Perfect peanut blossom cookies

’Tis the season for cookies, and every day till Christmas, Star journalists are taking turns baking a recipe from the Star’s extensive archives. Follow our holiday baking adventures here on The Star, or get the recipes first plus some inspiration for your inbox with our free Cookie Calendar newsletter. Sign up here.
Anne Marie Owens is editor-in-chief of the Star, a longtime journalist and mother of four boys who’ve been trained to accept imperfect cookies and enjoy baking in a hurry.
This recipe for peanut blossom cookies was Star-tested in 2009. The story describes them as “Peanut butter cookies poked with perky little chocolate kisses were created for the 1957 Pillsbury Bake-Off.”
I need to confess that I had never baked anything from the storied Star test kitchen before this. My family does, however, have a long tradition of relying on another newspaper for its favourite holiday baking. Each year, we haul out a battered and splotched page from the Hamilton Spectator for Norma Bidwell’s gingerbread people. The page is from 2003, when Bidwell was already 20 years retired and my triplets were 4 and my youngest 2.
For this year’s baking test, I was assisted handily by the now-22-year-old youngest. We were on a deadline, attempting a cookie we’d never tried before. Our gingerbreads are made each year with love. They are chewy and delicious, but they are rarely pretty. Batches big enough to feed a large family and questionable food-coloring decisions for the icing mean the gingerbreads don’t often make it to the Christmas serving tray when we have guests.
These Peanut Blossoms were an absolute dream to make, from start to finish, and they looked and tasted like perfection. Don’t be scared of pressing the chocolate kisses into the cookies when they’re hot, as the recipe directs. They’re delicious when they’re warm — and a day later when they’ve cooled off. They are so perfect that if I were to put them on a tray with my gingerbreads, they’d look like they were store bought.
These Peanut Blossom Cookies have earned a place in our annual holiday baking tradition.
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup each: unsalted butter, peanut butter, both at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
About 48 chocolate kiss candies
In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
In large bowl, fluff butter and peanut butter using electric mixer on medium, about 1 minute. Add 1/2 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Beat until blended. Stir in flour mixture until moistened and clumped.
Pour remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar into bowl.
Scoop dough and, using lightly greased palms, quickly roll into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Roll balls quickly in remaining sugar, then place at least 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake in centre of preheated 375F oven until golden, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate kiss into the centre of each cookie. Let pan sit on rack 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to rack to cool completely.
Repeat with remaining dough, sugar and kisses.
Makes about 48.