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!

Make Way For These Baby Shower Favor Ducklings

I just love these little guys!   I had an order for baby shower favors and we chose ducks to go with the story book theme.  The first step, of course, it to make a good sugar cookie dough:

The  Best Rolled Sugar Cookies

From Allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt.  Cover and chill dough for at least on hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter.  Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven.  Cool completely.

I mixed up some icing with confectioners sugar and water.  Add a very small amount of water at a time, you will need less than you think to reach your desired thickness.  If you've added too much water just mix in more confectioners sugar.  I don't have exact measurements, I just eye it.  I make it thick enough to outline the cookie to make a border.  I will then fill the bordered area with flood icing, which is thinned out (by adding a few drops of water) thicker icing.  Be careful not to make it too thin, or it will be harder to control and may not stay within the border.  For these cookies I used a squeeze bottle to ice the cookies.  I filled the bottle with icing using a funnel.

Begin outlining the cooled cookies working with three or four cookies at a time.  With these ducks I did not outline the beak, as I wanted to use orange.  Outlining the beak in yellow would just look weird after filling it with orange!

Next, take the flood icing (I used a separate squeeze bottle for the flood icing) and fill in the outlined area of the cookie.  I used a toothpick to spread the icing to the edge of the border.

Let the filled in cookies set for a few hours before beginning the next steps.  I used the border-thick icing to add wings to the ducks.  I added a bit of red gel coloring to the leftover yellow to make a shade of orange, funneled it into a squeeze bottle, and added the beaks. (I took this photo at night so the coloring is off.)

The last step was adding the eyes.  I used edible eyes purchased in the baking section at Michaels craft store.  My date was a bit hectic, so I didn't place the eyes on before the icing set.  So, I had to use icing to "glue" them onto the duck.  With a toothpick I spread a generous amount of icing on the back of the eye and placed it onto the cookie.

Adorable!  The baby is a girl, so I wrapped the cookies in plastic bags and tied them with pink ribbon.  Congratulations to the parents-to-be!!

Treating our Troops

In the past few days leading up to today, the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, I have dedicated my baking time to honor our troops with some baked goods. Tomorrow they will be shipped off to to the unit of a former high school classmate currently serving in Afghanistan. I am focusing this entry on simple recipes for cookies that can easily be sent overseas, as well as a great method of wrapping them to ensure they will reach their destination fresh (as is possible) and in one piece (I hope).

I did some reading about what to and what not to send. The information was a bit overwhelming and sometimes contradictory. I read it's important not to ship anything made with butter. This didn't make sense to me since I also read how much our troops love homemade chocolate chips cookies. I tried to find out if it was reasonable to send cake truffles, to no avail. In the end, I decided no, since the heat on the Middle East would probably turn them into gooey messes. Obviously, decorated iced cookies would not be wise to send. The icing will likely melt and there's a high likelihood of breakage. No moist breads, such as banana bread. They heat will make them go rancid. So, I went back to basics. I mixed up some classic recipes, which I love, and spent a few days baking dozens of cookies. :)

I began with peanut butter cookies. To say I love peanut butter cookies is a bit of an understatement. I have absolutely zero control around them, so I feel great that any of them made it to the wrapping-up stage! Here is my favorite recipe of all time:

Peanut Butter Cookies (adapted from Betty Crocker's Cookbook)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter (I prefer Reese's Peanut Butter)

1/4 cup shortening (I prefer Crisco baking sticks, butter flavor)

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 tablespoons milk

1 egg

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons milk

Cream together the butter, shortening, and peanut butter. Mix in sugars, egg and milk. Add the remaining ingredients. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough into 1 1/2 - 2 inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet at least three inches apart. Using a fork make a crisscross pattern by pressing down on the cookie. Dip the fork in flour between cookies to prevent the dough from sticking. Bake between 9-10 minutes. Let cookies cool several minutes before removing them from cookie sheet.

Indents for criss-cross pattern made with a fork.

Perpendicular lines by fork press.

Repeat process with each cookie.

Ready to eat!!

These cookies are just the way I like them...soft and chewy on the inside, a bit crispy on the outside. Looking at these pictures as I post them makes me want to whip up a batch right now and eat spoonfuls of the dough before they even make it to the oven, so let's move on to chocolate chip before I lose control of myself and act on it!

