Reindeer Peanut Butter Cookies

December 21, 2021 Amanda JaneLeave a comment

Light and airy peanut butter cookies shaped just like Santa’s reindeer!

It wouldn’t be Christmas without a peanut butter cookie! Growing up, we always made peanut butter cookies because it is my brother’s favorite. This year, I decided to spice up our peanut butter cookies and make them look like Rudolph! These cookies are so fun and festive AND they are full of delicious peanut buttery flavor.

You may recognize this recipe from my Perfect Peanut Butter Blossoms recipe. My peanut butter blossom recipe can be made throughout the year, but during the holidays, you can make them more festive by shaping them into reindeer! Every week leading up to Christmas, I will be sharing some of my favorite cookie recipes! Last time, I shared my Chocolate Lover’s Chocolate Crinkle Cookie and Pastel Christmas Sugar Cookie Pinwheels! Don’t forget to also check out my Christmas cookie recipes from last year under the Christmas Cookie tab on my blog!

For this recipe, you make the dough just as you would the Perfect Peanut Butter Blossoms recipe. Instead of just rolling balls of dough, you are going to shape balls of dough into an upside-down triangle like this:

Make sure the dough is not too thin, it should be around 3/4-inch thick. Then, coat the dough in granulated sugar and place it on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. While the cookies are baking, gather the reindeer’s ears, eyes, and nose. For the ears, it is easiest to buy the Snyder’s of Hanover itty bitty mini pretzels. This will avoid the hassle of trying to break larger pretzels in half for the ears. For the eyes, I like to use mini chocolate chips, and for the nose, I went to my local Party City to get red M&Ms. Set out all of these ingredients so you are ready to turn these triangles into reindeer when the dough comes out of the oven.

Once the dough comes out, immediately place two pretzels on the top for ears, two mini chocolate chips for eyes, and one red M&M for the nose. Next thing you know, you’re going to have a tray full of little reindeer! Have fun decorating (and eating) these deliciously cute cookies!

I would love to see your little reindeer too! Tag me in your pictures @beyondbakingwithamandajane on Instagram and use the #beyondbakingwithamandajane! I hope you enjoy these cookies!

Reindeer Peanut Butter Cookies

Servings: 25 Cookies
Rating: ★★★★★
Print

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (do not use chunky)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tablespoons milk
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/3 cup granulated sugar for rolling (optional)
about 70 Snyder’s of Hanover Itty Bitty Mini pretzels
2 Tablespoons mini chocolate chips
25-30 red M&M’s

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line cookies sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the softened butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
Add the egg, milk, and vanilla. Mix until combined.
Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just combined.
Scoop 1 1/2 inch dough balls and shape them into upside-down triangles, making sure the cookie is about 3/4-inch thick. Roll the dough in granulated sugar. Place on a prepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. While the cookies are baking, prepare the ears, eyes, and nose.
Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately, gently push the reindeer facial features into the dough. Let sit for 5 minutes for the cookie to cool.

Taste tested by friends and family with love.

Perfect Peanut Butter Blossoms

December 10, 2020December 10, 2020 Amanda Jane5 Comments

Soft and airy peanut butter cookie with a warm, gooey Hershey’s Kiss on top.

15 more days until Christmas! This week I am sharing a more recent recipe that I have added to my cookie recipe binder. These are my Perfect Peanut Butter Blossoms from Hershey Chocolate! Every week until Christmas, I will be posting a Christmas Cookie recipe, so follow along on my blog and on my social media so you don’t miss a recipe! Last week I shared a family classic, Greek Sesame Twist Cookies, if you missed it, don’t forget to check it out!

These Perfect Peanut Butter Blossoms take me straight back to junior year, high school varsity gymnastics. The captain’s mom would make these cookies for all of our psych parties, hang outs, and county and sectional meets. It was a staple for our team. These cookies might as well have been our team mascot. When the captain graduated, the recipe got passed down to me to make for all of the team events, and when I graduated, I passed down the recipe to the future captains.

Once I got the recipe, I not only made them almost every week for my team, but I also started to make them as part of my Christmas cookie spread. This was the first time my family had tried these cookies and they were gone before dinner was even served! They are the perfect cookie because it satisfies the candy lovers and the cookie lovers with the Hershey’s kiss on top of the cookie.

These cookies are very airy. Even when you make the dough, you will realize that the dough seems almost whipped which is surprising because peanut butter is pretty dense. This is my favorite quality of the cookie, the lightness prevents the peanut butter from overpowering the chocolate kiss on top. I also like to roll the dough balls in granulated sugar before they get baked so there is a little bit of extra sweetness and texture. As with most baked goods, the best time to eat these are when they are still warm from the oven because the chocolate kiss will still be gooey, but they are also delicious when they are all completely cooled.

