Sprinkled and Kissed

‘Tis the season for cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. I have finally finished all my holiday cookies for this season. They will all be on display and ready to be eaten and enjoyed tonight at our church’s Christmas Eve’s Eve celebrations. In total, I made 5 different types of cookies and sweet treats for tonight’s festivities, including my raspberry fudge bites Chocolate Raspberry Fudge Bites, my colorful thumbprint cookies The First of the Christmas Cookies, these sprinkled and kissed cookies I am about to tell you about right now, and then another batch of cookies I will tell you about tomorrow. Of course I had to sample a little from each batch, for quality control purposes naturally, and I can attest they are all delicious! 🙂

I made two batches of these chocolate sprinkled and kissed cookies, with slight variations for each batch. They were the same recipe. For the first batch, I used chocolate extract instead of vanilla, and then placed a “hugs” chocolate kiss on top. The “hugs” kisses are a combination of both white and milk chocolate swirled together. For the second batch, I used peppermint extract instead of vanilla and then topped them with a mint cream kiss to make them chocolate mint cookies. I will give you the basic recipe. The extracts and the kisses were the only differences.

Sprinkled and Kissed Cookies

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 egg

2 TBSP milk

1 tsp vanilla or flavored extract

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 cups flour

1 cup colored nonpareil or colored sprinkles

60 chocolate kisses, or 1 for each cookie

Preheat the oven to 350* F or 175* C.

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda together and set aside.

Mix the shortening, butter and sugars together until well combined and soft and creamy.

Add the egg, milk, and vanilla or extract and mix together again, then add the flour mixture 1/2 at a time, mixing in between each addition. Mix just until everything is well combined. Do not over mix.

Roll the dough into 1 inch balls then roll in the sprinkles.

Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Make a well in the center of each cookie and bake for about 10-12 minutes.

Immediately after removing them from the oven, add a chocolate kiss in the center of each cookie.

Cool for a bit, then remove the cookies and allow to cool completely on a cookie rack. Once they are cooled enough to eat, it is time to set them out on a plate with some milk on the side for Santa and all his helpers to enjoy.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a safe and Happy Holiday season. ‘Til next time.