While growing up, I was a chocolate chip cookie baking fanatic. I loved making them. I followed the recipe on the back of the Tollhouse Chocolate Chip bag to a "T". Over the years, I stopped making them in favor of more diverse, "mature" recipes. A few months ago I had a craving for the cookies of my childhood, so I purchased some of my beloved Tollhouse semi-sweet chips, followed the recipe on the back in anticipation of the moment I would be tasting gooey chocolate melted in delicious dough. The moment finally came and, well, they were good, but not as good as I remembered. Thus, began my hunt for THE chocolate chip cookie recipe. The one that is everything I hope for it to be!

I found a promising one on Allrecipes.com. It has the exact same ingredients as the Tollhouse version, but in different increments. I do not want a flat, crunchy cookie with all kinds of nuts, chips and flavors. I'm looking for a chewy, chocolatey version of the original. This was was pretty close, but I'm not sure it's THE ONE.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons hot water

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour and chocolate chips. Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are nicely browned.

Chocolate chip cookies are a "drop" cookie. This means it's a type of dough you just sort of "drop" by the teaspoon full onto a cookie sheet. You can also use a cookie scoop to do the job.

Culinary Institute of America Cookie Scoop

I baked half of a sheet of cookies using the drop method, the other half using a scoop to see which I preferred.

Unbaked dough - Drop method on left, cookie scoop on right.

Baked cookies - Drop method on left, cookie scoop on right.

Both my husband and I like the "drop" method cookie better. I enjoy their imperfect shape. It takes a bit longer doing it this way, but I think it's worth it to recreate the cookies of my youth. :)

Next up: Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips. I. Love. These. Cookies. Oh yes, I do! This chocolate cookie recipe is perfect and I would do nothing to change it. The wonderful thing about this dough, as well as the chocolate chip cookie dough, is that you are not limited in the creations you can make from them. You can add anything, change flavors with extracts, change colors. Anything you can think of! They are great bases for experimenting. As for me, I add the peanut butter chips to this dough and wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Best Chocolate Drop Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup baking cocoa

3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 bag Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

Mix butter and sugar until creamed. Add eggs, beating well into the butter/sugar mixture. Add vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking cocoa, baking soda and salt. Stir flour mixture into creamed mixture a bit at a time until it is all combined. Add peanut butter chips. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

You can use the spoon "drop" method or a cookie scoop for this dough.

Simple, yet so delicious!

These chocolate cookies would also taste great with some mint extract (substituting for the vanilla) and mint chips. Or some orange rind and flavoring during the holidays. Mmmmm.....

Lastly (as far as cookies go), I made chocolate cut-out cookies. They are not very sweet, but they have a deep chocolately taste with bits of salt and they are AMAZING. I found this recipe on the Bake at 350 blog, which is an endless source of inspiration and wonder. I highly recommend stopping by Bake at 350 and you will be amazed, too!

Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies

adapted from recipe found on Bake at 350


1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup baking cocoa

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the dry ingredients and set them aside. Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour mixture a little at a time. Roll the dough onto a floured/cocoa-ed surface. Cut out desired shapes with selected cookie cutters. Freeze cut-outs on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before baking to ensure baked cookies will keep their shape.  Bake for 8 minutes.  Decorate with icing as desired.

I used a star shaped cut-out for the Troops. Perhaps they are not the best design as far as breakage, but I think they are all stars and want them to know it!

These are incredible cookies. Trust me. If you like dark chocolate candy bars sprinkled with sea salt, you will love these.

So, that's the end of the cookies for Soldiers. However, that was not the end of my baking. I had my mind set on making cake balls (cake pops without the sticks). As I previously mentioned, I realized they probably would not travel well and likely would melt in the heat. I came up with a different idea that I hope will work out.

I made vanilla and red velvet mini-cupcakes and will send a few cans of frosting. I can't be sure they will arrive in edible condition, but I'm going to give it a try and see what happens!

I have one more bit of advice for those of you who send baked goods overseas: how to pack them. After much investigating, here's what I found:

Work with about six cookies at a time. Lay the stack on cling wrap.

Roll the stack of cookies over, wrapping it in one layer of cling wrap. Fold the sides of the wrap over on top of eachother to securely wrap the cookies.

