I've made these before with the shortening but the idea of shortening in cookies isn't very appealing. Will try the recipe today with less flour and more peanut butter.

Hi Marilyn,

Butter is considered shortening; it can usually be used instead of Crisco, but will yield slightly different results. Shortening is anything that "shortens" the crumb of baked goods. We normally think of Crisco as being shortening, but the term is interchangeable.

Cookies made with butter will spread more and brown more quickly than cookies made with Crisco. Crisco cookies will stay higher on the baking sheet and will yield softer, less crumbly cookies than butter. Toss out older cans of Crisco, since the new versions are non-hydrogenated (check the label).

Sometimes it's a good plan to combine different types of shortening to obtain the different baking properties they offer.

-- CM

I used less flour and more peanut butter as recommended in some of the reviews. The cookies spread out more than I expected. I was expecting taller, more compact cookies. The recipe I normally use calls for shortening and I didn't have any so I searched for one using butter instead. After reading the parent cooks.com comment, I think I understand why - "Cookies made with butter will spread more and brown more quickly than cookies made with Crisco. Crisco cookies will stay higher on the baking sheet and will yield softer, less crumbly cookies than butter". I may have also made the balls of dough too big because the recipe yielded 42 cookies that were about 3-4 inches in diameter.

Last year I used a chocolate cookie dough recipe and topped with peppermint kisses. Very yummy!

USE THE LESS FLOUR RECIPE! Delicious! Made 60 cookies, teaspoon is the perfect size for balls!

I actually kept the original recipe and used crunchy peanut butter...UG, I could live off these cookies!

Made the recipe - so yummy! But I did follow the advice of the other bakers... A little less flour and a tad more peanut butter. Perfect!

Going to bake them tonight. I will reduce the flour and more P.B. And roll in powder sugar..... Can't wait

We made these yummy cookies today. I did the 1-1/2 cups flour and 3/4 cup chunky peanut butter too. We also added peanut butter chips for extra peanut butter flavor and the are divine! :)

This is a great recipe! I did do the reduction of flour and increased the pb. I also tried the powdered sugar and YUM! I rolled some in red and green sugar too, it makes them very festive. Thanks!

This turned out AMAZING! I made the adjustments with the peanut butter, flour, and powdered sugar. They are perfect and everyone loves them. Still warm out of the oven.

Just pulled out of the oven! So much better than the former recipe that uses shortening. The butter is great. I reduced the flour and increased the p.b. and rolled in powdered sugar as suggested and YuMM... I'll use this every year! Not dry at all.

I am so excited to try these. I am about to start right now!! I will post on how they come out!!

SO GOOD!!! I did 1-1/2 cups of flour and 3/4 cup of peanut butter and baked for 10 minutes... they came out absolutely amazing! Definitely listen to the quarter sized balls suggestion because a few of mine were a little bigger and overlapped a little, but no big deal. These are a holiday must!

Try using Caramel, Peanut Butter, Cherry Cordial, Almond, Melt-Away Milk Chocolate, and Candy Cane filled candy kisses! They are all very good (candy cane one was not great, I will admit) and adds a little variety/suprise to the tray.

Instead of a kiss try a peanut butter cup!! Yummy, with the other suggestions of reduce flour and the powdered sugar.

Didn't have powdered sugar... tried rolling in hot chocolate mix, and was great!