What do you do when you can’t sleep? Think of peanut butter cookies then get up and start baking?
There are two schools of thought.
The first: toss and turn it out. Stay in bed, take several deep breaths, and try to take your mind from the things that make it a hamster wheel. Don’t. I repeat, do not pick up your phone to check the time or compare yourself to impossible people on Instagram. Just… you know… gently fall back into a peaceful sleep.
My brain has never let me do this, even once.
The second school of thought is one I subscribe to. Get up. Get out of bed. Walk a few blurry-eyed laps around the house while the coffee brews. Write but schedule a few work emails as to not seem fully unhinged. Most importantly, and after your first cup of middle-of-the-night coffee, turn on The Christmas Chronicles to watch it for the third time and make a few batches of cookie dough to freeze for future cookie tins.
Which brings us to here and now, 5am Friday December 4th in New Orleans. I can say with confidence that I have a double batch of this peanut butter cookie dough in the freezer for cookie tin deliveries next week. It’s casual and I don’t mean to yell but THESE ARE THE BEST COOKIES OF THE SEASON. My mom makes these cookies with Hershey’s kisses every year. She calls them Love Cookies. I’ve taken liberties and added Reeses peanut butter cups, making the cookies quite amiable to cookie swap boxes and holiday care packages.
The offering today is simple peanut butter and chocolate pairing. I hope this finds you well rested.
Here’s what you need to make these Christmas Peanut Butter Cookies:
• all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and just a bit of kosher salt.
• softened butter and peanut butter. For these cookies I tend to use peanut butter with additional oil like Skippy or Jiff. It’s like adding shortening to the cookies which help create a more tender cookie.
• two sugars, brown and white.
• an egg.
• chocolate candies. Peanut butter cups preferred though anything chocolate is encouraged.
In a medium bowl we’ll whip together softened butter with peanut butter and the two sugars.
Blend until well combined and nearly fluffy.
Beat in the egg.
Add the dry ingredients and stir together into a soft but thick dough.
I like to refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes or so while the oven preheats though this dough can go straight into the oven.
The option is to roll each dough ball in a bowl of granulated sugar before baking.
Bake the cookies until just a hint of golden brown kisses the edges. Remove from the oven and, while the cookies are still hot, press a peanut butter cup into the center of each cookie.
The chocolate candy will soften and melt within the warm cookie at which point you’ll want to shove at least three into your mouth. That’s your right as baker and I encourage it. I recommend letting these cookies rest at room temperature until the cookies have cooled and the chocolate has set.
If you’re not going to enjoy these cookies right away, I like to wrap them individually and store them on the counter or in the freezer.
Photos with my pal Jon Melendez.
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Peanut Butter Love Cookies
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: about 24 cookies 1x
Description
A classic Wilson family holiday cookie traditionally made with Hershey’s kisses but made with peanut butter cups for ease in cookie tins for shipment and cookie swaps.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar, plus more for rolling the dough (optional)
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (119 grams) creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (192 grams) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- About 24 mini Reeses peanut butter cups, unwrapped
Instructions
- In large bowl, beat 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, peanut butter, and butter with an electric hand beater until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well blended, about 1 minute.
- Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until a thick cookie dough forms. Transfer the dough to plastic wrap or waxed paper and chill for 30 minutes before baking.
- Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Shape dough into 1 1/2-inch balls and roll in a small bowl of sugar if you’d like. Place about 2-inches apart on the baking sheet. Press gently with the heel of your hand to flatten just a bit to a thick disc.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Immediately press one reeses candy in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack allowing to cool to room temperature before packaging to allow to chocolate to set.
- Cookies will last, wrapped individually and left at room temperature, for up to 5 days.
Notes
This dough can be made ahead and frozen for up to two weeks. I like to portion the prepared dough into balls for baking (not yet rolled in sugar), and freeze until solid on a baking sheet. Once frozen, store in a zip lock bag. I like to thaw the dough balls in the refrigerator overnight before baking though you can bake them from frozen for an additional 3 or so minutes (just keep a keen eye).
33 Responses
I baked them for 8 minutes in my convection oven. I added Christmas “Holiday Round” candies on top for a X-Mas style! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing recipe, I will use this to make. Looking Yummy!
Awesome recipe. I’ve used it with different candies (kit kat, hersheys) and yummmm!
These cookies were a hit! I threw away my old peanut butter cookie recipe.
