Hershey's Kiss, Kiss "Dah-ling" Cookies

I must be watching too many episodes of the Real Housewives Franchise because, while putting these together, "Kiss, Kiss, Dahling" (in the voice of Lisa Vanderpump or LuAnn De Lesseps) kept going through my head.  Despite this, I had so much fun making these!!  I first spied the idea on Pinterest here at Munchkin Munchies.  They looked so adorable I had to try them myself.  Since we are fast approaching February 14th, I decided to mimic the hues of the Kiss wrappers found in the Hershey Kiss Valentine's Day packages.  So cute.

I have an absolutely favorite cut-out cookie recipe that I always use, but it contains lemon juice and zest.  I planned to use melted Kisses for some of the cookies instead of icing, however, which didn't seem to appealing to combine with lemon.  Also, I wanted to flavor some of the dough with almond (to create a faux Hershey Kiss Almond candy) and some with cherry (for Hershey Cherry Cordial Kiss cookies).  Neither would be tasty with a lemon based cookie.

For a new sugar cookie dough recipe, I turned to The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle, since she makes some of the most amazing cookies I have ever seen.  It only stood to reason that her basic cookie recipe must be delicious, too, right?  I made a few slight changes but was VERY happy with this recipe.  I will most definitely be using it again.

Before baking the cookies, be sure you have your decorating supplies ready:  Unwrapped Hershey Kisses (save the "Hershey Kiss" tag from each), food coloring in the shade of each wrapper you are turning into a cookie, and edible sprinkles in the corresponding icing colors.

Basic Sugar Cookies

adapted from The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle

1 cup (2 sticks) of real butter (I used salted)

1 1/2 cups of confectioner's sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons flavoring extract (I used Almond)

2 1/2 - 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream together butter and sugar.  In a separate bowl, combine the egg and flavoring.  Combine butter and egg mixtures and beat until fully incorporated.  In another separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients and add to butter an egg mixture in three intervals.  Mix until dough is pliable but not sticky.  Roll out dough* and cut into desired shapes.  Bake for 7-8 minutes.  Let cool completely before icing.

To make the Kiss shape, I used a small heart cookie cutter.  I tried to smooth out the top of the heart into a straight line for the bottom of the Kiss.  Some were more successful than others.  Last night I picked up a small metal heart cutter and flattened the cutter itself for the future.

Next, I mixed up some icing - confectioner's sugar mixed with water to a thickish consistency.  To test the thickness I run a knife through the icing and count to five.  If the line disappears before 5 seconds, I add a bit more sugar.  If it takes 5 seconds for the line to disappear, it's exactly how I want it.  I just eyeballed the amount of icing, making as much as I thought I'd need for the amount of cookies I had.  Then, I split the icing into three parts dyeing the first one gray, the second light pink, and the third red.

Working with one color at a time, I poured the icing in a plastic piping bag fitted with a #3 tip.  Outline the Kiss with icing and fill the inside.  You can use a toothpick to nudge fill out the icing completely inside the outline.  Immediately after icing a cookie, take one of the Hershey Kiss tags and, again using a toothpick, push it into the icing so it will be secure once the icing sets.  After the tag is applied, immediately pour the sprinkles that match the icing color onto the cookie.  (TIP:  Pour the sprinkles over a coffee filter.  When you are done sprinkling, use the filter to pour the unused sprinkles back into the container.  Not my original idea, but it's genius and works like a dream!)

I started with gray icing and sprinkles:

Then I rounded out the Valentine collection with pink and red:

Once I completed the icing/tagging/sprinkling process, I melted down the unwrapped Hershey Kisses in the microwave in one minute increments at 30% power until they were melted.  I poured the melted chocolate into a piping bag, snipped off a TINY bit of the end, and made a triangle of chocolate on each cookie:

 

Using a toothpick, I pushed the chocolate into a kiss shape and did my best to create that iconic swirly flourish at the top!  I can definitely use more practice with that:

They are not perfect, but I *love* them.  :)

I think these might be a new favorite of mine.  I will make them for every Holiday and event coming because WHO doesn't love a Kiss?  Happy Valentine's Day!

Red Velvet Cupakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

This is the second dessert I'd set to be automatically posted while I was on vacation, which did not post after all.  Oh, well, better late than never!  

This trip brought us to the Caribbean so we could take a break  to escape the icy temperatures in the Northeast.  We go on a cruise each January to spend a week in warm sunshine, which helps break up these cold months of lingering winter.  Since we've been doing this for many years we've had the opportunity to visit several different islands.  This trip, however, we only left the ship once in 9 days.  I had no phone, computer and never turned on the TV.  It was great to disconnect and just relax.  I read four books, slept, and seem to have finally beaten my never-ending cold.  But, I missed baking!!  I'm looking forward to trying some new recipes this week.

