Peanut Butter Chocolate Star Cookies

Homemade peanut butter cookies topped with chocolate stars that melt-in-your-mouth. This recipe is a twist on the classic peanut butter blossoms, yet made with a soft, chewy peanut butter cookie and a chocolate star in place of a kiss for a festive, fun look!

Cookie season is upon us, my friend, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Approximately how long do you wait from Thanksgiving until you’re creaming together butter and sugar and preheating the oven and dancing around the kitchen to Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas is You”?

Ah yes, first the the morning after all the pie eating. Good, we can remain friends for eternity, because there’s no better way to do it.

Now, also equally (if not more important) what do you make first?

For me, it’s anything with warm, melty chocolate. I devour a dozen straight out of the oven immediately. There’s no question that chocolate chip cookies and Molly Beth Bars are made year-round, but when it comes to the holiday season and I’m ready to bake Christmas cookies, I start with these Peanut Butter Star Cookies.

Are these cookies Peanut Butter Blossoms?

Short answer: no, they’re not.

Long(er) answer: they’re similar. But they are not the same, and if you’re a tried and true peanut butter blossom lover and you don’t think you even need a similar recipe, I urge you to recosnider.

They’re made with very similar ingredients: peanut butter, flour, eggs, you know, the usual suspects.

And they are mixed up similar to other cookies: cream the sugar and butter together, add in the egg, stir in the flour… then don’t eat the batter because it’s got raw flour and egg (who really follows this rule, I’d love to know).

Then, they’re topped with a chocolate star before baking. Give ’em a try and you’ll be forever in love with this twist.

Here’s how they differ:

First, this version is made with my (ok, by my I give full credit to my mom) classic peanut butter cookie recipe. That means the cookie is S.O.F.T. Soft and chewy and super peanut-buttery and they irresistibly melt-in-your-mouth.

Instead of baking the cookies and placing the chocolate kiss in at the end like the typical peanut butter blossoms, these beauties bake with the chocolate stars already on them, which results in a soft, warm peanut butter cookie with beautiful melted chocolate in the center.

We’ve discussed the warm melted chocolate in cookies already and it’s HEAVEN. Needsless to say, I high recommend eating them warm for this reason.

They also differ in that this version is not rolled in sugar before baking, which keeps their classic peanut butter cookie texture too.

More about these Chocolate Stars

And the chocolate stars.

Are you familiar with Brach’s Chocolate Stars? They’re fun star “dollops” of chocolate that are a little flatter than kisses, which IMO makes them perfect for these cookies because the warm melty chocolate covers more ground AND the center melts more evenly.

It’s easiest to find chocolate stars in the bulk candy section of a general grocery store. I’ve found it’s more recently harder to find the specific bags of Brach’s, but have seen them in higher-end grocery stores (if you’re in MN – Lunds & Byerly’s has the actual Brach’s bags). Whole Foods does not have them in their little bulk candy section or in bags. Before you count your store out, don’t forget to check the bulk candy area!

Can I make this recipe Small Batch?

Why ever would you want a smaller batch of these cookies? I’ll never know.

KIDDING. I get it, there are so many cookies going around this time of year. Neighbors are gifting cookies, holiday parties are overloaded with them, and you gotta have some trays in your own house! And the easiest way to prevent cookie induced stomach aches is to have fewer around.

For this recipe, I essentially halved my family’s long-time peanut butter cookie recipe for you. Depending on the size of the cookies you roll, you’ll still get about 32-36 cookies with 1-inch dough balls.

Because this recipe is technically already halved and needs just 1 egg, I’d recommend not halving it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like messing with halved-egg recipes.

You can make bigger dough balls, which will result in fewer cookies, but that’s just what we call “Becca math”. The best kind of math, in my book!

While it may seem like there are a lot of cookies, they’re small when rolled as instructed and I mean, you’re gonna want them. So go ahead, don’t worry about small-batch here.

More Peanut Butter Dessert Recipes to Love

• Molly Beth Bars
• Triple Fudge Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake
• Milk Chocolate Scotcheroos
• No-Fail Peanut Butter Brittle
• No-Bake Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Star Cookies

Soft, chewy peanut butter cookies baked with a milk chocolate star for the perfect chocolate and peanut butter combination. Best served warm, fresh out of the oven!

5 from 2 votes

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Servings: 34 cookies

Author: Becca Mills

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 egg room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Approximately 40 chocolate stars

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375°F. Using an electric stand or hand mixer, cream together butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Add peanut butter and egg, beating until combined. Gently mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt just until combined.
• Recommended, but not required: chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
• Form 1-inch balls of dough, spacing out evenly on a cookie baking sheet. Press 1 chocolate star gently into the center of each dough ball (pushing about halfway down).
• Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes, until just turning golden brown along edges. Let cool on baking sheet for 1-2 minutes until able to transfer to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container once completely cooled (but be sure to eat some warm!).

Notes

To freeze baked cookies: place in a single layer in a large freezer-safe bag (highly recommend Stasher bags); thaw before serving and heat in microwave if desired.

To freeze cookie dough: place dough balls on a baking sheet in a single layer. Freeze all the way through, then transfer to an airtight bag or container.

Did you make this recipe? Please leave a star rating and review in the form below. I appreciate your feedback, and it helps others, too!

This post was originally published in November of 2018. The text and photos were updated for clarity in November of 2020. No changes were made to the recipe.