Baking Post: Kiss Cookies

I have not yet exhausted my urge to bake, so today I whipped up a batch of what I call Kiss Cookies. The recipe calls them Peanut Blossoms. My name is less boring ;)

Kiss Cookies


Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening*
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla**
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Hershey's Kisses

* I used butter, which both my grandma and my Google-Fu told me I could substitute on a one-to-one basis. But you can use Crisco if you want ;)
** Again, I was very generous with the vanilla. In my cookies, it was probably actually closer to a teaspoon and a half.


Method:
01) Cream together the shortening/butter (whichever you use) and the peanut butter.

02) Add in the white and brown sugars and cream well.

03) Add the egg, the milk, and the vanilla and blend well.

04) Sift together (or, if you're lazy like me and can't be arsed to find a sifter, just stir together) the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients gradually to the dough.

05) Roll dough into balls (the size will depend on how much cookie you want surrounding your kisses; I started out kind of small and then started making the balls bigger, close to golf ball size - I prefer the bigger ones). Roll the balls in sugar and place on cookie sheet.

06) Bake at 375 F for approximately 8 minutes. When the cookies have started to crack but are not starting to brown yet, take them out and place one chocolate kiss in the center, pressing down firmly. Return cookies to oven and bake for an additional 2-5 minutes, until golden brown.


NOTE: You should unwrap the kisses before you need to put them on the cookies, because you don't want to take too long to do it before putting them back in the oven. I did it during the first 8 minutes the cookies were in the oven. Also, if you're using stoneware cookie sheets that take extra time the first time around (like I do), it's helpful to let them preheat with the oven so the time isn't as screwy. I just made the dough balls and rolled them in sugar while the cookie sheets were getting hot and put them on a plate until I was ready to put them on the sheets.

YIELD: There isn't an estimated yield in the recipe I used (it's from an old Fireman's Auxillary cookbook from the town my grandparents grew up in, not an "official" cookbook). I got about two and a half dozen, but if I hadn't made the first half-dozen or so as small as I did (which was imho too small), it would have been lower. Probably more like two dozen, give or take.