Why We Love This Recipe
What You'll Need
How to Make Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
Recipe FAQ's
Tips for Success
Substitutions and Variations
More Christmas Cookie Recipes
Perfect Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe

When it comes to Christmas cookies, these peanut butter blossoms are the first to be made in our house every single year. Everybody loves these Hershey's Kisses cookies, and they always make it onto my holiday cookie trays.

Peanut butter blossoms are a classic Christmas cookie, although I'm not sure why or how, as there's nothing inherently Christmas-y about them. However, this peanut butter blossom recipe is perfect for taking to a cookie swap or leaving out for Santa on Christmas Eve.

EASY Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe - House of Nash Eats (2)

My tips for this classic recipe are more like un-tips. There are no finicky steps for creaming this or that. This is one of the only recipes where I literally just put all the ingredients in a bowl at the same time, turn on the electric mixer, and let it do its job for a minute or two.

I don't cream the butter and peanut butter or gradually add in the sugar. I don't scrape the sides of the bowl. I don't gently stir in the flour or chill the dough or do any other steps you might see in other peanut butter blossom recipes.

If you are looking for other cookie ideas for the holiday season, I've got you covered! Try theseChocolate Dipped Toffee Pecan Shortbread Cookies,Toffee Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, or why not try something a little different with theseDouble Lemon Glazed Cookies.

Some of my favorite and more traditional cookie choices are theseorthese Classic Gingerbread Men!

EASY Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe - House of Nash Eats (3)

Why We Love This Recipe

Customizable for whichever holiday or occasion you're making them for by using different candy, or a colored sugar coating.
This is a great recipe for making with the kids - just put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix.
It's a quick and easy recipe, they're ready in just over 20 minutes!

What You'll Need

Scroll down to the recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.

Granulated Sugar - White sugar is best, and you'll need some for making the dough and some for rolling the cookies in.
Brown Sugar - Light brown, firmly packed sugar is best for
Butter - Salted butter works best with these cookies to help balance the sweetness. It needs to be softened to room temperature.
Peanut Butter - Smooth and creamy natural peanut butter works best to get a smooth cookie.
Egg - To bind the dough together and help it rise a bit to make it nice and chewy!
Milk - 2% or whole milk is fine.
Vanilla Extract - Adds a subtle sweetness to the cookies.
Flour - This recipe will work with all-purpose flour. You can use a gluten-free alternative, but the quantities may vary if you use a grain-free alternative.
Baking Soda - To help the cookies rise and get chewy.
Salt - To enhance the flavors.
Hershey's Kisses- I use their original milk chocolate ones, but you can use your favorite to mix it up.

EASY Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe - House of Nash Eats (4)

How to Make Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

Prepare baking sheet. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap the Hershey's Kisses and set them aside.

Make cookie dough. Put ½ cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, egg, milk, vanilla extract, flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Mix with an electric mixer or hand mixer on medium speed until combined. Do not over-mix.

Coat cookie dough balls with sugar. Shape tablespoonfuls of dough into balls by rolling them between your palms. Then roll each ball in the extra sugar in a shallow bowl. You can do this easily and more evenly with a cookie scoop, but you can use tablespoons if you don't have one.

Bake. Place on a baking sheet spaced an inch or two apart, then bake for 8 to 10 minutes until slightly golden brown. Don't let them over-bake. I almost always pull them out at the 8-9 minute mark.

Add Hershey's Kiss. Gently press an unwrapped milk chocolate kiss candy into the center of each of the freshly baked cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. The chocolate will melt from the heat of the cookie, sticking the candy to the top of the cookie. It will then cool and harden again.

Cool and serve. Place cookies on a wire rack to cool completely, and then serve!

EASY Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe - House of Nash Eats (5)

Recipe FAQ's

Why are they called peanut butter blossoms?

The original recipe for these cookies originated in 1957 in a Pillsbury Baking Competition in Ohio. The cookies were made and entered by contestant Freda Smith, who originally called them Black-Eyed Susans. After succeeding in the competition, Pillsbury renamed them to the more descriptive name of Peanut Butter Blossoms.

How do I store peanut butter blossoms?

Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Can I freeze peanut butter blossoms?

Freezing cookies: You can freeze peanut butter blossoms once they have completely cooled, and the chocolate is solid again. Simply put them in an airtight container in a single layer and keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Freezing cookie dough: Alternatively, you can freeze peanut butter cookie dough balls for up to 3 months by placing the balls on a baking tray and in the freezer until solid. Then, remove the tray from the freezer and put the frozen cookie dough balls in a Ziploc bag and back in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Tips for Success

Make your cookie dough balls, and cookies, the same size so that they all cook evenly in the same amount of time.
If you like the chocolate to stay firm, you can refrigerate the chocolate kisses until you need to use them. This way, they won't melt too much when pressed into the cookies. Although we like to watch until the Hershey's Kiss is perfectly melted and then eat them right in that moment.
Using a cookie scoop will ensure your cookies are the right size every time.

My not-so-secret secret to PERFECT peanut butter blossoms is to keep the balls of dough very small so make your cookie-to-Kiss ratio just right. A tablespoon or a tablespoon and a half of dough is the best way to get small, perfectly balanced, peanut butter blossoms everytime.

Substitutions and Variations

You can use different Hershey’s Kisses to suit your taste or the season. You can use kisses with a filling for added flavor, or even the candy cane ones like in these Peppermint Blossoms for added festivity!
Use another candy, like Mini Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, or add more candies to the top of your peanut butter blossoms to suit your taste preference.
Roll the cookies in a red or green colored sanding sugar or coarse sparkling sugar coating before baking to make them extra Christmassy.
Drizzle some icing over the top of your cookies after they have cooled, or dust them with powdered sugar.
Add chocolate chips to the cookie dough mix to make them extra chocolatey.