Before we left, I had to make Red Velvet Cupcakes for a customer order.  Again this brought up the issue of dense or light cake and hint of chocolate vs. obvious chocolate taste, which I wrote about in my Black Velvet Cupcakes post.  I can't tell you how many Red Velvet Recipes I went though, reading reviews, recipe alterations, debates.  In the end, I went with the cupcake described as moist and on the lighter side.  It is said to be a Sprinkles copycat recipe.  Recently, Sprinkles opened a shop in Manhattan, but I haven't gotten there yet.  When I do, I'll be able to compare.  I really loved these, though!

Sprinkles Copycat Red Velvet Cupcakes

Followed to a "T" from Carrot Top Mom

2 1/2 cups flour (I used all-purpose)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch processed)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

2 1/4 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with 2 teaspoons lemon juice)

1 ounce red food coloring

4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. 

Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into 24 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting: With a high powered mixer (stand up mixer if you have one) beat cold cream cheese, butter, sour cream and Pure Vanilla Extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl, and beat again. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Once smooth, turn beaters to high (I use my Kitchenaid) and whip on high for 5 minutes, until very fluffy. I am frequently asked how I get the piled high frosting. I do this with a piping bag, or a Ziploc bag with a 1 inch hole cut out of the corner will work perfectly. I always pipe the frosting on, instead of spreading it with a knife. That is how I get the tall pile of frosting. IF you do want the tall pile, I recommend doing 1 1/2 the recipe for frosting, to make sure you have enough.

Frost the cupcakes generously, and serve at room temperature! 

**Note from Carrot Top Mom:  In response to the comments who have had trouble with the frosting…These are the exact proportions I use. I do not add more sugar, or it will be very sweet, but it is important that the cream cheese and sour cream are cold. If the frosting is too runny, I recommend putting the frosting in the refrigerator for 20 minutes before piping it on. Also, your cupcakes MUST be totally cooled. The frosting may seem a little too moist at first, but if you can get it to form a pile, and leave the cupcake uncovered for 1 hour or so, it will form a slightly dry crust (not a bad crust, I promise), so it won’t seem so gooey.

Cream Cheese Frosting (This has been revised to show the cream cheese and butter cold, resulting in a less runny frosting.) If you want the piled high frosting, like the picture, make 1 1/2 the recipe of frosting and pipe it on with a piping bag or ziploc bag (do not try to spread it with a knife).

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, cold
• 1/4 cup butter, cold
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
• 16 ounces confectioners’ sugar

These cupcakes were as moist as promised!  The color is just gorgeous.  And the icing piled up just as it was supposed to!  Half way through frosting them I did put the icing back into the fridge to firm up a bit, then continued topping the remaining cupcakes.

I am not a huge fan of cream cheese frosting, but this recipe is great!  I had two taste tester friends give them a try in an exchange for an honest review.  While they do prefer a denser red velvet cake, the icing was an unqualified success!  They each had a second cupcake this morning, which is good sign (they even commented the icing was better the next day)!  I received a text from the Birthday Girl's sister (who ordered the cupcakes) and they raved about this recipe.  I highly recommend it!

Chocolate Dice Bunco/Casino Cupcakes

My latest interest has been molded chocolates. I was browsing through a cute shop that specializes in melting chocolates and molds and discovered the possibilities are endless and a bit overwhelming! Wandering around I felt like a kid in a candy store. Oh, wait, I guess I actually was (minus the kid part)! I tend to be an impulse shopper so I took my time and finally settled on a few molds that seemed as though they would be good for beginners. Right.

Let's start with the dice. Very simple mold. White dots, red chocolate. Easy. Except that I made the chocolate dots too thick, so when I added the red chocolate, the white melted and ran into the red. And the air bubbles! I did tap the mold against the counter to rid the chocolate of air bubbles, as is recommended.  However, I wasn't entirely successful and there were random, tiny holes in my dice. 

Examples of the dice should NOT look.  ;)

Sigh.  Obviously chocolate molding isn't as easy as I thought it would be!  I'd prefer to ice cookies any day of the week.  Since I purchased the chocolates and molds, though, I persevered and finally had some decent looking dice.  I baked chocolate cupcakes, mixed up some buttercream icing, and topped them with the chocolate dice.  These will be cute for a casino theme party.  I think the finished product looks great!  Unfortunately, my husband had our "good" camera while I was making these chocolates, so I was not able to document the process of making the dice.  I also made chocolate covered Oreos, which I'll cover in another post, that I was not able to document, as well..  When making my next set of chocolates I will definitely be photographing the process!