Unheralded

CHEF JEFF: One Byte At A Time — Peanut Butter Blossoms

Christmas Day dinner — with all its fixin’s — might be in rear-view mirror for another year, but that doesn’t mean the sampling of delicious holiday food is over, especially with New Year’s Eve and Day celebrations looming.

And for those of you who did a lot of baking, that’s probably a good thing.

If you are anything like my mom, you probably have a half-dozen to a dozen tins or boxes full of cookies, candies and the like sitting around, tempting you at every turn.

While I can’t match Mom’s holiday baking output, we do have an overabundance of sweets sitting on the kitchen table, a living room end table and in the refrigerator.

Luckily, we’ve been able to share some of the goodies with friends and family. But not all of them. And that presents a bit of a problem.

Hershey Dream Bars, which always has been among my favorites, are one of the culprits, along with caramels and anise candy. But it’s the Peanut Butter Blossoms that have me worried the most. The reason is that I’m a peanut butter fiend.

And add a dark chocolate Hershey Kiss to the mix …

Peanut Butter Blossoms
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
½ cup peanut butter
½ cup white sugar
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 unbeaten egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
36 dark chocolate Hershey Kisses
Sift flour with the rest of dry ingredients. Next, cream butter, peanut butter and sugars; cream well; add egg, vanilla and beat well; add dry ingredients. Shape round balls and roll in sugar. Place balls on greased pan and bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and top cookies with a chocolate candy kiss, pressing down firmly so cookie cracks around the edges. Return to oven and bake for another 2 to 5 minutes.
Yield: About 3 dozen cookies.

 





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