I can’t believe it’s only a few days before Christmas and I haven’t posted a Christmas cookie yet! Aunt ‘Thann probably can’t believe it! After all she’s known in our family as the Cookie Queen and it’s from her that I got my love of baking.
Every December when I was growing up Aunt ‘Thann would host a Cookie Party. Now her cookie party wasn’t one of these trendy cookie swaps where everyone brings a batch of cookies– no, Aunt ‘Thann would make a couple dozen varieties and several thousand cookies and give them away to the family. And let me tell you her spread was way bigger than any I’ve heard of at a cookie swap. Imagine being a child. Being handed an ice-cream bucket. Then being told you could fill it up with cookies! It was AWESOME! My favorite Christmas cookie from that giant spread is Peanut Blossoms. There is the classic combination of peanut butter and chocolate that is even better when you snag one when the chocolate star on top is still warm and melt-y.
Notice the chocolate stars on top? That is the RIGHT way to make Peanut Blossoms. Yes, there is a wrong way and that’s with chocolate kisses – I mean why would you want to unwrap 92 chocolate kisses (that’s how many cookies I got out of this batch) when you can buy ready to use chocolate stars? And since they’re a little flatter it’s easier to get a little in each bite. Shout out to my friend, Dana, who is the only other person I know (besides Aunt Thann, of course, but this is her recipe so that doesn’t count) who uses chocolate stars!
Here’s what you need:
Just like any good cookie recipe you want to start by creaming together the Crisco and the sugars. While this is creaming, I like to mix together all my dry ingredients.
Now add in the peanut butter, eggs, milk and vanilla.
Stir in the flour, baking soda and salt in a couple batches just until incorporated.
This dough gets rolled out into balls, so in order to make it easier to work with it’s going to need to spend some time chilling in the refrigerator. About an hour should do it. I refrigerated mine overnight because I didn’t have time to bake when I made the dough so I transferred it into another container.
Roll the dough into 1 inch balls. I used my 2 tsp Cookie Scoop
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately press a chocolate star into the center of the cookie.
The chocolate stars will become really soft from the heat of the cookies, so you’re going to want to let them cool until they solidify before putting them away into a container.
This recipe makes a lot! I got 92 cookies out of it.
- 1 c brown sugar
- 1 c white sugar
- 1 c Crisco (butter flavored)
- 1 c peanut butter
- 2 eggs
- ¼ c milk
- 2 t vanilla
- 3 ½ c flour
- 2 t baking soda
- 1 t salt
- 1 bag chocolate stars (or roughly 8 dozen from the bulk bin – it’s ok to buy more, so you can snack on the extras)
- Cream sugars and Crisco on high speed. Beat in peanut butter, eggs, milk and vanilla. Stir in combined dry ingredients.
- Chill the dough for at least 1 hour, overnight or for a couple days it ok too.
- Roll into 1 inch balls and place a couple inches apart (these don’t spread much) onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Until a couple golden spots appear. Remove from oven and IMMEDIATELY press a chocolate star into the center.
- Allow to cool completely until the chocolate star has solidified before packaging.
Gotta love the chocolate stars!! My mom started me on that and now my chocoholic 4 year old loves me for it since he gets the leftovers. 🙂