12 Days of Baking - Day 1: Peanut Butter Blossoms

I'm kicking off this 12 days of baking madness with my very favorite Peanut Butter Blossoms. This cookie shouldn't be limited just to Christmas. It's an all-year-round favorite. I just use the recipe off the back of the Hershey's Kisses bag, nothing secret about my baking.

This cookie has pretty simple ingredients, I pretty much always have them on hand.  Pretend the Hershey's Kisses are in that picture. That's the only thing I have to buy specifically to make these cookies, so pretty much when the kisses are BOGO at Publix I grab them, ya never know when you will need to take a batch of these babies with you somewhere.

Measuring peanut butter and other sticky, wet, no-so- pourable substances is a pain. It's less of a pain if you have a measuring cup like this one. It will save you a lot of trouble. Trust me.

Now, to the baking!! First you cream together the peanut butter and shortening until it looks like this...

Then add both of the sugars.

Beat until fluffy! Then add in your dry ingredients.

This makes a nice thick, sticks to itself dough. It's super easy to work with.

I use a small scoop to scoop balls and then I hand roll them until they are smooth.

Then plop those dough balls into a bowl of sugar and roll em around.

Now to bake them! Toss em on a cookie sheet with some kind of parchment paper or baking mat to make clean up a little easier.

Try not to get so excited that your cookie balls go flying everywhere. 

 Now, the instructions tell you to unwrap your kisses first, but that is a waste of time. Do it while the cookie balls bake, it's not like you can get much else done in 8 minutes.

When they come out of the oven they should be a little crackly on top.

Gently but quickly press a kiss into each cookie.

I usually let them rest on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring them onto a cooling rack.

YUM!! Look at all of those beautiful cookies!

This is a treat good enough for Santa, but enjoyed by all, naughty or nice.