Wrap the cookies around several times (without folding each roll) until you have a few layers of wrap around the cookies. Separate the wrap from the roll and fold in sides securely.

Voila! Wrapped cookie stack. Now it can join the others!

Lined up and ready to do their duty!

Place your baked goods in a sturdy box filled with insulation (baking peanuts, bubble wrap, newspapers, etc) to protect against the knocking around packages go through on their journeys and hope for the best! You will need to fill out a declaration form, but the post office does not need to inspect your package before mailing it so you can take it all sealed up. You should not pay to insure your package, insurance does not cover mailings for soldiers.

On a final note, I would like to offer my appreciation and gratitude to all of the men and women who not only serve us in the military, but also to our Firemen, Policemen, and EMT men and women. This country is dependent on the sacrifices you make each day for us. I would especially like to thank my sister Sandy, her partner Nate, my brother-in-law Corey, and my Dad, who have all served during wartime. THANK YOU.

End Of Summer Stenciling For My Family

Sorry about my lack of updates during this past week. I took a mini-vacation in Buffalo to spend some time with my family and to meet my new niece, Ellie. She is just the sweetest thing in the world!!

Ellie Kristine!!

I also have twin four year old nieces, who love all things pink and sparkly. They have the most wonderfully inventive imaginations and amuse me endlessly. This trip was no exception! My husband and I always bring little gifts home for the girls; and this time I wanted to bring them a sweet treat. I had very little time before our trip, so I decided to make some quick stencil cookies with a fairy design.

I do like the design of the stencils, but am not too happy about the powder colors I chose. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that yellow would not show up particularly well on a white/yellow cookie! However, the powder I used has a glittery/sparkly effect, so it did the trick. I will try different color combinations next time, or dye the dough a shade that will show off the stenciling a bit more.

The other project I tried did not work out, either. I made a batch of chocolate cookie dough (maybe the best chocolate cookies I've EVER had), dyed it black, refrigerated it, and could NOT find my intended cookie cutter. Anywhere. Again, as I was trying to get ready for our trip, I had to accept the force was not with me (there's a clue in there, ha ha ha :) and use the dough for something else. I have taken steps to finish that project in the coming week!

When I purchased the fairy stencils I also ordered some "talking hearts" stencils. They will be perfect for Valentine's Day treats. I gave them a trial run.

They turned out cute and will be great as a heart shaped cut out cookie. I took them to Buffalo and they were a big hit with everyone! They are not too sweet so my Dad enjoyed a couple with his coffee in the morning. Also, we had a family get-together, which gave me an opportunity to make rainbow cupcakes again. They were loved by all. :)

Today and tomorrow I am working on some cookies and cake balls to send overseas to some of our soldiers in Afghanistan. Due to the length of delivery time and the long journey they will make, I am not creating anything too fancy or breakable. On my list is: Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate with Peanut Butter Chip, Sugar Cookies, and chocolate cake balls. Next week I will resume more creative endeavors...but this week our troops are getting my time and attention. They deserve it.

Did someone scream for Ice Cream?!

This has been a pretty busy week and it's been difficult to fit everything in, even baking, which is what I'd prefer to be doing. I made some ice cream cone cut-out cookies and spent two days icing them in stages when I could squeeze it in. My friend Amy gave me an ice cream cone cookie cutter as a gift and I was excited to try it out! It took me some time finally use it because I can get so intimidated trying new designs and things outside my comfort zone. I finally gave it a go, and I'm happy with the results. As always, I have ideas how to tweak the cone and designs for the ice cream....a whole world of possibilities! If you have any suggestions on colors or combinations I can try, leave them in the comments below. I'd love to hear what you think!

Super Simple Stenciled Sugar Cookies

I had to mix and bake a ton of cutout cookies today, and knew I would not be able to ice them in time to post something for today, so I saved a couple of circle cutouts to try a stencil method I read about. A few weeks ago I purchased some baking stencils, so I had them ready to go!

I began by using some of the sugar cookie dough I mixed up. Then, I rolled it out and cut the shapes.