When making the cookies, it is just like your typical cookie dough. Cream the butter, peanut butter, and sugars together until it is fluffy and pale in color. Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla. Then, add the dry ingredients. I used a one inch cookie scoop to make evenly sized cookies. I then rolled the dough in granulated sugar until it was generously covered.

Then, bake the cookies for 8 minutes for softer cookies or 10 minutes for crunchier cookies. While the cookies are baking unwrap the same number of Hershey’s Kisses as number of cookies you have. You should have about 40.

Once the cookies come out of the oven quickly and gently push one kiss into the center of the cookie. The edges will crinkle a little bit, but be sure to not push the kiss down all the way or the cookie may break. You can also spice up your cookie with different variations of Hershey’s kisses! Wait 5 minutes for the chocolate kiss to get gooey and warm, and enjoy!

Perfect Peanut Butter Blossoms

Servings: 40 Cookies
Rating: ★★★★★
Print

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (do not use chunky)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tablespoons milk
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/3 cup granulated sugar for rolling (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line 3 cookies sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the softened butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
Add the egg, milk, and vanilla. Mix until combined.
Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just combined.
Scoop 1 1/2 inch dough balls and roll them in granulated sugar. Place on a prepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. While the cookies are baking, unwrap the same number of kisses as cookie dough balls you have.
Remove the cookies from the oven and gently push one Hershey’s Kiss into the center of the cookie. Let sit for 5 minutes for the chocolate to warm.

Taste tested by friends and family with love.

Peanut Butter Lover’s Chocolate Cupcake

July 16, 2020July 16, 2020 Amanda Jane2 Comments

Soft and rich chocolate cake with a light, whipped peanut butter buttercream.

Welcome to my first recipe, I am so excited you are here! Cupcakes are one of my favorite desserts to make because there is so much room for creativity when decorating. The majority of the time, in my opinion, the way cupcakes are decorated either make or break the whole thing. Today, I decided to decorate half of my cupcakes with just mini chocolate chips and the other half with chocolate ganache and mini chocolate chips.

This chocolate cake recipe is my favorite. It is rich with chocolatey flavor, yet very light and moist at the same time. A key ingredient to make the cake rich in chocolate is adding strong, hot coffee. As someone who doesn’t like coffee, I have found that adding just a half cup of hot coffee and hot milk strengthens the chocolate flavor without making the overall cake have a coffee flavor. Using plant milk doesn’t have much of an effect on the cake, so if you are like me and my family and don’t have regular dairy milk, use what you have- almond milk, oat milk, or soy milk, all work just fine!

I was having trouble with my foil liners sticking to the bottom of my cupcake tin because of two reasons:

In the hot oven, the coloring on the outside of the liner had a tendency to stick
Small drips of batter got between the liner and the cupcake tin

To fix the first problem, put a small square of parchment paper at the bottom of each cupcake tin. This made it so much easier to remove from the tray. As for the second reason, since the batter is really thin, it is easy for the batter to drip, so I like to let the batter sit on the counter for about 5 minutes so it thickens up slightly, then I fill the cupcake liners. This will make it easier for you to scoop batter into each cupcake liner.

Don’t worry about the parchment squares being even, nobody but you is seeing it!

The frosting has a strong peanut butter flavor to pair with the chocolatey flavor of the cupcakes. It is important that the butter and the creamy peanut butter are whipped together before the confectioners sugar is added and after it is added. This will ensure that the frosting is lighter and more airy. Before the buttercream sets, feel free to decorate your cupcakes however you like! I used a 2D Wilton tip and mini chocolate chips! Comment below how you decided to decorate your cupcakes!

I’d love to see your cupcake creations! Tag me on Instagram with your pictures!

Peanut Butter Lover’s Chocolate Cupcake

Yield: 24 cupcakes

For the cake:

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk*
1/2 cup flavorless oil (I used vegetable oil)
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup very hot coffee
1/2 cup very hot milk*

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and line 24 large cupcake tins with a paper liner.
In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until well combined.
In a small bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, 1 cup milk, oil, and vanilla.
Make a small well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Gently mix until just combined. Don’t over mix.
Mix together the hot coffee and hot milk. Slowly pour the hot liquid into the batter and stir until it is well combined. The batter will be very thin.
Let the batter sit for 5-10 minutes, then fill the cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full. Clean any excess batter around the pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs. Let cool to room temperature, then put the cupcakes in the refrigerator while making the frosting.

For the frosting:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 1/2- 3 cups of powered sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2-3 Tablespoons milk*

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and peanut butter, then whip on medium-high speed for 1 minute.
Slowly add the powdered sugar and 2 Tablespoon of milk. Mix until combined.
Add another Tablespoon of milk (if needed) with the vanilla and salt, until the desired consistency. Whip for 2-3 minutes.
Put the frosting in a large piping bag fitted with your desired tip, and decorate!