Peanut Butter Kiss Bars
The classic peanut butter blossom cookie made into bars.
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 cup flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch salt
- 12 dark chocolate Hershey’s Kisses
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 8x8 baking pan and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer, or in a large bowl with a hand-held mixer, cream together butter and peanut butter until smooth.
- Add in the sugars and mix until well combined..
- Add egg, vanilla and milk and beat until until the mixture is smooth, about a minute.
- While the mixer is running, stream in the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
- Press the dough evenly into the prepared baking pan,
- Bake 22-25 minutes until the top is lightly browned and they look set.
- Place the Hershey Kisses on the bars, spaced evenly.
- Return to the oven for 2 minutes.
- Cool, in pan, on wire rack.
- Cut into squares and store in an air-tight container at room temperature up to 3 days. The bars also freeze well.
I don’t know what it is about Easter that makes me think of retro cookies and desserts. When I was a kid we made the peanut butter blossom cookies a few times but not at Easter that I recall. But I was thinking about them and how to make them a little less hands-on. I googled making them into bars and Betty Crocker (my old employer) had a recipe but it called for peanut butter cookie mix which I did not have. I did, however, have peanut butter, butter, flour and sugar(s) so I was able to make them that morning.
I think the trick is to use the dark chocolate Hershey’s Kisses, they are as easy to find these days as the regular milk chocolate ones but they provide a better contrast with the sweet, peanutty cookie.