Peanut Butter Hershey Kiss Cookies are a perfect marriage of salty peanut butter and sweet milk chocolate from the kisses. These are a great cookie recipe for a new baker to make since it's a drop cookie dough.
Peanut Butter Hershey Kiss Cookies
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These are my one of my son's favorite cookies.
I think I was baking another batch of peanut butter kiss cookies every day during December.
But, it's a solid tasting cookie and easy for beginning bakers.
It's essentially a drop cookie dough gussied up with a roll in sanding sugar and topped with a Hershey kiss.
Some bakers wonder if they should top the cookies with Hershey kisses before baking the cookies.
Absolutely not. Wait until the cookies are done baking, then top with kisses.
But wait, did you hear about what I'm dubbing the Great Hershey Kiss Scandal of 2019?
Due to a problem in manufacturing, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Hershey kisses were bagged and shipped out sans their tips!
There was an outcry among the baking community across the U.S, especially so in Pennsylvania, home to Hershey and home to a strong baking community, thanks in part to the wedding cookie tradition.
Peanut Butter Kiss Tips
My best tip for making Peanut Butter Kisses is to weigh the peanut butter on a digital kitchen scale using a piece of wax paper. You'll want it to equal 120 grams.
That way you won't have any sticky peanut buttery measuring cups to wash.
You can just push the peanut butter into the cookie dough and toss the wax paper.
I despise washing measuring cups sticky with peanut butter.
It takes forever to get it really clean and then your sponge reeks of peanut butter and then the other dishes aren’t getting clean because you’re using a peanut butter laden sponge.
But I digress.
Alternatives to Hershey Kisses:
If you want to make Peanut Butter Chocolate Kiss Cookies and you're out of kisses, there are substitutions.
I've used three semi-sweet morsels on each cookie before.
I'm in a baking group on Facebook and one baker there used those Brach's Milk Chocolate Stars instead of kisses. She said they were a big hit.
Of course, there's no rule that says you have to use milk chocolate kisses.
Hershey is making so many different flavored kisses these days.
There's white chocolate, dark chocolate and kisses stuffed with almonds!
I also found Mint Truffle on Amazon.
That's just to name a few.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Kind of Peanut Butter Should I Use for Kiss Cookies?
Use whatever you have. But, if you're making a special trip to the store for peanut butter, I recommend Jif or Reese's. Skippy would also be okay but I've also made these cookies with store brand peanut butter.
Can You Freeze Kiss Cookies?
Yes, you can freeze kiss cookies in an airtight container. Sandwich the cookies between layers of wax paper.
However, I prefer to freeze balls of dough and the bake them. I think they are fresher that way.
How Many Calories are in a Peanut Butter Kiss?
One-inch peanut butter kiss cookies are 50 calories per cookie approximately plus 25 calories per Hershey kiss so 75 calories per cookie.
Peanut Butter Hershey Kiss Cookies (Perfect for New Bakers)
Peanut Butter Hershey Kiss Cookies, a peanut butter drop cookie dough rolled in sanding sugar, baked and topped with milk chocolate Hershey kisses, are a perfect marriage of salty peanut butter and sweet milk chocolate from the kisses.
Ingredients
- ½ cup (104g)granulated sugar
- ½ cup (99g) packed brown sugar
- ½ cup (120g) creamy peanut butter
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 egg, large, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon milk or cream
- 1 ½ cups (192g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon (5g)baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (2g)baking powder
- Sanding sugar (for rolling)
- 36 Hershey Kisses (unwrap)
Instructions
In a large bowl with an electric mixer or in the bowl of your stand mixer, beat butter for one minute.
Add sugars and beat until aerated or pale yellow.
Crack egg into a small cup. If egg looks fine, meaning there’s a yellow yolk and clear white (no red spots or weird colors) pour into the butter sugar mixture.
Add tablespoon of milk or cream. If you're out, just leave it out. My grandma put milk in her dough but I've also made it without.
Continue beating for another minute.
Add peanut butter and beat another two minutes or until the peanut butter is thoroughly combined with the cookie dough.
Add dry ingredients and beat until just combined. Don’t overbeat or your cookies will be tough.
Spread out a large piece of plastic wrap.
Scoop out the cookie dough onto the wrap and cover the dough completely.
Flatten the dough into a disk ala pie crust. After the dough has chilled, I think it’s easier to portion into one-inch balls of dough if you’re dealing with a flat disk of dough, about an inch in height.
Put dough in fridge to chill for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 375.
Put sanding sugar into a shallow plate or bowl.
Using a cookie scoop or a spoon, portion dough into one-inch scoops and roll in sanding sugar until thoroughly covered.
Bake 12 cookies at a time on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake for 11 to 12 minutes.
When cookies are done, they’ll have cracked a bit and will be golden.
While cooking are baking, unwrap Hershey kisses.
Remove cookies from oven, place an unwrapped Hershey kiss in the middle of each cookie and press down just slightly.
Let cool on a wire rack.
Store in between pieces of wax paper in an airtight container.
Cookies will keep about a week at room temperature.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 36 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 72Total Fat 4gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 13mgSodium 29mgCarbohydrates 8gFiber 0gSugar 4gProtein 1g
Your turn:
Have you made peanut butter Hershey kiss cookies before? Got any tips?
