Christmas Baking

I think my favorite cookies are peanut butter blossoms. I just finished baking a double batch. Don't they look yummy?

Peanut Butter Blossoms

I got this recipe years ago. I was home on Christmas break from MSU, and Mom & I went to visit a friend of Mom's, from church. She gave us this recipe, but what I really remember is her son. He was a little guy - maybe 4 or 5 years old - and the night before, had watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas on TV (the original animated version, narrated by Boris Karloff).

He informed us, with a mixture of solemnity and enthusiasm, that the Grinch was PITCH GREEN!

And that is what I think of, whenever I bake these cookies: a pitch green Grinch.

Here's the recipe:

1 3/4 cup flour (that's one-and-three quarters cup; the numbers look weird...)
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup margarine (softened)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
Hershey chocolate kisses
Sugar, for rolling the cookies in

Mix flour, soda, & salt; set aside
Cream margarine, sugar, and brown sugar.
Add peanut butter & blend
Add egg & blend
Add milk & vanilla & blend
Add flour mixture, in portions, and blend well

Roll the dough in small balls (approx 1 inch). Roll each ball in sugar, and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes. Remove when cookies are cracked and just barely starting to brown. Top each with a kiss.

Makes 4-5 dozen cookies

Here are a few more photos (because you can't have too many pictures of baked goods!)

Ready for the oven. They tend to slide around on the tray if you're not careful;  think "ice skating."

You want to put the kisses on the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven, so it's important to have them unwrapped and at the ready. A helper comes in handy at this point, as long as you can keep them from eating the kisses...

The front cookie shows the cracking that you look for, and in the back are cookies with their added kisses.

Yummy!