Once I had a few circles on a cookie sheet, I assembled the necessary items for the design: some stencils, a paint brush, and cocoa powder (any type of edible colored powder will do. I can't wait to experiment with colors!). You can purchase food powder at craft or baking supply stores. Even though it's nowhere near St. Patrick's Day, I bought some celtic stencils. As my friend Maeve says, I'm Irish everyday and I don't need only one day a year to celebrate it. :)

Center the stencil design on your cookie and press it firmly down. Be firm enough to make it stick, but do not press too hard or you will make dents in the cookie. Once you have the stencil in place, pour some of the edible powdery substance you chose, and begin to brush it on the cookie.

Once the entire area of the design has been brushed, CAREFULLY lift the stencil off of the cookie.

Bake the cookie as directed, and you will have a delicious cookie with a beautiful, professional looking design baked in. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies: Prettier in Pink!

I wanted to make something simple and fun after the golf course, so I chose these adorable cookies. I first saw these cookies here: http://dailynibbles.com/2011/02/01/in-the-kitchen-pink-peanut-butter-hugs/, and immediately fell in love. Pink is my favorite color, they mimic the hot pink/zebra combination that is so popular right now, and they just make me smile. Turns out, as is often the case with baking something for the first time, it wasn't so easy! Coloring these correctly took a few tries...3 batches of dough later I was finally pleased with the result.

To make these cookie you will need the following things:

Your favorite Peanut Butter Cookie recipe, pink sanding sugar, Hershey Hugs, neon pink gel food coloring, and red gel food coloring (optional). I have a Peanut Butter Cookie recipe I have been following forever and I love it so much I would hesitate to even think about using another one. Here it is:

Peanut Butter Cookies (adapted from Betty Crocker's Cookbook)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter (I prefer Reese's Peanut Butter)

1/4 cup shortening (I prefer Crisco baking sticks, butter flavor)

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 tablespoons milk

1 egg

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Cream together the butter, shortening, and peanut butter. Mix in sugars, egg and milk. Add the remaining ingredients. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough into 1 1/2 - 2 inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet at least three inches apart. Using a fork make a crisscross pattern by pressing down on the cookie. Dip the fork in flour between cookies to prevent the dough from sticking. Bake between 9-10 minutes. Let cookies cool several minutes before removing them from cookie sheet.

Since I was making pink cookies, I added a few drops of AmeriColor's Christmas Red gel food dye. I read this would make a terrific shade of hot pink. I used a hand mixer to incorporate the color; doing it by hand proved to be impossible for me, I am not strong enough to evenly mix it completely.

I had some issues with coloring the dough, which I will explain in a moment. Once the desired color is mixed into the dough, roll it into 1 1/2 - 2 inch balls, dredge through pink sugar until fully coated, and bake:

After the cookies are finished baking, immediately place a Hershey Hug in the middle of the cookie, pressing it down about 1/2 way. The Hug will keep it's shape as long as it's not touched (the chocolate will half melt from the heat of the cookie). Once the cookie and the chocolate cool completely, the Hug will become solid again and the cookies can be packaged or placed in an airtight container to store.

Voila! Adorable hot pink zebra strip peanut butter cookies! Now, let's go over coloring the dough.

For the first batch I mixed up, I didn't think it was possible for it to turn pink with only a few drops of Christmas red, so I added some neon pink. I baked them and was not pleased. So, I mixed up another batch and mixed in the neon pink, still was skeptical of how they would look baked, panicked and added some red. This was close, much better, but still too dark for my taste. After thinking about it, and not ready to give up, I decided to mix up a third batch of dough and split it in two. In one half I mixed in only Christmas red dye. In the other half, I mixed in only neon pink. Here are the results of all four trials:

From Top to bottom: Uncooked dough, baked cookie with no sugar, finished cookie with sugar and hug.

The first column is the mostly red dye with some neon pink added. The second column is mostly neon pink with some red added. The third column is red dye only, and the fourth neon pink only. I had to use my judgement on how much dye to add. I was almost ready to stop at my second attempt (second column), but I'm happy I experimented with only using one color. Here is a close-up of column two and column four finished cookies, the two I decided were closest shade of the hot pink I was trying to achieve:

Cookie on left is neon pink and red dye, cookie on right is neon pink dye only.

The cookie on the left had a bit too much of a red hue and in certain light did not appear pink enough. So, the cookie on the right is the winner! I mixed approximately 6 drops of food coloring in one batch of cookie dough. I may add a bit more to darken the pink a bit, but three batches of cookies later I finally achieved my goal and I'm happy!