Healthier Peanut Kisses Cookies
These peanut kisses are just like the regular peanut butter blossom cookies we all love, but a little bit healthier! Still, the perfect holiday treats to serve guests, bring to gatherings, or share during a cookie exchange.
Related: 30 tips for cookies from scratch
Related: Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies
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If you’re looking for more Christmas treats, I have tons of sweet treat recipes that I’ve shared – some with a healthier spin, and some that are meant to be a true treat.
Holidays, parties, whatever the occasion, my chocolate-covered graham crackers, and pecan meltaways are a total hit! But, my famous maple chocolate chip cookies are an all-time favorite.
- What are peanut kisses?
- how to make peanut kisses
- how to store peanut butter blossoms
- peanut kisses Tips
- Serving Suggestions
- peanut butter kisses substitutions
- how to make peanut butter cookies healthier
- shop this post
- more sweet treats
- Peanut kisses faq
- Pin it for later – Peanut kisses cookies
- print the recipe – peanut kisses
- Healthier Peanut Kisses
- how to store peanut butter blossoms
- peanut kisses Tips
- About Me
What are peanut kisses?
There are two things people think of when you say peanut kisses, first, the recipe I’m sharing today is peanut blossom cookies. These are the peanut butter cookies with Hershey’s Kisses in the center.
The second thing people think of is the bagged cookies made from peanuts and egg whites native to Bohol. Although I’d be interested in trying these, I’m going to save that for another day. 🙂
how to make peanut kisses
Soft, chewy, packed with peanut butter goodness and delicious dunked in milk! These are a healthy(ish) version of your favorite Hershey’s Kiss cookies that start making their appearance during the holidays.
Ingredients
- Natural peanut butter – natural, meaning no added sugar, salt or oils – just peanuts, baby! This is going to make your cookies more crumbly (and crack more) than the traditional peanut kisses – they still taste great and you don’t have all that added sugar.
- Unsalted butter – make sure this is softened so you can cream together the coconut sugar and butter. I prefer a high-quality, grass-fed butter.
- Coconut sugar – Your secret to deliciously sweet peanut butter kisses without all the cane sugar! Coconut sugar is a natural sweetener, and although it’s better than refined sugars, it’s still sugar and should be used in moderation!
- Vanilla extract – you can make this homemade or buy a good quality one from the store.
- Organic, all-purpose flour – be sure to use organic whenever you’re buying flour so you don’t get flour that’s been sprayed by glyphosate.
- Baking soda – the leavening agent.
- Sea salt – if you’re using salted butter, leave this out.
- Egg – binds the ingredients together.
- Milk – this helps the cookies to be less crumbly.
- Special dark chocolate kisses – Ok, so dark chocolate kisses aren’t much better than milk chocolate kisses, but dark chocolate does have more benefits!
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Using a stand mixer, or using a whisk and a large bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar together. Then add in the egg, milk, and vanilla extract and whisk until combined.
- Mix the flour, baking soda, and sea salt and set aside.
- Combine the dry and wet ingredients (in whichever bowl is larger) until just combined. *note: your dough will be slightly crumbly, but wet enough to make dough balls.
- Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in a small bowl of coconut sugar then place on your baking sheet 2-inches apart.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes or until light brown.
- Remove and immedieately stick your kisses in the center of the cookies. *note: your cookies will create large crevices when you do this, thats ok! once they cool the cookies will stay together.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes until they are hard enough to transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
how to store peanut butter blossoms
Store peanut butter blossom cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. The taste and texture significantly decline after day 1, so it’s best to devour right away!
A tip for helping your peanut butter cookies stay moist while storing is to keep a quarter piece of white bread in the airtight storage container. The cookies will absorb the moisture from the bread and stay soft and chewy!
peanut kisses Tips
- Kiss immediately – Stick that kiss on the cookie immediately out of the oven. If you wait the cookie will start to cool and solidify, preventing you from being able to stick the kiss on.
- Cookie scoop – using a cookie scoop helps to get the perfect portion for your balls of dough.
- Quality ingredients – especially with baking, it’s important to use high-quality ingredients. When you can’t hide behind spices and herbs, you want to be sure you have the best flavor profile to fall back on. Also, healthy ingredients are best even when treating yourself!
Serving Suggestions
- Holiday cookie exchange
- Bring to a friend during the holidays
- Holiday gathering or party treat
- Just for fun on a cozy winter day
peanut butter kisses substitutions
Peanut butter – if you don’t mind the added sugar and other ingredients, you could use regular peanut butter and your cookies will come out better (not as crumbly and cracked).
Kisses – You could use milk chocolate Hershey’s kisses or you could even make your own! Just melt your favorite chocolate chips with some coconut oil and either use a kiss mold like this one or pipe the chocolate into the center of your peanut kisses.
how to make peanut butter cookies healthier
When it comes to making peanut butter cookies healthier, the name of the game is quality ingredients. Be sure to limit any added sugars in your peanut butter, use good quality, grass-fed butter, and organic flour. Please note, you will sacrifice texture if you’re using natural peanut butter.
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- Berkey water filter (we use the Royal because we drink an insane amount of water!)
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- Dutch oven
- Stand mixer
- Boos Block Butcher Block
- 12 inch Cast Iron Skillet
more sweet treats
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Peanut kisses faq
your peanut butter blossoms may be too crumbly because you either have too much flour, not enough liquid, or have baked the dough too long. Even 1 tbs too much flour or 1 minute longer in the oven can make or break your peanut butter blossoms. Using natural peanut butter makes them more crumbly too.
Peanut butter cookie dough can be chilled for about 1-3 hours prior to baking to limit the spread in the oven.
You can fix crumbly peanut butter cookie dough by adding more liquid elements. You could also try adding an extra egg to bind the ingredients.
Pin it for later – Peanut kisses cookies
Related: chocolate covered graham crackers
Related: Fudgy Crinkle Top Brownies
print the recipe – peanut kisses
Healthier Peanut Kisses
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup natural peanut butter stirred, but drippy
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp milk or milk alternative
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cup organic, all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar (for rolling the dough)
- 20 dark chocolate Hershey's Kisses
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Using a stand mixer, or using a whisk and a large bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar together. Then add in the egg, milk, and vanilla extract and whisk until combined.
- Mix the flour, baking soda, and sea salt and set aside.
- Combine the dry and wet ingredients (in whichever bowl is larger) until just combined. *note: your dough will be slightly crumbly, but wet enough to make dough balls.
- Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in a small bowl of coconut sugar then place on your baking sheet 2-inches apart.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes or until light brown.
- Remove and immediately stick your kisses in the center of the cookies. *note: your cookies will create large crevices when you do this, that's ok! once they cool the cookies will stay together.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes until they are hard enough to transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Video
Notes
how to store peanut butter blossoms
Store peanut butter blossom cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. The taste and texture significantly decline after day 1, so it’s best to devour right away! A tip for helping your peanut butter cookies stay moist while storing is to keep a quarter piece of white bread in the airtight storage container. The cookies will absorb the moisture from the bread and stay soft and chewy!peanut kisses Tips
- Kiss immediately – Stick that kiss on the cookie immediately out of the oven. If you wait the cookie will start to cool and solidify, preventing you from being able to stick the kiss on.
- Cookie scoop – using a cookie scoop helps to get the perfect portion for your balls of dough.
- Quality ingredients – especially with baking, it’s important to use high-quality ingredients. When you can’t hide behind spices and herbs, you want to be sure you have the best flavor profile to fall back on. Also, healthy ingredients are best even when treating yourself!
About Me
Thanks for stopping by! Please let me know how you like this recipe.