Itsy Bitsy Foodies

Inspired by the peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies that, to me, have always seemed so fitting for Valentine’s Day, these little Hershey’s kiss gems even fit the color scheme for the big day of hearts.  And the melt-in-your-mouth vanilla sugar cookie makes a neutral base that can work with any color or flavor of Hershey’s kiss, for any time of year.

In fact, I initially made these Peppermint Kiss Cookies for my Christmas cookie boxes, and then they were so good that I had to make a second batch for a party.  They are easy, festive and actually melt in your mouth (especially when you have a warm one, while the Hershey’s chocolate is still melted around the base, forming a gooey chocolate pool on top of the warm sugar cookie).

For the first batch that I made, I simply followed the recipe for the peanut butter kiss cookies but substituted butter for the peanut butter and though they were delicious, they were pretty dense and rich.  I continued experimenting and for the second batch I omitted the shortening and then added powdered instead of granulated sugar to consistency, creating the following recipe that I will continue to use.