I enjoy being one of those people you go to for baking advice. Baking advice is pretty much the only advice I have to offer. Yes, I work in racing, but no, I have no idea why your car is making that noise. Yes, I run, but no, I’ve never used a training program. Yes, I am a woman, but no, I can’t tell you why your girlfriend is crazy. Your cookies didn’t turn out? You must tell me everything you did step-by-step and we will get through this together.
With Adventures of a Hungry Redhead in full swing, I’ve received even more inquiries, which makes me blush. Now it’s the holidays and it seems like every conversation struck is an excuse to quiz me about Christmas cookies, which is fine by me, I was going to change the topic and start talking about food anyway. It’s not you, it’s me. I’m hungry.
So let’s talk Christmas cookies. Every Christmas, these peanut butter cup blossoms are my go-to cookie. In fact, at this very moment, there is a supply of them in the mail en route to one lucky office in the continental U.S.
Why is a peanut butter cup cookie my Christmas staple? They’re cute as a button, they’re easy to make, they have a peanut butter cup in them (Hello! Can’t lose!) and the recipe makes a crap ton of cookies.
Hey! Who put that photo there, I’m not done rattling off the positives of this recipe: they’re sturdy and travel well, you get to eat peanut butter cups while you make them and they will last several days without drying out. I can’t for the life of me remember where I found this recipe, but I’ve been making them for the past six years to rave reviews and thus have no desire to try another.
The trick is to freeze the peanut butter cups before you start making the dough. That way they won’t melt on impact when you press them into the peanut butter cookie. Make sure you unwrap them before you stick them in the freezer, because the wrapper will stick. Sometimes you end up with extra frozen peanut butter cups and sometimes they end up in your mouth.
These don’t have to be Christmas cookies. Decorate them as the season dictates or leave them plain… plain awesome.
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Ingredients
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk
40 miniature peanut butter cups, unwrapped
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two mini muffin pans with cooking spray. Place unwrapped peanut butter cups in the freezer.
Sift together flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
Cream together butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well.
Shape into 40 balls and place in mini muffin pan.
Bake for 8 minutes or until puffed and beginning to brown on the edges. Remove from oven and immediately press a peanut butter cup into each ball.
The best time to add sprinkles is about 10 minutes after the peanut butter cups have been pressed into the cookies and the top of the peanut butter cup is all melty — this way the sprinkles stick.
Allow cookies to cool thoroughly, then remove by twisting each cookie out of its well.
Adventures of a Hungry Redhead 
These need to happen to my mouth.