Mine tasted great, but flattened completely so there was no place to put the Reese’s cup. I had refrigerated the dough in balls overnight and brought them out of the fridge 15 minutes before baking. I pressed down slightly on the tops before baking and baked them exactly 10 minutes. It’s cold here in Canada, so I’m not sure where I went wrong. I will try again with my butter cookie dough which works for thumbprints or the dough for chocolate kiss cookies. Thanks for the concept!
I’m not OP but I’ve made these before. I wonder if your “mistake” was letting them sit out for 15 minutes before baking? I generally bake right out of the fridge and have never had an issue. Maybe try that? Could also be a butter issue if you maybe melted your butter too much vs letting it soften at room temp? I know I’ve done that when I’ve forgotten to set my butter out ahead of time. I hope you try again! These are so yummy! ??
Wow, these cookies looks delicious. I look forward to making these soon.
The cookies cracked and spread to much so when I put the mini reese’s, they stood out instead of being envoloped by the cookie. Any idea on how to avoid this in the future?
Awesome recipe!!! Delicious
Refrigerator 30 min before is the answer
Thank you for sharing
I made these cookies last weekend and they are delicious! I got the thumbs up from all of my family and was told to add this one to our list of favorites. The peanut butter cookie dough is very light in texture, and even the kid who does not like peanut butter cookies tried one and loved it. Here’s a warning though. You can’t eat just one, you end up eating them in threes!
Your recipe rocks! I am frustrated, however, by the ads that cover up or interfere with the recipe. I get it… that’s how ya get paid, but placement is everything.
OMG!!! Just made these cookies – amazing!!! Used the mini Reese’s with mini Reese’s Pieces in them – incredible!!
They are truly 5 star – not sure why only 4 showed up in my original comment?!
Coming back in to add the rating that I forgot last night. These are wonderful cookies!! I’m going ot have to give some away so I don’t eat all of them myself!!
Joy! Happy holidays! We make these every year. So special. Question— where’s your favorite place to get cookie tins? Hope all is well down in New Orleans.
Off to the store. Mini Reese’s peanut butter cups her I come.
At the bottom of your recipe you wrote “ did you make this recipe? Share a photo and tag us”. How do I do this? In the comment section on this site or on Pinterest or Instagram?
Is it true in the early morning hours calories don’t count? I hope so, these are delicious.
This is exactly what I do with a family recipe of ours too! And yes, they are the best.
Can I use natural organic peanut butter for these or is it just not the same?
If you’re making these in the baby hours of the morning, don’t forget to taste the butter, peanut butter, and sugars mixture. You won’t be disappointed. I have read this somewhere.
Baby hours or not, always taste. To pre-check flavors before baking. And for delight! Right, JTB? BTW, This combo is genius, as are you. Beats out the kisses version by miles. Thanks, JTB!
Can I use chocolate kisses with these cookies?
Yes of course!
I want to know more about your cookie tin plans! Will you include a note with what’s inside? How many different types of cookies will you include? Like everyone else, I’m pivoting this holiday season and cookie tin deliveries are on my list!!
Oh I know what I’m making this weekend!!
May I ask where your pb cups are from?
After your Dad’s sweet potato pie and your praline pumpkin pie graced our Thanksgiving table, I’d say were on a roll!
Looking forward to these.
Thanks Joy!!
They look like the dark chocolate PB Cups from Trader Joe’s, which are AMAZING :)
Meera, what a marvelous idea!! And I have some of those already…. My husband is saying those might be too big for a cookie, but I beg to differ!!
Joy, you are making the choice of which cookies to make very challenging! I THOUGHT the next cookie I was going to make was your chocolate peppermint black and white cookies, but these pb cookies might come first!
Ha, I bought a containr of the TJ’s dark ones TODAY after seeing thsi recipe and was going to leave a comment to ask how they compare to the Reese’s mentioned, size-wise. Any idea?
Kristin, placing the dark TJs pb cup next to the mini Reeses pb cup – the TJs cup is a little bit taller and has a little more of a diameter. I’m going to make these this afternoon, and I’ll use both to compare.
Kristin, I made these today. I put Hershey kisses on 2, TJs dark choc pb cups on 2, and Reeses pb cups on the rest. The Reeses pb cup cookies look better than the TJs dark choc pb cup cookies, as the Reeses pb cupa melt better than the TJs dark choc pb cups. They both taste great, but the TJs dark choc pb cup cookies are a little less sweet. You can’t go wrong!!
Connie, you are an angel! And I love that you tried all three – fantastic! And I’m sure it was just “in the name of research”, right? ;-)
Kristin, of course it was all in the name of research! ;) I’m glad to help!