Add more peanut flavor to cookies Food

Peanut blossom cookies first became famous at the Pillsbury Bake-Off baking in 1957. It’s just peanut cookies with a kiss from Hershey’s Kiss. We started with the original recipe and made changes to it to achieve a more robust peanut flavor.

Adding more peanut butter didn’t work. We tried to replace peanut butter with butter, but tasters did not like the stony texture it gave to these cookies.

We got the best peanut flavor when we replaced part of the flour with roasted peanuts, which we finely chopped in a food processor so they didn’t spoil the texture of the cookies.

Most recipes recommend squeezing kisses into cookies right after baking, but the warm cookies softened the kisses too much, and it took them 4 hours to solidify again – more than we were willing to expect to pamper ourselves.

Ironically, we found that placing the chocolates on the cookies during the last 2 minutes of baking helped them freeze faster. Why? It turns out a little direct heat stabilizes and solidifies the look of the chocolate, and the kisses were hard enough to eat after the cookies had cooled in just 2 hours.

Any kiss from Hershey’s Kiss – dark, milky, white or “Hugs” – works in this recipe.

PEANUT FLOWER COOKIES

Servings: 48 cookies are obtained

From start to finish: 1 hour

1 1/3 cups of universal flour

½ cups of salted dry roasted peanuts

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon of salt

8 tablespoons unsalted softened butter

1/3 cup packaged dark brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

½ cups of peanut butter

1 large egg, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

48-50 Hershey’s Kisses, deployed

Process 2/3 cup flour and peanuts in a food processor until peanuts are finely chopped, about 15 seconds; transfer to a bowl and whisk baking powder, baking soda, salt and the remaining 2/3 cup flour.

Using a blender with a spatula, beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add the peanut butter and whisk until combined. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Reduce the speed to a minimum, add the flour mixture to the 2 additives and stir until combined.

Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Set the rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 F. Cover the two trays with parchment paper. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared sheets.

Bake 1 sheet at a time until the cookies harden and start to crack, 9 to 11 minutes. Working quickly, remove the sheet from the oven and place 1 candy in the center of each cookie, pressing firmly. Return the tin to the oven and bake until the cookies are light golden in color, about 2 minutes longer.

Allow the cookies to cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Allow the cookies to cool completely before serving.

Nutrition information per serving: 94 calories; 53 calories from fat; 6 g of fat (2 g of saturated; 0 g of trans fat); 11 mg of cholesterol; 48 mg of sodium; 9 g of carbohydrates; 1 g of fiber; 6 g of sugar; 2 g of protein.

America’s Test Kitchen provided this article to The Associated Press.