EASY Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe - House of Nash Eats (6)

More Christmas Cookie Recipes

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Copycat Crumbl Cinnamon Swirl Cookies
Eggnog Cookies with Eggnog Frosting
Mexican Wedding Cookies [aka Russian Tea Cakes]

Christmas

35+ of The Best Christmas Cookies

Classic Chocolate Crinkles

Did you make this recipe?

Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.

PrintPinRate

Perfect Peanut Butter Blossoms

4.97 from 59 votes

Ingredients

▢ ½ cup salted butter, softened
▢ ½ cup granulated sugar + ¼ cup for rolling
▢ ½ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
▢ ½ cup creamy peanut butter
▢ 1 large egg
▢ 2 tablespoons milk
▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
▢ 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
▢ ½ teaspoon salt
▢ 36 unwrapped Hershey's Kisses a little less than one bag

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap the Hershey's Kisses and set aside.
Combine butter, ½ cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, egg, milk, vanilla extract, flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Mix with an electric mixer until combined. Do not overmix.
Scoop out small, tablespoon size amounts of dough and roll into balls between your palms, then roll each ball in the extra sugar in a shallow bowl. Place on a baking sheet spaced an inch or two apart, then bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Don't let these overbake - I almost always pull them out at the 8-9 minute mark.
Immediately upon removing the cookies from the oven, gently press an unwrapped Hershey's Kiss in the center of each cookie. It will melt from the heat of the cookie and then eventually harden again as the cookies cool completely.

Video

Notes

These cookies are very forgiving. You could cream the butter and sugars separately, then add the eggs and mix again before stirring in the flour, but I have always just thrown everything together and they turn out incredible. People always ask me why my peanut butter blossoms are so soft and I feel like this might be the real reason why.
Storage: Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Freezing cookies: You can freeze peanut butter blossoms once they have completely cooled, and the chocolate is solid again. Simply put them in an airtight container in a single layer and keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Freezing cookie dough: Alternatively, you can freeze peanut butter cookie dough balls for up to 3 months by placing the balls on a baking tray and in the freezer until solid. Then, remove the tray from the freezer and put the frozen cookie dough balls in a Ziploc bag and back in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Nutrition

Tried this recipe? Show me on Instagram!Mention @HouseOfNashEats or tag #houseofnasheats!

This post was originally published in December, 2016. The photos and content were updated in November, 2022.

Related Recipes

TikTok Cookie Croissants

Orange Glazed Carrot Cookies

Peanut Butter Muddy Buddies Cookies

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies

About the author

Hi, I'm Amy

I enjoy exploring the world through food, culture, and travel and sharing the adventure with mostly from-scratch, family friendly recipes that I think of as modern comfort cooking.

Learn More

EASY Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe - House of Nash Eats (2024)

FAQs

Why are my peanut butter blossoms crumbly? ›

The main reason why your peanut butter blossom cookies may come out dry is if you add too much flour so be sure to use a scale or measure carefully without packing the flour into the measuring cup.

Explore More ›

What is Baskin Robbins peanut butter blossom? ›

Perfectly paired with classics like decadent Chocolate Fudge and timeless Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Blossom features sweet and salty peanut butter ice cream, chocolate chips, peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough pieces, and rich fudge swirls.

View Details ›

Why are my kiss cookies flat? ›

Dough that's too warm.

You'll see that, even when a recipe doesn't explicitly require it, many bakers recommend chilling cookie dough thoroughly—for at least two hours in the fridge— to slow spreading and to make the dough easier to work it (as in the case of cut-out or slice-and-bake cookies).

Why do my peanut butter cookies taste chalky? ›

Peanut butter has a tendency to make cookies dry and chalky. This recipe uses just the right ratio of butter to peanut butter and a low amount of flour to create a soft middle. This recipe only requires just 9 basic ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry!

Why are my peanut butter cookies so hard? ›

Why are my peanut butter cookies hard? If your peanut butter cookies are hard, you likely cooked them for too long. They should not be baked for more than 8 or 9 minutes.

What happens if you don't chill peanut butter cookie dough? ›

The most important part of today's recipe? Chill your cookie dough! The dough is extremely soft due to the creamy peanut butter, eggs, and butter and if it's not cold going into the oven, the cookies will spread all over your baking sheet.

Keep Reading ›

What happens if you don't flatten peanut butter cookies? ›

Peanut butter cookies don't spread as they cook, so you have to flatten them before hand. This ensures that the middle will cook through before the outside burns. As for the pattern created, it actually creates slightly more surface area, so you'll get more browning at the extra edges that you create.

What if my peanut butter cookie dough is too dry? ›

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.

Keep Reading ›

How do you fix crumbly peanut butter cookies? ›

Add more liquid ingredients in small amounts. Milk, egg yolks or egg whites, vanilla extract or even a teaspoon of water can help moisten the dough to give you less crumbly cookies. A little bit of a liquid like milk can also help your cookies spread in the oven to give you a more crispy cookie.

Tell Me More ›

How do you 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.

How do you keep peanut butter cookies from crumbling? ›

Be sure to measure your flour exactly. This recipe calls for just the right amount of flour to allow the cookies to hold their shape during the cooking process. Less flour will result in a chewier cookie but it might spread more. More flour than what I recommend will result in a drier, more crumbly cookie.

Discover More ›

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.

View Details ›