It’s the beginning of December and it is time to begin holiday baking!!! I found this recipe on Pinterest from Baked Perfection called “Candy Cane Blossoms” and I loved how cute and festive they looked. Her photo is beautiful and really is what made me want to try this recipe. Also a recipe with a sugar cookies and candy cane kisses, how could it not be amazing? Anyway I didn’t really change the recipe, I added a few of my own comments that I thought might be helpful and renamed them Peppermint Kiss Cookies. The original recipe is from Hersey’s.

This is original photo from Baked Perfection. Yummy!

Ingredients

1 bag Hershey;s Kisses brand Candy Cane Kisses

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

2 – 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons milk

1 cup Red colored sugar

1 cup Green colored sugar

To make your own Colored Sugar

2 cups granulated sugar

2 zip sandwich bags

Red and green liquid food coloring

You won’t need this much sugar, but you will have plenty of leftover for your holiday baking

Night Before (If you are making your own colored sugar)

I couldn’t find colored sugar in the stores, so I decided to make my own. It is easy to to do, but I wasn’t able to achieve a vivid red or green, it is more pink and mint. Still the cookies turn out super cute, just don’t be disappointed if they aren’t a true red and green.

Put 1 cup of sugar in each zip sandwich bag. Do one bag at time, add 9-10 drops of red food coloring to one bag and 9-10 drops of green to the other. I started with 5 and kept adding until I was happy with the color. You can experiment with how many drops you use to achieve the color you want. Shake the bag to disperse the color throughout, you will have to use your finger to break apart the spots where the color collects in the sugar

Leave the sugar out in bowls or spread out on a plate to dry overnight. Stir every so often.

Next Day

Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg in large bowl until well blended.

Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; add alternatively with milk to butter mixture, beating until well blended. The photo above is with 2 cups of flour, it seemed to sticky to me to be rolled into balls.

Much better with 1/2 cup more flour. I added 1/4 cup at a time till I was happy with the consistency.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in red and/or green colored sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. I use a silicon baking sheet on the pan to make clean up easier.

The recipe recommends baking for 8 – 1o minutes, but I need 12 minutes until the edges were lightly browned and the cookies were set. Remove from oven; cool 2 to 3 minutes. I used this time while the cookies where in the oven to remove the wrappers from the candy.

Press candy piece into center of each cookie. You want to push the candy in enough so it stays on the cookie, but not too much that the cookie begins to crack. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Yields approximately 35 cookies according to Baked Perfection but I came out with 45.