Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

This family favorite pairs the winning combination of chocolate candies and peanut butter. Creamy peanut butter is the norm for making this classic Christmas cookie recipe, but the cookie dough here is made with crunchy. You’ll get the best, most chewy results when using a conventional style of peanut butter, not one labeled as “natural." There’s a little almond extract in these holiday cookies too to bolster their nutty flavor, but you can use vanilla extract instead, or split the difference and use both.

Press a milk chocolate Hershey’s kiss (or a mini peanut butter cup if you want to go bold on peanut butter) into the center of each cookie just after baking to meld the chocolate-peanut flavor. Want to turn your peanut butter kiss cookies into a deeper, smoother chocolate experience? These Chocolate Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies are made with a semisweet ganache instead of the traditional candy. 

Transfer from cookie sheet to cooling rack, then stand back and watch while each serving of your family’s new favorite cookie disappears faster than any chocolate chip cookie or sugar cookie you’ve ever made.

Editor’s note: The recipe was originally published as Lauren’s Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies on November 1, 2011.