Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies are a holiday season must-bake cookie! These easy peanut butter cookies are topped with Dark Chocolate Hershey’s Kisses. You can’t go wrong with a classic Hershey Kiss cookies this season. Makes 42 cookies.
Love holiday treats? Don’t miss out on Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge and No Churn Peppermint Ice Cream Milkshakes!
These Hershey Kiss Cookies were originally posted on December 22, 2011. The recipe, text of the post and images have been updated and republished in December 2020.
I know many of y’all have probably tried this recipe before and loved it (if you like peanut butter and chocolate together baked.)
This is one of my family’s favorite holiday recipes, and I figured I’d share my rendition of it here for y’all in case you didn’t already have the recipe.
Why I love this recipe:
As a child, I was tapped to unwrap the dozens of Hershey’s Kisses for this recipe. My sister always joined me in that job, as well, and when we got a little older, we were assigned rolling duty. And then mixing duty. And then the actual baking duty.
It’s a fun cookie to make with a crowd, especially since the more hands you have, the faster the rolling and unwrapping of Kisses will take. It’ll even take less time to put the Kisses on the peanut butter blossom cookies.
So, gather your friends, and let’s get to baking these cookies!
Other cookies my family loves to bake every year for the holidays: All-Butter Tea Cake Cookies | Chocolate Crinkle Cookies | Peppermint Dark Chocolate Cookies | Quebec Maple Pecan Drops
Need cookie inspo? I got you covered! Head on over to my Cookie Recipe Index for all kinds of ideas! My husband has some thoughts for you on his favorite cookies of all time, too.
What you need to make Hershey’s Kiss Cookies
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- Baking sheet and nonstick silicone mat
- Hand mixer or stand mixer
- Large mixing bowl
- 1 tablespoon cookie scoop
- Wire cooling rack
In addition to these tools above, you’ll need a few ingredients, too.
- Unsalted butter
- Creamy peanut butter—we keep unsalted and unsweetened PB at our house, and it changes the consistency of these cookies a little. If you use the natural PB like we do, you might have to add 2-3 tablespoons of milk to your dough if it’s too crumbly.
- Granulated sugar—for the dough, as well as the exterior of the cookies
- Brown sugar—dark or light is OK
- Egg
- Pure vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour—we always keep unbleached AP flour in our house, but the regular type is OK here, too
- Baking powder
- Kosher salt
- Hershey’s Special Dark Kisses
How do you make peanut butter blossoms from scratch?
Preheat your oven and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
Pour ½ cup of granulated sugar into a wide bowl. Set this aside, too. This sugar will be used to coat the dough balls before they go onto the baking sheet.
In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and peanut butter together until mixture turns a lighter yellow. As you blend them together, they will become smoother.
Next, sprinkle in the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Blend ’em together until well combined. This will take 2-3 minutes, tops, because we want the sugar to become incorporated into the batter.
Next up, it’s time to crack that egg and add in the vanilla extract. Blend ’em until incorporated and light and fluffy.
Measure in the flour, baking powder and salt. Blend until combined.
If your dough is a little crumbly, you might need to add 2-3 tablespoons of milk until it becomes a little stickier. I’ve found that when we use natural peanut butter, it needs this more often than not.
How to shape and bake the peanut butter blossom cookies
When the dough has come together, use a cookie scoop to form the dough, then use your palms to shape the dough into balls. Place the dough balls into the sugar bowl and coat with sugar.
Transfer the sugared cookie dough to the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 9 minutes. You don’t want to get any color on the dough at this point, and you still want it to be soft!
Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and place a Kiss in the center of each cookie, pressing down firmly so cookie cracks around the edges.
Return cookies to the oven and bake for an additional 2 more minutes or until the chocolate is slightly melty before cooling cool on a wire cooling rack.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do my peanut butter blossom cookies go flat?
Several Hershey’s Kiss Cookies recipes call for self-rising flour, and sometimes, if that’s not fresh, your cookies will go flat. In this recipe, we make our own self-rising flour with AP flour, baking powder and salt. Make sure your baking powder isn’t ancient to combat the rising issue.
Why are my peanut butter blossoms dry?
It might be your peanut butter. I’ve noticed when we make this peanut butter cookie recipe with all-natural peanut butter, we sometimes have to add a few tablespoons of milk to get the batter to come together.
Can I use milk chocolate Kisses instead?
Of course! Use the type of chocolate you like the best… just be aware that you’ll need to bake the cookies with milk chocolate Kisses 2-3 more minutes than you would the dark chocolate ones.
Quick tips and tricks to the best Hershey Kiss Cookies
- We love these cookies with Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Kisses. If you prefer milk chocolate, feel free to use that! These would also be delicious with the almond Kisses, too!
- Always, always, always remove the wrapper from the Hershey’s Kisses before making the batter and baking the cookies. You don’t want to get caught with them unwrapped and your cookies continue to cook on the baking sheet while you unwrap them.
- Store these cookies at room temperature in a sealed container for 3-4 days after baking.
Now who’s ready to bake these beauties?!?
Dark Chocolate Peanut Blossoms
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened (113.4g)
- ¾ cup creamy peanut butter 225g
- ½ cup granulated sugar 128g, plus an additional ½ cup to roll the dough in before baking
- ½ cup brown sugar dark or light OK (124g)
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour 275g
- 2 ¾ teaspoons baking powder 14g
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt 4g
- 42 Hershey’s Special Dark Kisses unwrapped
Equipment
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Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat, and set aside.
- Pour ½ cup of granulated sugar into a wide bowl. Set aside. This sugar will be used to coat the dough balls before they go onto the baking sheet.
- In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer or in the stand mixer, cream the butter and peanut butter together until mixture turns a lighter yellow. As you blend them together, they will become smoother.
- Sprinkle in the granulated sugar and brown sugar, and blend until well combined.
- Add the egg and the vanilla extract to the batter. Mix until incorporated.
- Measure in the flour, baking powder and salt. Blend until smooth. If your dough is a little crumbly, add 2-3 tablespoons of milk until it becomes a little stickier. (I’ve found that when we use natural peanut butter, it needs this more often than not.)
- When the dough has come together, use a cookie scoop to form the dough, then use your palms to shape the dough into balls.
- Place the dough balls into the sugar bowl and coat with sugar.
- Transfer the sugared cookie dough to the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 9 minutes. You don’t want to get any color on the dough at this point, and you still want it to be soft!
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and place a Kiss in the center of each cookie, pressing down firmly so cookie cracks around the edges.
- Return cookies to the oven and bake for 2 more minutes or until the chocolate is slightly melty.
- Let cool on a wire cooling rack before enjoying!
Notes
Quick tips and tricks to the best Hershey’s Kiss Cookies
- We love these cookies with Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Kisses. If you prefer milk chocolate, feel free to use that! These would also be delicious with the almond Kisses, too!
- Always, always, always remove the wrapper from the Hershey’s Kisses before making the batter and baking the cookies. You don’t want to get caught with them unwrapped and your cookies continue to cook on the baking sheet while you unwrap them.
- Store these cookies at room temperature in a sealed container for 3-4 days after baking.
Nutrition
About the Author:
Erin Parker is a Southern gal living in Texas with her husband and two daughters. She started The Speckled Palate to share what she was cooking as a newlywed… and over the years, it’s evolved to capture her love for hosting. Specifically, the EASIEST, lowest key entertaining because everyone deserves to see their people and connect over good food. Learn more about her…
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