Chocolate Thumbprints with Cookies and Cream Hershey’s Kisses

Thumbprint cookies are a childhood favourite. There’s something so satisfying about pressing your thumb into a soft ball of dough! I think the standard flavour is peanut butter which is filled with jam or jelly, so this is a bit different. Still, I have done peanut butter ones with kisses in the centre (actually, chocolate caramel kisses)!

I made these for Christmas (I know, I know, I’ve really fallen behind in posting) but I think they’d be really cute Valentine’s Day treats… they are kisses, after all! Christmas 2010, I managed to find the candy cane kisses (as mentioned  here) but this past Christmas I missed the boat! They were all sold out by the time I went to buy ingredients. Oh well, things like that just force us to be more creative and think about other things that work well! I chose cookies and cream kisses since the white would contrast well against the dark chocolatey cookie, but choose whichever flavour you please! They might even have Valentine’s themed ones…

Christmas Cookies

I’m a big Christmas baker. If I don’t bake it’s not Christmas. I’m not sure how this came about, but at some point I started making cookies to give away. Every year, I buy a cookie tin for each household in my family and fill it with a variety of cookies. I usually pick 4-6 recipes for the tins but this time of year tends to have lots of get togethers/potlucks/office parties etc., so I usually make cookies for those as well.

I know many people have a tried-and-true recipe that they make year after year, but I like using these tins as an opportunity to try a bunch of new recipes. I tend to pick these out in advance, to make life a little easier for the days leading up to Christmas. By planning it out, I can also make sure that there’s a variety of flavours, not just chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! (Not that all chocolate would be a bad thing… but it wouldn’t be ideal for some non-chocoholic family members.) The actual baking is usually accomplished in the 2 or 3 days leading up to Christmas because I used to bake in advance and freeze, but then I had a couple disasters!