Just because you have never made a cookie in your life does not mean that you should never try it. Welcome yourself into the cookie making business with this easiest, best looking and kid approved cookie recipe. I chanced upon it in a magazine - I believe it is Martha Stewart Living - while waiting in the doctor's office. I think it was part of a Hershey's chocolate ad and quickly scribbled it down on a little piece of paper. This is a good one to get kids involved. Later I found that it is indeed a popular recipe and you will come across it all over the net while searching with 'peanut butter blossoms'. Now, to the recipe:
In The Mix
You will need about 48 Hershey's kisses. I find that M&Ms are also an easy substitute or any other cute looking chocolate piece. But Hershey's kisses look the best on top!
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 or 1/2 cup sugar to roll cookies at the end
How To Do
Heat oven to 375 C.
Remove foil from Hershey's. Get the kids to do this. Mine enjoyed all of the activity so much and were very good about not eating the kisses. I was impressed. Ask them first to count how many there are, how many we might need, and then get them to unwrap from one bowl to keep in another etc..
Beat shortening and peanut butter together for less than a minute.
Add 1/2 cup sugar & the brown sugar to the mix. Beat until fluffy.
Break the egg into the mix, add milk and vanilla extract and beat together for under a minute.
Kids can share doing this activity. I use a large plastic bowl so things stay clean.
Stir together the flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl. You can sieve them together to blend well.
Now gradually beat the flour mix into the peanut butter mix. You can do this in 5-6 steps. Once all the flour is added in, beat for 3-4 minutes. I use an electric hand mixer to beat.
Shape into 1" size balls. My Achilles Heel:-) Can never get them ball shapes... Roll gently in the sugar for a nice coat. Do not flatten. The cookie balls will expand into a nice circle once in the oven. Place the balls on a cookie sheet 2" apart. This is very important as otherwise the cookies will stick to each other for lack of space while being baked. You should have about 48 balls. Bake 8-10 minutes until light brown. I have added a picture here of cookies ready to go into the oven for Nancy.
Get the little helpers and chocolates ready to go as soon as the cookies are out. Place a kiss each on the top of the hot cookies. The cookies might break a little but don't worry. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes or so. The chocolate and the hot melted butter inside would have set together by now. Don't press down on the chocolate after the first placement. Store in a cool place and enjoy.
These cookies are very photogenic. Didn't get time to do justice to them in the aftermath. A good single cookie pic will look fantastic.
Added Later:
My daughter took this single cookie picture.
pic added 11/08/2009
I just found that this is a kid approved version of recycling all that Halloween that seems to stay on and on even after downloading stashes of it at work. We usually only trick or treat at the neighboring blocks and the candy is mostly good and I hate to trash them. So I take it to distribute it at work but the kids still get to keep a reasonable amount. I decided to to use them in cookies after countless candy wrapper picking up sessions around the living room:-) Just cut the longer bars and as you can see M&M's are fine as they are.
10 comments:
hmm.. i have seen these in mags.. was waiting for the peanut butter scare to fade before getting PB again.:)
U knw I've been meaning to bake choclate chip cookies for sometime now...I've even bot the choclate chips & kept them safely:-)
Recipe sound easy. U thk I cd substitute the kisses with the choclate chips????
And this rolling in the sugar...means roll like a fat small chapathi with a rolling pin after dipping the ball of dough in sugar, right????
Just trying to get the facts straight;-P
shaheen, the kids's favorite brand here for PB 'skippy' is not in that recall. so go for it, if u r in the mood. i am not a cookie fan in general but kids rule:-))
nancy, that is an important question. i also tend to think they need to be flattened. i have added a line to the post for this. roll the balls in sugar but do not flatten them out as they will do that on their own under heat and expand into a nice little circle. i also was thinking of choc chips as a sub. it should work. keep in mind that since the chips are small care must be taken not to get burnt when you insert them onto the hot cookie. the kiddos will love it.
:-o....
Dunno how I missed that line completely. Seriously it flattens on its own:-o???????
Ok will do tht.
Btw the picture is looking good:-)... I thk I'll just buy those kisses for the authenticity:-D
nancy, i meant i added that line after your very relevant question...it doesn't flatten per say but rather expand in every direction which has a similar effect. i made another batch today due to popular demand. incessant nagging is more like it but since it is rather fun and they are also involved i don't mind that much. i took few more pics which i'll upload later. don't forget to tell me how it went with the girls.
Finally made them today:-D!!!
The reason I took so long was tht shortening was not available anywhere:-S...finally I did it with butter.
The first batch burnt badly:-( [emptied it directly into the trash bin]...dunno why exactly...mayb the tray was not good or it was too lowdirectly under the flame.
Then I was more careful, changed the tray, kept chking every 7-8 mins.
the rest were all good. If u gimme ur email id I'll send u the pic:-D
Thanks:-D!!!!!!!!!
nancykins thanks for telling me! i am glad you were able to rescue the rest and make a day out of it. so how long did it take to eventually get the good guys?
Actually I didnt have a cookie tray as such[coz I havent made cookied till today].
I just used the tray which came along with the oven + I kept the balls on a foil like I saw in ur picture.
After the failed attempt...I removed the tray & the foil & just used my normal round cake tin to do it.
Ofcourse it took me twice as long coz the cake trays space is limited & so had to make it all in many batches.
But it was worth it....everybody loved it;-D.
Made them again 2 days....came out good. Just thot I'll let u knw;-D
And its been more than a month since u last posted.
Busyyyy??????
thanks for telling me nance. it is enormously popular here too. been a little busy but the blog is in my plans. just not yet:-) how did the painting go? i don't like to go through home improvements but love the after effects!
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