spreading the holiday calories—uhh, I mean--cheer (now closed)

(this contest is now closed)

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Hershey's

So, my mom is a baker. A fantastic baker. Every holiday there were always mounds and mounds of treats of all varieties. Christmas was always amazing with red & green candy cookies, coconut christmas tree cookies, wreath sugar cookies, fudge, wassail, and more. For each holiday during the school year, she’d make literally dozens and dozens of holiday-shaped sugar cookies that we would share with our classes in school. I could go on and on but I just gained 4 pounds thinking about her yummy treats.

All this to say that, baking is in my blood. My mom practically lived in the kitchen when we were growing up—partly due to the fact that we didn’t have a dishwasher—but mostly due to the fact that she cooked and baked and gave things away as charitable acts of service. Someone’s sick next door? Let’s take them over a casserole. So and so had a baby? Let’s take them some chocolate cake. Your friend had a bad day? Go take her these cookies.

I have to admit I’ve taken after her just a wee bit when it comes to giving away food. Since I too love to bake, but unfortunately am an eternal dieter, I often bake dozens of cookies just for fun, only to give them away to neighbors and friends so I don’t have to be tempted by them. I have a friend who is going thru a rough pregnancy and I’ve volunteered to take them a meal every single week if to help out just a little bit. I remember when an old friend had a horrific miscarriage—I showed up with some cinnamon rolls and said, “I don’t know what you’re going through, and I don’t know how I can help, but I can bake, so please, eat.”

One of my favorite ways to share treats, like many of you, is to make goodie plates during the holidays. Yes, Christmas—there, I said it. =) No political correctness on my blog! And like many of my neighbors, I like to come up with some special recipes, some tried and true, and some brand new what-do-you-think-of-these treats.

For this review I was given the opportunity to test out several of Hershey’s Kiss varieties. I baked and baked one Saturday afternoon, standing for approximately 4.5 hours (and yikes did my back hurt the next day!), taunting myself because I was on a liquid cleanse that week and couldn’t taste test what looked like master succulent creations. I had fun trying new things and make a humongous mess of my kitchen.

And forgive me, but I had my kids and hubby snap pictures of my journey along the way. I leave it to you to guess which shots were snapped by my hubby of eleven years. :)

I tried the recipes listed here on Hershey’s Kisses baking website. I made the Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies, the Triple Chocolate Cookies, and the Peanut Butter Blossoms. I also made the Kisses Cocoa Cookies but those didn’t turn out right. (I now know precisely what happens when you accidentally add twice the amount of required butter to a cookie recipe.)

I used the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Kisses for all these cookies—minus the ones that failed, I used the Hersheys Meltaway Kisses (which are oh-so-yummy)—and then shared them with friends, neighbors, and my kids’ friends. I’m still finding Hershey’s Kiss wrappers all over my house!

Anyway, it was interesting to see how people responded to the three different kinds. The Chocolate Thumbprints have a lot going on—chocolate cookie covered in peanuts and then a dollop of white icing and the Hershey’s Kiss on top. It gives a nice blend of sweet and salty. These were a favorite of some.

The Triple Chocolate variety consists of a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips inside and then a Hershey’s Kiss on top. Many said this cookie tasted like a brownie and it was the overall favorite. [It will in fact be the big Go To Cookie for the neighbors for Christmas this year]

My favorite was the Peanut Butter Blossoms as I am a huge sucker for anything peanut butter. The cool thing about these is they were made with sweetened condensed milk, which I do not bake with often. I love how soft the milk made this recipe. Several said there wasn’t enough peanut butter for these to be true peanut butter cookies—but the softness and consistency easily made these my favorite.

Ummm…yeah….there’s one of my hubby’s shots.

What’s your Go To Cookie for the holidays?

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Check out many more recipes on the Hershey's Holiday website.

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