This healthier version of the classic Peanut Butter Blossoms made with whole wheat flour taste just as delicious as the original!
Hi hi hello! These cookies are evvverythinggggg.
Buttery and fluffy and soft and peanuty and filled with dark chocolate in the middle I MEAN what more do you need in life?
Let me be honest with you, though. As a total cookie lover and peanut butter fanatic, peanut butter cookies were never my go-to.
Chocolate cookies, sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, cream cheese cookies…get in my belly. But peanut butter cookies? Meh. Where’s the chocolate, yo?
But Jeff adores peanut butter cookies. I think he likes them more than he likes me.
I took his true love for peanut butter cookies and my deep dark chocolate obsession (and ok fine, way too many HERSHEY’s kisses for my own good) and set out to make those wonderful little peanut butter blossoms I remembered from childhood.
While I didn’t grow up making Christmas cookies per se (I’m Jewish!), I’ve eaten my fair share of them over the years. I used to take cooking classes with the most awesome lady named Betty Buns. I have vivid memories making meatloaf and banana bread and chocolate chip cookies at the ripe age of ten.
The passion started when I was just just a tot! So you can imagine my excitement when I found my beloved Betty Buns cookbook while searching my mom’s cookbook cabinet for recipe inspiration.
I took Betty Buns’ Peanut Butter Blossoms recipe and worked my magic. The holidays are as a good a time as ever to indulge, but I saw no harm in taking out a bit of the sugar, swapping the white flour for white whole wheat, and using less refined sugars like coconut sugar + organic cane sugar. Oh, and a wee flax egg!
The good news is that you don’t need a big fancy mixer to make these. I don’t have a big fancy mixer. Even though Great British Baking show makes me feel like I need one yesterday. If you don’t own one of these super affordable hand mixers, get it on your holiday list stat!
You would nevereverever know these were healthyish at all. And I mean, they’re still cookies with a stick of [vegan] butter and a bunch of sugar because…’tis the season! Have some salad with dinner and call it a day. Balance, my friends.
I found that the key to getting the chocolate kisses to stick was the bake these bad boys for 8 minutes, quickly dot each cookie with a kiss (so cute), then bake for one minute more.
I don’t like my cookies crunchy in the slightest (underdone, please), but if you like a crunchier cookie, by all means bake them a couple minutes longer.
P.S. I definitely accidentally spilled the milk in these photos and decided it looked cool. Does it look cool or no??
Okay too much talking and too little cookie-ing. Hop to it!!
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Description
This healthier version of the classic Peanut Butter Blossoms made with whole wheat flour taste just as delicious as the original!
- Preheat oven to 375F. Line 1 large or 2 regular cookie sheets with parchment paper or a Silipat. Make sure you have about 23 unwrapped kisses ready to go.
- Mix together ground flax and water in a small bowl for “flax egg.” Set aside to gel.
- In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together peanut butter, butter, and both sugars until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the flax egg and vanilla and mix to combine. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and mix until just combined. Roll dough into smooth 1-inch balls (I used a cookie scoop) and place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. No need to flatten.
- Bake (one cookie sheet at a time) for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie. Return to the oven and bake for one more minute. Remove from oven and cool on a cooling rack.
Notes
*If using unsalted peanut butter, add 1/4 tsp salt to the recipe.