Rogue Recipes: Cocoa Kisses

I started my holiday baking recently, but I'm trying to do it in small snippets because it's tough to find an entire day to devote to the cause. And I was really, really excited to try this Hershey's recipe because I've been drooling over the photo for months. Chocolate kisses, wrapped in a chocolate shortbread dough, baked in perfect little balls, and then rolled in powdered sugar.

Perfect, right?

Except this is one recipe that did not turn out at all as planned. I think there was just way too much butter in the dough for this to ever work out.

Disclaimer: I can't eat nuts at the moment, so I didn't include the pecans in the dough. Would this have made all the difference? I think someone should give it a try!

Cocoa Kisses
Makes about 4 dozen cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup finely chopped pecans
About 4 dozen Hershey's kisses, unwrapped
Powdered sugar for rolling/sprinkling

1. Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Stir together flour and cocoa,and gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended.

2. Add pecans, beating until blended. (This is the step I skipped; instead, I added a bit more flour.)

3. Cover and refrigerate dough about 1 hour, or until firm enough to handle.

4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

5. Take 1: Mold a scant tablespoon of dough around each Hershey's kiss, covering completely. Shape into balls and place on a cookie sheet.

6. Take 1: Bake 10-12 minutes, or until set. Now, at the 10-minute mark, I peeked into my oven and was horrified to discover that instead of cookie balls, I had beach hats. (Some of which I sprinkled with powdered sugar, which then looked like sand.)

5. Take 2: Roll tablespoons of dough into balls. Place balls in a mini muffin tin and flatten to create a crust. Add a Hershey's kiss to each.

6. Take 2: Bake 8-10 minutes, or until set. Now, I had little Hershey's kiss tartlets, with slightly browned tips on the kisses.

Both tasted great, but neither was ideal in looks. I had to hurry up and eat most of them so no one else would see them.

Let me know if you try these and get a better result!