Peanut Butter Blossoms

I'm going to attempt to go to work tomorrow.  Resting a week on sick leave hasn't been all the fun it sounds like.  Still tired from the occasional coughing fit, but GP (coworker) should have more peace.  It was actually GP who begged me to go to the doctor again, and I'm grateful he did.

In spite of being on sick leave, I haven't been down and out.  I've been snacking all day and have been trying to think of goodies I can make with what I have on hand.  I swear I had a bag of kisses because I was ono for Peanut Butter Blossoms to go with a toasty vanilla latte.

Peanut Butter Blossoms originally made their appearance in one of the Pillsbury Bake-Off contests in the second half of the 20th century.  Being a peanut butter cookie fan, I've enjoyed these treats occasionally.  This is one of those things that, while easy to make, becomes exponentially easier to make when there are another set of hands to help.  Fortunately for me, D2 loves peanut butter AND loves to help.

It took several tries for me to come up with the best temperature and baking intervals for this cookie.  I checked out a whole bunch of recipes from both local and mainland cookbooks.  Some recipes called for less flour, and other recipes omitted the milk altogether.  Another discrepancy was the oven temperature.  Some recipes said 350.  Others said 375.  I even came across a recipe calling for 370 degrees!  But the area of greatest variation was in baking protocol.

Most recipes suggested baking somewhere between 8 and 12 minutes, removing from the oven, then pressing a kiss into the center of the cookie.  A few recipes mentioned pulling the cookies from the oven after 8 to 10 minutes, pressing a kiss into the center of the cookie, then returning the cookies to the oven for 2 minutes or so.  I found the second protocol to truly work . . . the kiss definitely set up faster, in spite of my knee-jerk thinking that the heat of the oven would immediately melt the kiss.

 click on recipe title for printable recipe
Peanut Butter Blossoms

     1/2 c butter

     1/2 c peanut butter

     1/2 c sugar

     1/2 c brown sugar

     1 3/4 c flour

     1/2 tsp salt

     1 tsp baking soda

     1 egg

     1 tsp vanilla

     2 tbsp milk

     sugar for rolling

     48 Hershey's Kisses

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Combine butter, peanut butter and sugars in a mixing bowl.  Stir in egg, vanilla, and milk.  Add in flour, salt, and baking soda.  Using a #60 disher (2 tsps), drop dough into a bowl of sugar, and roll until coated.  Place coated dough balls on an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and press a kiss into center of each cookie.  Return to oven for 2 more minutes.  Remove cookies to a cooling rack and cool completely before storing.