Day 37: Silly Little Peanut Butter Blossoms

Now why on earth would I call such an amazingly good cookie "silly"? Well...I blame my mother of course. This is one of those "back of the box" recipes, the kind my mom would not be caught dead making. My mother is an OG Foodie. She was a foodie before foodies existed, before Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. The only way I think my mom would make these cookies is if she made the Hershey Kisses herself, from scratch.
Growing up we were poor. Whenever I visited a friends house and saw things like white bread, creamy peanut butter, margarine, marshmallow fluff or Hostess Cupcakes, I thought to myself "wow, they must be rich!" We never had those things. It wasn't until my late teens that I realized you did not have to be rich to make Ragu spaghetti sauce. Instead of bean dip, we had homemade hummus and pita (also homemade), instead of ranch salad dressing we had Balsamic Vinaigrette, instead of hot chocolate in a packet, we had homemade hot cocoa with real vanilla and real whipped cream. Sheesh, she probably even ground the chocolate herself!
I was 19 years old before I even saw a Peanut Butter Blossom! It was love at first sight...and bite. And believe it or not, this is the very first time I have ever made them. In honor of my mom though, I made them with chunky peanut butter.

I would love to offer some unique tip or twist to making this cookie, but honestly they are super easy and perfect just the way they are. Oh and use chunky peanut butter. Love you Mom!