Grain Free Peanut Butter Blossoms

Grain-free Peanut Butter Blossoms are made with simple gluten-free ingredients, cassava flour, and Hershey’s chocolate kisses! These festive cookies are the perfect addition to any holiday cookie tray!

The next best thing to peanut butter and jelly is peanut butter and chocolate. That said, there’s nothing better than homemade peanut butter blossoms. Imagine a soft peanut butter sugar cookie topped with a milk chocolate kiss. This recipe is a grain-free and gluten-free adaptation of a nostalgic Christmas cookie classic!

👉 Why bake with cassava flour?

Before diving into the recipe, let’s talk cassava flour. It is dried and ground cassava root. Thus, it’s a fantastic replacement for wheat flour in grain-free, paleo and gluten-free baking.

Unlike other grain-free flours, you won’t need to add xanthan gum or guar gum to cassava flour, so it’s a great way to simplify gluten-free and grain-free baking -and a fantastic way to make peanut butter blossoms just as soft and sweet as the original.

🍪 Ingredients You’ll Need

• Creamy Peanut Butter – The best peanut butter to use is stable, creamy and doesn’t need to be stirred. Regular brands like Jiff & Skippy that are as close to natural as possible are good options.
• Unsalted Butter – helps create a soft, rich cookie. Be sure your butter is room temperature!
• Light Brown Sugar – makes a moist, chewy cookie with caramelized flavor. For deeper molasses flavor, use dark brown sugar.
• Vanilla Extract – enhances this sweet, decadent flavors. It’s best to use a quality pure vanilla extract.
• Egg – provides structure, moisture and flavor. It should also be room temperature.
• Cassava Flour – can be used interchangeably with wheat flour in most recipes, making grain-free and gluten-free baking so much easier.
• Baking Soda & Baking Powder – act as leavening agents to strengthen the cookie dough and give it some rise.
• Sea Salt – is a fantastic flavor enhancer. It helps keep the flavor of sweet foods from falling flat.
• Chocolate Kisses – With the variety of flavors available, the options are endless. Not all Hershey’s Kisses are gluten-free, so be sure to check the labeling. Read further for gluten-free flavor options.

📖 How to Make Grain Free Peanut Butter Blossoms

1️⃣ Preheat oven and prepare baking sheet. First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and then line a large baking sheet or two half sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats. Set aside.

2️⃣ Mix dry ingredients. Mix the cassava flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Set the dry mixture aside.

3️⃣ Mix wet ingredients. Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy using a standing mixer or electric mixer. Add the egg and vanilla and mix to combine. Then, add the peanut butter and beat everything together until smooth.

4️⃣ Combine wet and dry mixtures. Next, slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Continue mixing until combined.

5️⃣ Chill. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

6️⃣Shape dough. After chilling the dough, roll it into 1 1/2 inch balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet, leaving 2 inches in between each.

7️⃣ Bake. Transfer the baking sheet to your preheated oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes (they should still be very soft when you take them out).

8️⃣ Add kisses. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, and then gently press your kisses into the center of each cookie.

9️⃣ Cool and serve. Lastly, finish cooling the cookies on a wire rack or move them to a room temperature baking sheet to cool in the fridge. Allow the chocolate to finish firming up before serving. Enjoy!

🧑‍🍳 Chef’s Tips

• Be sure to use room temperature butter and eggs for the best results.
• As tempting as it may be to start baking ASAP, you can not skip chilling the dough. Chilling cookie dough solidifies the fat and locks in the moisture, making a tender, caramelized cookie.
• Bake the cookie dough in round ball shapes. There’s no need to flatten them. They will flatten out as they bake to make room for the kiss.
• Pull your cookies from the oven when they’re slightly underbaked. You should be able to press the kisses into the top of each cookie. They will continue to firm up as the cool.
• To cool them quicker, you can transfer the cookies to the fridge or freezer until the chocolate is firm and attached.

🔀 Variations

Paleo Peanut Butter Blossoms. Peanuts aren’t a nut. They are a legume that rules them out of the paleo diet. However, you can use almond butter or cashew butter instead.

This recipe has not been tested with 100% paleo-compliant ingredients, but here’s what I recommend swapping:

• Cocounut Sugar instead of brown sugar
• Coconut Oil instead of butter
• Dark refined sugar-free chocolate instead of mik chocolate

Sugar-coated Peanut Butter Blossoms. After shaping the dough into balls, gently roll them through granulated sugar to coat the outside. You can also use colored sugar sprinkles here. I like to divide the cookies up between granulated sugar, red sugar sprinkles, and green sugar sprinkles for holiday gifting.

🍬 Gluten-free Hershey’s Kisses Flavors

Feel free to use any chocolate kiss flavor for your peanut butter blossoms. Check out the list below for gluten-free options.

• Milk Chocolate
• Candy Cane
• Milk Chocolate filled with Caramel
• Mint Truffle
• Speacial Dark Mildly Sweet
• Milk Chocolate with Almonds

These cookies are also delicious with peanut butter cups!

♻️ Storing & Freezing

Storing: Store your cookies in a shallow airtight container or plastic bag at room temperature for 4 to 5 days.

Freezing: Let the baked cookies cool completely to room temperature before placing them in a shallow freezer-safe container or plastic bag. Freeze for 1 to 2 months.

Freezing the dough: To freeze the raw dough, wrap it in a few layers of plastic wrap and place it in a resealable bag. Store in the freezer for 2 to 3 months.

❔FAQ

More Cookie Recipes

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Gluten-free Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies
Gluten-free Texas Sheet Cake Cookies
Gluten-free Doubletree Chocolate Chip Cookies