Gwen's Cookbook

This site houses the toddler-friendly recipes for Gwen's Cookbook. These recipes use iconography heavily and try to limit vocabulary to simple "easy reader" words with minimal cooking jargon.

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Hershey Kiss Cookies

Hershey Kiss Cookies
Hershey Kiss Cookies "Peanut Butter Blossoms by Hershey's" by watchmojo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Hershey Kiss Cookies (or as Hershey’s apparently prefers to call them: Peanut Butter Blossoms) bring back happy childhood memories for me. Every December, my whole extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents would gather at my Aunt Marilyn’s house for the holidays. My Grandma would always make Buckeyes and Hershey Kiss Cookies with us kids, and these were by far my favorite holiday treat.

We made a batch of these this Christmas, along with Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread Men, and I can confirm that they are still my favorites.

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees

350 degrees

350 degrees

Oven oven

2. Remove wrappers from the kisses

  • 48

    Hershey's Kisses

    Hershey Kisses

Peel

Peel

Small mixing bowl small bowl

3. Put shortening and peanut butter in mixer

  • 1/2 cup

    1/2 cup

    Vegetable shortening

    shortening

  • 1/2 cup

    1/2 cup

    1/4 cup

    1/4 cup

    Creamy peanut butter

    creamy peanut butter

Put

Put

Stand mixer mixer

4. Beat until well blended

  • 3

Lever

Lever

Stand mixer mixer

5. Add sugars

  • 1/3 cup

    1/3 cup

    White sugar

    white sugar

  • 1/3 cup

    1/3 cup

    Light brown sugar

    light brown sugar

Put

Put

Stand mixer mixer

6. Beat until fluffy

  • 3

Lever

Lever

Stand mixer mixer

7. Add egg, milk and vanilla

  • 1

    Egg

    egg

  • 1 tablespoon

    1 tablespoon

    1 tablespoon

    1 tablespoon

    Whole milk

    whole milk

  • 1 teaspoon

    1 teaspoon

    Vanilla extract

    vanilla

Put

Put

Stand mixer mixer

8. Beat well

  • 3

Lever

Lever

Stand mixer mixer

9. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl

  • 1 cup

    1 cup

    1/2 cup

    1/2 cup

    All-Purpose flour

    all-purpose flour

  • 1 teaspoon

    1 teaspoon

    Baking soda

    baking soda

  • 1/2 teaspoon

    1/2 teaspoon

    table salt

    salt

Put

Put

Medium mixing bowl medium bowl

10. Gradually beat flour mixture into peanut butter mixture

  • Medium mixing bowl

    medium bowl

Lever

Lever

Stand mixer mixer

11. Shape dough into 1-inch balls

12. Put granulated sugar in small bowl

  • 1/3 cup

    1/3 cup

    White sugar

    white sugar

Put

Put

Small mixing bowl small bowl

13. Roll balls in granulated sugar

14. Place balls on ungreased cookie sheet.

15. Put cookie sheet in oven

  • Baking sheet

    baking sheet

Put

Put

Oven oven

16. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned

  • 8

    minutes

timer

timer

Oven oven

17. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges

  • 48

    unwrapped hershey kiss

Put

Put

Baking sheet baking sheet

18. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

  • Baking sheet

    baking sheet

Oven mitts

Oven mitts

Wire rack for cooling backed goods wire rack