Christmas Cookie Party

To kick off the Christmas cookie baking season, I made these delicious chocolate crackle cookies a few weeks. True, to form, the holiday season has been a whirlwind ever since and my list of baking hopes and dreams remains very, very long. 

Last weekend, Alicia hosted a cookie baking/exchange party at her festive home. I love a good cookie, as well as the opportunity to sample an assortment. Last year, Alicia and I spent a joyous Sunday afternoon baking (8 or so different varieties of cookies) until our hearts were content. 

Adorning our festive aprons pre-baking last year

Admitting to ourselves that we may have slightly overdone things last year, we vowed to keep our recipes to a minimum and extended the invitation to the rest of our group as well. It ended up turning into more of a cookie exchange than baking due to the number of people participating, but it with Christmas music in the air, it was just the push I needed to kick-start my somewhat lagging Christmas spirit. 

Alicia and Dan's amazing Santa bathroom set made it impossible not to embrace my inner [very excited] child

Limiting myself to one type of cookie for this year's bake-off, I found myself returning to a recipe that I'd made last year during our day of Christmas cookies. This time, the addition of mini chocolate chips made the end result a little ball of chocolate happiness!

Hidden Hershey Kisses

Ingredients

Adapted from Tastebook

• Approx 48 Hershey's Kisses (I used a mix of hugs and the dark chocolate version)
• 1 cup butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Similar to the peppermint patty brownies, there was a lot of unwrapping involved

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 375°F

2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl until well blended

3. Add flour to butter mixture; blend until smooth. Stir in mini chocolate chips

4. Mold a tablespoon dough around each chocolate piece, covering completely. Shape into balls; place on ungreased cookie sheet

5. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set. Cool completely

6. After cookies have cooled, melt the semi-sweet chocolate chips in a microwave bowl for 30 seconds, followed by 15 second intervals. Stir between each cook time until smooth

7. Drizzle chocolate over each cookie. Place cookies in refrigerator until chocolate hardens (about 30 minutes) or in the freezer (10 minutes) to speed up the process