Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

A few weeks ago, my older daughter wanted some cookies. So I said “Well, go find a recipe you like on Tasty Kitchen!”

Then, ever the dutiful mother, I added, “Then march on into the kitchen and make ‘em.”

She looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“See that room over there?” I continued. “The one with the stove and the oven and the sink full of dirty dishes? That’s the kitchen. Have fun! Knock yourself out!”

I’m such an awesome mommy.

On her own, my daughter found this version of the classic Peanut Butter – Hershey Kiss cookie, submitted to Tasty Kitchen by Amber the Little Miss Domestic last summer. I have a similar recipe myself, but I didn’t interfere, instead letting her make the cookies herself from start to finish.

The results? Magnificent! Slightly different from the ones I’ve always made, and so easy a twelve-year-old can (and did) make them.

She’s made them several times since then, including yesterday afternoon when…well, when her mother begged her to make them. And her mother took photos this time.

Here’s what you need: peanut butter, flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, brown sugar, egg, milk, vanilla, and shortening. And plenty of Hershey’s Kisses!

Begin by unwrapping the kisses. You’ll want to have them ready to go when you pull the cookies from the oven.

Dump the peanut butter, brown sugar, milk, vanilla, and shortening into the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix it until ingredients are smooth.

Crack an egg into the bowl, and mix it again until everything is smooth.

Yum. I’d say this is smooth. I could eat this by the spoonful!

Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl…

And add it to the mixing bowl, mixing until just barely combined.

And that’s the dough! Now, my recipe calls for refrigerating the cookie dough until firm, rolling it into neat balls, then rolling the balls in sugar before baking. But this recipe involves more immediate satisfaction.

Just use a measuring teaspoon, and scoop out rounded spoonfuls. Place them on a cookie sheet.

Then the recipe says to make a criss-cross design

…Using the tines of a fork.

My girl made one pan with the criss-cross pattern…

And left one pan plain, just to see what the difference would be.

My girl is culinarily curious, like her weird mother.

We baked them only seven minutes, then removed them from the oven. Here’s the criss-cross batch.

And here’s the plain batch.

(By the way, this is a yummy peanut butter cookie recipe if you ever just want them without the kiss.)

Let the cookies stay on the cookie sheet for a minute or two, then lightly press the kisses into the middle of the cookie. Believe it or not, this is the batch that had started with the criss-cross pattern, which baked out to a large degree because we didn’t press it far enough into the cookie. But I have a sneaking suspicion that’s not going to affect the taste.

Here’s the plain batch.

And here’s a whole slew of ‘em. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of tasting one of these delights right after they’re done, here’s what happens: within a couple of minutes of placing the kiss onto the cookie, the kiss softens to the point that it completely melts in your mouth. I mean completely. And while they’re perfectly delicious the next day, nothing compares to one of these when it’s warm.

My verdict on this particular recipe is this: I actually like them better than the one I’ve used for years. For one thing, you don’t have to refrigerate the dough, which saves lots of time. For another, you don’t have to roll the dough into neat balls and roll them in sugar. Another time saver. But what I liked most about them (well, besides how delicious they were) was the relatively small size: because you measure by rounded teaspoon (which is much less dough per cookie than my recipe calls for), you wind up with much less cookie per kiss. More melted, wonderful milk chocolate per cookie.

And that’s a very, very, very good thing.

Here’s the printable. Thank you to Amber for sharing such a yummy delight!

Printable Recipe: Dianne’s Peanut Butter Sweet Kiss Cookies

Make these for someone you love this week. They’ll love you right back.

Love,
Ree