Holiday Thumbprints

Trying to think of another holiday cookie I could make, holiday thumbprint cookies with a Hershey Kiss in the middle came to mind. I always see them at Christmas parties or on cookie plates but I've never had one. These are good cookies but have a cake like texture.  
            
Yields approx. 36 cookies
         
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of Butter
1 Egg
1 1/2 cups Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 cup Milk
1 cup Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/3 cup Cocoa powder
1/4 tsp Salt
Approx. 36 Hershey Kisses, one 10 oz bag had more than enough. I used the peppermint ones


Preheat oven to 375º
Beat the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in a bowl until well blended. Mix together in a separate bowl the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Than add this to the butter mixture alternately with the milk in about three additions. Blend well. Cover and refrigerate the dough for about one hour. 


**Scoop the dough, a tablespoon full, onto the baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool a few minutes on cookie sheet then transfer to a cooling rack. 


**Here is one thing I can't decide on; when to add the Hershey Kisses. I pressed some into the dough balls before I popped them into the oven and let them bake with the cookies. They held their shape nicely but the tips of the kisses did start to brown a little, which isn't really a big deal. 

These were baked with the Hershey Kiss. See still pretty. 

And I added some powdered sugar to distract from the brown candy. 

I also pressed some of the Kisses into the dough right after they came out of the oven. These ones melted into a nice puddle of chocolate, which also isn't a big deal. But to me they just weren't as pretty so I sprinkled them with a little bit of crushed candy cane and I was happy with the results. You could sprinkle them with red and green sugar or some nice festive holiday sprinkles. 

Both look nice and they taste the same so it's completely up to you!

recipe adapted from Hershey's
  
Kay

Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies

I mentioned in the peppermint bark post that I would be using it in some cookies. I didn't have a recipe for the cookies I wanted to make but I knew what I wanted, a chocolate chocolate chip cookie using peppermint bark instead of chocolate chips. 

While I am all for playing with recipes and tweaking them to see what you get and how great you can make them, I don't do well with baking failures. So Instead of playing with a recipe I scoured the internet looking for a good chocolate cookie that I could use but nothing looked good enough. Then I came across 101cookbooks and they have a fabulous recipe for Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies. 

Yields approx.: 48 cookies

Ingredients:

3 cups Flour

1 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp Salt

1 cup  Butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 Eggs

1 tbs Vanilla

2 cups peppermint bark, roughly chopped  

Optional crushed candy canes

Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. 

In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, be sure to scrap down the sides of the bowl a few times. Then stir in the vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients in increments, stirring between each addition.  Stir in the peppermint bark by hand until it is evenly incorporated. 


Reserve a bit of the bark to sprinkle on top of the cookies before you pop them into the oven. And if you want, crush up a few candy canes to sprinkle on top for some extra color once you take the cookies out of the oven.

Using a sorbet scoop or a table spoon, scoop onto baking sheets 1 inches apart and bake @ 375º for about 10 - 14 minutes. The recipe says that the cookies will flatten out but mine didn't so what I did was dust the bottom of a glass with some cocoa powder and press the cookies down.  Cool the cookies on the cookie sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. While they are still a little hot, sprinkle with the optional crushed candy canes. 

Kay 

Peppermint Bark!

Tis the Season for lots of candy, chocolate and baked goods. I am making peppermint bark cookies later so I decided to make my own peppermint bark. (Just an FYI, I just got a new camera after an unfortunate accident with the washing machine and I went a little crazy taking pictures of the peppermint bark.)


Also I used Almond bark for the bottom layer so that it would set nice and hard. You don't have to do this, you can temper your bottom layer of chocolate or just keep the final product in the fridge so it won't get too soft. 


Ingredients:


5 Candy Canes (I used 3 red and white and 2 red, green and white just for some extra color)
16 oz Almond Bark or baking chocolate
16 oz White chocolate chips


You will also need:
A double boiler and a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. 

Begin by crushing up the candy canes, I took 2 of the red and white candy canes and crushed them up to a really fine powder. 


Then I crushed 2 of the candy canes with green in them and 1 red and white candy cane into large chunks.


Then using a double broiler melt the chocolate. Be sure to not let the water touch the bottom of the bowl, do not let the water boil - we want a simmer and to stir the chocolate! 


Once it's all melted, throw in candy candy cane powder. Stir it around then pour on to the cookie sheet and spread out in an even layer. Pop it into the freezer for 20 minutes to let it set.

Once the chocolate is set, begin melting the white chocolate. When it begins to melt, stir constantly and for the love of all that is chocolate, avoid burning. 

Then pull the chocolate out of the freezer and carefully pour the white chocolate over it and smooth it out. I was impatient and melted my white chocolate too soon so when I was ready to pour it, the chocolate hadn't set yet so they marbled a little. But it's ok! It just makes it even more pretty. 

After you have an evil even layer of white chocolate over the chocolate, sprinkle the crushed, colorful candy canes. Place in freezer for about 30 minutes then move to fridge until set.

Once it is completely set, break it apart and store in an air tight container.

P.S. I used a smaller cookie sheet, which resulted in thicker hunks of peppermint bark but thats ok too because I'm cutting it up for chunks in a cookie. 

Check out the awesome pictures. Told you I went crazy with my camera. 

Kay