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A rolled peanut butter cookie with a chocolate kiss pressed into it the moment it leaves the oven. It won a Pillsbury Bake-Off prize in 1957 under the name Black-Eyed Susans, and the confectionery company whose product it advertises has kept it in print ever since — one of the few American cookies whose recipe is effectively an advertisement that outlived the campaign.
The whole cookie turns on a two-second decision: when the chocolate goes on. Too early and it slumps into a smear; too late and it will not stick.
What makes it work
- Press the chocolate within 60 seconds of the tray coming out. The cookie is still above the setting point of the sugar and the chocolate melts just enough on its underside to weld itself on. It will look wet and glossy for half an hour. That is correct — it is tempering back down, not melting away.
- Do not chill the finished cookies to hurry the chocolate. Cocoa butter set fast goes chalky and grey. Leave them on the counter; see Chocolates.
- The sugar roll is structural. Granulated sugar on the outside dries the surface and gives the crackle ring that forms as the centre is pushed down.
- Peanut butter is fat and flour at once. It brings both, so the flour is low against the fat and the dough is stiff. Natural, separated peanut butter makes a greasy, crumbling cookie — the emulsified supermarket kind is the right choice here. See Peanut Butter.
Ingredients
Makes about 48.
- 225 g smooth peanut butter
- 115 g unsalted butter, softened
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 100 g light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla — see Pure vanilla extract
- 220 g all-purpose flour — see flour
- 5 g baking soda
- 3 g fine salt
- 100 g granulated sugar, for rolling
- 48 chocolate kisses, unwrapped
Method
Cream the peanut butter, butter and both sugars for two minutes, then beat in the egg, milk and vanilla. Fold in the flour, soda and salt. The dough should be stiff enough to roll without sticking; if it is not, give it 20 minutes in the fridge rather than adding flour.
Unwrap every chocolate before you start baking. This is not fussiness — you have one minute per tray, and fumbling with foil is how the batch is lost.
Roll 20 g balls, roll each in granulated sugar, and space them 5 cm apart. Bake 190 °C / 375 °F for 8–10 minutes, until puffed and just set at the edge.
Take the tray out and press one chocolate straight down into each cookie until the sides crack. Slide the parchment onto a rack and leave undisturbed until the chocolate has gone matte, about an hour.
Notes
- They freeze best unpressed. Freeze the sugared balls raw; bake from frozen at the same temperature for 11–12 minutes and press as normal.
- Dark chocolate discs or 10 g squares of a bar work and taste better than the branded kiss; anything conical simply looks more like the original.
- A gluten-free version is nearer than it looks: the three-ingredient flourless peanut butter cookie on cookies takes the chocolate the same way.
Elsewhere on the site
Method and theory: Cookie recipes · cookies · baking fats · sugar in baking
Nearby: thumbprint cookies · chocolate crinkle cookies · chocolate chip cookies