BAKE | PEANUT BUTTER BLOSSOMS

As I mentioned yesterday, Allison and I helped David bake cookies for his Church bake sale. These are the peanut butter cookies we made topped with a Hershey Kiss! This one was my favorite, but I love peanut butter so I'm probably biased. 

All ready for the bake sale!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Adapted from the Hershey's website

Makes 24 cookies

24 Hershey's Kisses Brand Milk Chocolate
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Additional granulated sugar

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates. 
2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 13/ cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture. 
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls (We made ours a little bigger). Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet. 
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. 

xoxo, traci

BAKE | EASY KISSES CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

So I got a text from David the other day saying that he was having a bake sale at church and needed help baking cookies. Since I had a lot of extra Hershey Kisses that I got from the after Christmas sale (don't worry- they're not expired yet!), I told David to go look for a recipe online with Hershey Kisses. He found two recipes that looked really easy to make, so we decided to make both! Alley came over too and we were able to make them really quickly. We made the chocolate chip cookies first (the ones that look like little round balls at the top of the picture)... I'll post the peanut butter (the ones with the gigantic kiss in the middle) recipe tomorrow :) I was super excited to make these cookies because although they look like regular chocolate chip cookies, they actually have a Hershey Kiss inside!!! Don't you just love surprises?!

nap time for me while David did the mixing :)

KISSES Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from the Hershey's website

Makes 24 cookies

• 24 Hershey's Kisses Brand Milk Chocolates
• 1 pouch Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 egg
• 1-1/4 cups chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon shortening

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates. 
2. Stir together cookie mix and flour; add butter and egg. Stir until dough forms. Set aside 1/4 cup chocolate chips. Stir remaining chips into dough. 
3. Mold dough around each chocolate piece, covering completely. (The original recipe recommended using 1 tablespoon of dough, but I used around 2. My cookies turned out bigger so I was only able to make 24 instead of the the 52 that the original recipe said it would make) Shape into balls; place on ungreased cookie sheet
4. Bake 9-11 minutes or until cookie is set. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.
5. Optional chocolate drizzle- we decided that the cookie already had enough chocolate, so we decided not to do it. If you're a huge chocolate fan though, I'd recommend it :)
• Place remaining 1/4 cup chips and shortening in heavy-duty resealable plastic food storage bag. microwave at medium for 30 seconds; stir. If necessary, microwave at medium an additional 10 seconds at a time, kneading after each heating, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Cut off corner of bag about 1/8 inch from point. Drizzle over cookies. 

xoxo, traci 

BAKE | GIANT REESE'S PIECES COOKIES

I've had this bag of Reese's pieces for a while now. And I finally found a home for them in these giant Reese's pieces cookies! We mixed these up on Wednesday along with these giant pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and I put them in the fridge until I baked them all on Saturday. These were a big hit at our church bake sale since we were the only ones who baked anything peanut buttery. Also, Reese's pieces are naturally fall colors. What could be more perfect? 

xoxo, allison & traci

Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 3 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large egg + 2 egg yolk
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 (15 oz) bag of Reese's Pieces

1. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt. 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together. Whisk in the eggs, then the egg yolks. Mix in the vanilla. 
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together. Fold in Reese's Pieces. Cover the dough and chill for 2 hours, or up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory.
4. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 325F degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. 
6. Using a cookie scoop, roll 2 and 1/2 scoops into balls. Put 6 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet and smoosh down slightly with your palm. To make them look extra pretty, press a few more Reese's pieces on top of the dough balls. Bake the cookies for 12-13 minutes until edges are brown. (The cookies will look very soft and underbaked, but they will continue to bake on the cookie sheet.) Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Cookies stay soft and fresh for 7 whole days at room temperature. Rolled cookie dough may be frozen up to three months.