LAist Cookie Exchange: The Peanut Butter Kiss

I am a peanut butter freak. And my Mom knows it. No matter how old I get (and I’m waaaay past the age of consent), she makes my favorite cookies – Peanut Butter Kisses – when I come home for Christmas. Typically, I’ll be sleepwalking through the door straight from a redeye from LAX to the east coast with nothing but the sofa is calling my name. But there’s always a stack of PB Kisses on the counter that need a little loving before I can sleep. Who am I to disappoint my mother? (Don’t answer that.)

This Christmas, however, I’m spending time with my husband’s family in Vegas. (“Please Baby Jesus, can I get a face card with my double down here?”) So the hubby and I decided to try and recreate my Mom’s PB Kisses with a little twist for the peanut butter freak in me.

We’re not bakers by any means, but in my humble opinion, the cookies turned out damn good. But here’s a lesson we learned the hard way and bears repeating: Make sure you have all ingredients before you start baking. That’ll save you a late-night run to Ralphs.

Here’s the recipe:

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

We got the original recipe here.

Ingredients:
- 2 2/3 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter
- 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Additional sugar
- A bag of Hershey's Peanut Butter Kisses (not just the Milk Chocolate Ones!)

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Add softened butter and peanut butter. Next come the sugars, and mix everything. Lastly, add the eggs and vanilla (which we had to run to the store to get in the middle of all this) and mix everything until it's kind of creamy smooth.

Now comes the fun part. Take tablespoons of dough and roll them into balls. Now, put some wax paper or a board down and sprinkle sugar on it. Roll the balls in the sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about two inches apart. Now, I like my cookies a little on the crunchy side, so we baked them for 10-12 minutes.

After you take out of the oven, let it cool for a bit and then add one Peanut Butter Kiss to the center of each cookie. (If you add the kiss too soon, the chocolate melts all over the place.)

Cool and eat. Happy holidays!

Note to husband: I told you that the Peanut Butter Kisses wouldn't be too much peanut butter! How can you ever have too much peanut butter?

Photo by bonimo via flickr.