Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
• 1 ¼ cups butter, at room temperature
• 1 tsp peppermint extract (optional, but I always use it)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup Candy Cane flavored Hershey’s Kisses, finely chopped (it takes about 18 Kisses to make a ½ cup)
• Granulated sugar
• 30-40 additional Candy Cane Kisses (I usually end up using 38)

Directions:

1. Unwrap the additional Candy Cane Kisses and place in a bowl in the freezer. This helps them keep their Kiss shape at the end of the process!
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Make room in freezer for your cookie sheet.
3. In large mixer bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, extracts, and egg. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often until creamy (2-3 minutes). In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to wet mixture and beat, scraping bowl often until well blended (1-2 minutes). The mixture will be a bit crumbly. Stir in chopped Kisses.
4. Shape dough into ¾-inch to 1-inch balls; roll in granulated sugar. Place 1 inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, take the Candy Cane Kisses out of the freezer and press one in the center of each cookie. The cookies may crack a little around the edges, so if needed you can use your fingers to hold the cookie together while you press the Kiss inside. Put cookie sheet (with cookies) immediately into the freezer so that the Kisses will set quickly and not melt (as soon as you press them into the cookies, they will begin to soften).
5. Once cookies have cooled completely, remove from freezer and enjoy!