Melt in your mouth short bread cookies baked with a sweet chocolate kiss tucked away inside. These Hidden Kiss Cookies are everything perfect Christmas cookies should be.
Secret Kiss Cookies
It’s always so much fun making Christmas cookies with the kids. We have a great time trying out new recipes to add to our list of family favorites. This year we’ve added some that are a huge hit, like these No Bake Peanut Butter Haystack Cookies, Gum Drop Cookies and these Ooey Gooey Christmas Cookies.
This easy cookie recipe starts out with a short bread dough similar to Russian Tea Cakes or Mexican Wedding Cookies. But these little cookies get the star treatment when a chocolate candy kiss is nestled into the center of each dough ball. After they are baked, they’re rolled in powdered sugar to look like Snowball Cookies. But when you bite into them you, hidden inside is a soft and creamy chocolate surprise!
These delicious cookies make a great addition to any cookie tray and are such wonderful festive homemade treats to share during the holidays with friends and family. If you want to add more chocolate kiss cookies, you should try these amazing Peanut Butter Blossoms or these tasty Candy Cane Kiss Cookies.
Ingredients in Secret Kiss Cookies
- ¾ cups Butter – room temperature
- ¼ cup Shortening
- 1 ½ cups Sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ tsp Vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 box Instant vanilla pudding
- 1 tsp baking Powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 70-80 Hershey Kisses
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
How to Make Hershey’s Secret Kiss Cookies
- Start by creaming together butter, shortening, and sugar with an electric mixer.
- To the butter you’ll add in the eggs, vanilla, and instant pudding mix and continue mixing until thoroughly incorporated.
- In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients a little at a time, mixing on low speed well until everything will well combined.
- Scoop out a tablespoon of dough. Roll dough into a ball and press a Hershey Kiss into the center of each cookie. Pinch the dough up and around the kiss to create a cone shaped ball of dough.
- After you finish rolling up all the dough, place them in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
- Next, it is time to bake them! Start by pre heating the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the chilled cookies on a baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Put the cookies in the preheated oven and bake them for 12-15 minutes, or until the cookies are set and they are light golden brown around the edges.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and them to allow to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes.
- Place the confectioners’ sugar in a bowl. While the cookies are still slightly warm, roll them around in the powdered sugar and set them on a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- When the cookies have completely cooled roll them again in the powdered sugar to coat in another layer.
Can I Make this Cookie Dough in Advance?
Yes! All the Christmas baking can get a little hectic. To help save some time, make this dough up to 2-3 days in advance. It’s a big time saver. Just make sure the dough is covered well and kept chilled in the fridge.
How to Store Hidden Kiss Cookies
For leftovers: Store any leftover cookies in an airtight container on your countertop for up to a week.
For Freezing: Wrap the cookies in a couple of layers of plastic wrap, then slip them into a freezer bag. They should freeze well for up to three months. When you are ready to serve them, allow the cookies to thaw out completely before biting into one because the chocolate kisses are hard when frozen.
How Do I Keep My Cookies from Spreading?
When you are rolling the dough into balls, the warmth of your hands can cause the dough to soften. which results in your cookies spreading when baked. Make sure you chill the dough after you roll until it chilled through.
Variations of Hershey Kiss Cookies
- Hershey Kisses: The great thing about this versatile cookie recipe is they will all work great with any of the many flavors of chocolate kisses! From classic chocolate kisses to white chocolate kisses, candy cane kisses, dark chocolate kisses to cookies and cream kisses and even strawberry chocolate kisses that would be perfect for Valentines Day, there are just too many to choose just one! Pick several flavors and have a variety of flavors to add to your cookie platter!
- Pudding: One of the secret ingredients to the moist texture of these cookies is the pudding mix. If you want more of a chocolate cookie dough, just swap out the vanilla pudding for chocolate pudding.
- Cocoa Powder- Make these vanilla cookies into chocolate cookies by simply adding a tablespoon of cocoa powder to the dough.
- Chocolate Chip Cookies: For chocolate chip cookies, then try adding 1/4 mini chocolate chips to the dough before rolling into balls
- Pecan Sandies: By adding 1/4 finely chopped pecan, you’ve now got pecan shortbread cookie dough!
Want More Holiday Desserts?
- Ritz Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies
- Chocolate Rum Balls
- Christmas Poke Cake
- Old Fashioned Pecan Pie
- 3-Ingredient Christmas Fudge
- Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars
Hidden Kiss Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cups butter softened
- ¼ cup shortening
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 3.4 ounces instant vanilla pudding 1 small box
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 70-80 Hershey Kisses
- 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
Instructions
- Cream together butter, shortening, and sugar with an electric mixer.
- Add in eggs, vanilla, and instant pudding mix. Continue mixing until thoroughly incorporated.
- In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add the four mixture to the butter mixture a little at a time mixing between additions until all the flour is incorporated.
- Scoop out dough by the tablespoonful. Make a ball with the dough and then press a Hershey Kiss into the center. Pinch the dough up and around the kiss to create a cone shaped ball of dough.
- Repeat until all dough is used. Place the cookies in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
- When ready to bake preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the chilled cookies on a baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until set and lightly golden brown around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes or until cool enough to handle but still warm.
- Place the powdered sugar in a bowl. Place the warm cookies in the bowl of powdered sugar and gently roll to coat. Place on a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Once the cookies are cooled completely roll them in the powdered sugar again to coat in another layer.
Nutrition
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Comments & Reviews
L Webb says
These look delish! The grandkids are going to love them.