I Tried Snickerdoodle Blossom Cookies—I May Never Go Back to Peanut Butter

Snickerdoodles are one of my all-time favorite cookies. The cookies have a soft, chewy center, and the cinnamon-sugar coating bakes up crispy. It basically melts in your mouth. So when I learned that Hershey’s released Hershey’s Kisses Snickerdoodle Cookie Candy, I knew I had to try this flavor immediately.

Do you know what’s even more delightful? Hershey’s also released a recipe for making Snickerdoodle Blossoms using the new Kisses flavor. If you’ve only ever had classic Peanut Butter Blossoms, you need to try the Snickerdoodle version. I tried it and it’s become my new favorite cookie.

How To Make Hershey's Kisses Snickerdoodle Blossoms

To find Hershey’s Snickerdoodle Blossom recipe, you have to go to Hersheyland’s website. That’s arguably the only hard work this recipe requires—maybe unwrapping each of the Kisses, too.

You’ll start by making a pretty standard soft sugar cookie dough. Beat butter and sugar, add an egg and vanilla extract, and then fold in a mixture of flour, baking soda, salt, and a little bit of milk.

The cookie dough gets shaped into one-inch balls that are rolled in a cinnamon-sugar mixture. Hershey’s suggests adding sparkling sugar or gold flakes to the rolling sugar for a little holiday pizzazz. I followed the recommendation with a few cookies, and while they were pretty, the sparkle doesn’t make the cookies any more delicious than they already are.

While the cookies bake, you’ll unwrap Hershey’s Kisses Snickerdoodle Cookie Candies for topping the cookies. The recipe calls for 48 candies, but I got 44 cookies, so I unwrapped accordingly. When the cookies come out of the oven, press the candies into the center of each cookie while they are still warm. Let cool completely before digging in.

These snickerdoodle blossoms are absolutely perfect two-bite cookies, made even better by the crunchy bits inside the white chocolate Kisses. I was worried I’d miss the signature tang of cream of tartar—a common ingredient in snickerdoodle recipes—but the candy adds creaminess and cinnamon flavor to the tender cookies.

If you’re a snickerdoodle lover like me, put the new Kisses on your grocery list so you can make these cookies as soon as possible.

My Tips for Making Snickerdoodle Blossoms

You can make these cookies even easier and faster with these tips:

• Use a hand-mixer: This recipe makes a relatively small volume of cookie dough, so skip the stand mixer. A hand mixer is ideal, but you could easily mix the dough by hand, too.
• Unwrap the Kisses while the cookies bake: Even though the bake time is short—just eight to 10 minutes at 350°F—that’s plenty of time to unwrap the Kisses you’ll need. It’s important to have the candies unwrapped before the cookies come out of the oven. They'll cool and set quickly, and pressing the candies into cooled cookies will make them crack.
• Avoid over-baking the cookies: To get the ideal snickerdoodle texture, keep an eye on the cookies while they bake. The tops of the cookies will be domed and appear dry when they are ready to come out of the oven, but not very browned.