Recipe: Peanut Butter and Jelly Drops

Peanut Butter and Jelly Drops

Yield: About 2-1/2 to 3 dozen

Nancy Olin's original recipe called for placing chocolate kisses in the center of these cookies, but filling the center with jelly instead seemed too good an idea to give up. These are not traditional peanut butter cookies; without the jelly they look like a classic sugar cookie and have a mild peanut butter flavor. With the jelly, they look like a classic jelly tot.

1/3 cup (5-1/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter
or stick margarine, at room temperature
1 cup sugar plus additional for rolling
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup whole milk
5 heaping tablespoons peanut butter
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup grape, raspberry, or
strawberry jam or 36 chocolate kisses (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet and, if desired, line with parchment paper.

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle and mix until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl before each addition. Add the milk and peanut butter, beating well before each addition, and mix until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until everything is well incorporated. Cover with waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate until the dough firms up a bit, about 1/2 hour.

To form the cookies, break off small pieces and roll into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in the additional sugar and place on the prepared cookie sheet. If filling with jelly or chocolate kisses, use your thumb to gently push in the center of the ball, forming a small circle in the middle of the cookie.

Transfer to the oven and bake until just golden, about 15 minutes. If using kisses, immediately place a kiss in the center of the cookie, cool for 2 minutes, and then remove to a rack. If filling with jam, push the center down again, cool for 2 minutes, and then remove to a rack. When completely cooled, fill the center with jelly. Cool the cookie sheet between batches.

Buy the Book!

The Bake Sale Cookbook:
Quintessential American Desserts
By Sally Sampson
Fireside Books/A Simon & Schuster, May 2000
Paperback, $15.00
ISBN: 0-684-86229-8
Recipe reprinted by permission.