Grandma Casinghino's Peanut Butter Blossoms

Cookiegeddon Day 2 Part 2: my grandmother’s peanut butter blossoms. These have always been the winner of the cookie contest in my house, and I’ve had to tell my mum three times today to stop eating them if we want to still have any by Christmas. She told me to be quiet and she’d just buy me more ingredients to make another batch if she had to.

THINGS YOU'LL NEED
Ï 1/2 cup unsalted butter
Ï 1/2 cup peanut butter (I’ve made them with both creamy and chunky; there’s no real difference, it just depends on whichever you prefer)
Ï 1/2 cup granulated sugar
Ï 1/2 cup brown sugar
Ï 1 large egg
Ï 1 teaspoon vanilla
Ï 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Ï 1 teaspoon baking soda
Ï 1/2 teaspoon salt
Ï chocolate kisses: make sure you count out how many cookies you have on each tray so you’ll have enough kisses unwrapped when the time comes to stick them on! THIS IS IMPORTANT!

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a stand mixer, cream butter and peanut butter. Add in both sugars, egg, and vanilla; blend until smooth. Gradually add in dry ingredients and continue to mix until a crumbly dough forms.

Shape the dough into 1” balls; roll in granulated sugar and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes.

Remove cookies from oven; place one Hershey kiss on each cookie. (You want to press down gently so that the kiss takes to the cookie, but doesn’t split it entirely; the cookie around the kiss should crackle and split slightly.) Return cookies to oven and bake an additional 2 minutes. Allow to cool; use a metal spatula to carefully remove cookies (the middles tend to stick!)

Best cookies ever hands down— and they’re absolutely necessary for Christmas. Can’t do without them. Santa will just take one look and say “No kiss cookies? Where is the effort.” And then he’ll turn his sleigh around and go back to Mama Claus, who you’d damn well better believe will have some of these waiting for him.