Sunday, February 3, 2008

Besos

yields 25-30 besos

Here's a sweet Valentine’s Day treat that that will make your buck stretch and make your sweet heart keep coming back for more. I named these cookies besos (it means “kisses” in Spanish) because whenever I make them I think of my one true love D. All I can think about is his eyes lighting up whenever I walk in the room, especially if I’m cooking! It's like meeting him for the first time all over again. And these cookies will make your special someone react the same way. Besos are also great to give away as presents for Valentine's Day.

You will need:

  • 1 cookie sheet
  • A rolling pin
  • Any romantically-shaped cookie cutter
  • Wax paper

Ingredients:

  • 1 20 oz. bag of Hershey milk chocolate kisses
  • 1 32 oz. tube of pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough
  • Any size bag of romantically-themed cookie decorations
  • Cooking oil, preferably in a spray can

A note on cookie cutters and decorations: These days, there are a variety of romantically-shaped cookie cutters that are obviously most appropriate for Valentine’s Day. For example, there are some cutters in the shape of a heart with an arrow through it, cupid, a pair of lips, Xs and Os, etc. It’s also a good idea to be cutters in different sizes. I highly recommend Country Kitchen Sweet Art, where cookie cutters are as cheap as $1.25. They also sell some very nice edible decorations; I bought their mini hearts edible confetti and their red lips confetti sprinkles.

I actually forgot my cookie cutters when I made the batch in the photos. The next batch of besos will look much better when shaped and decorated for Disco Crisco Twister in two weeks.

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Because you’re going to shape the dough and not just slice little discs of dough from the tube, it’s best to simply cut open the tube, lay out the dough on a large piece of wax paper and cover it with another piece of wax paper so the dough won’t stick to the rolling pin when you flatten it. Once flattened, peel the top layer of wax paper off and push the cutter down into the dough. Spray the cookie sheet with cooking oil and place the shaped cookies on it. When you run out of available space on the dough for your cutters, simply join together all the excess dough, cover it with second wax paper and flatten it again with the rolling pin. Keep this up until you have run out of unshaped cookie dough.

In the event that you end up with a piece of dough that is not big enough for the cookie cutter, simply roll it up in to a ball and slap it on the sheet with the rest of the cookies. After the cookies are baked, gobble up that little cookie ball so no one else will ever know of its existence. Unwrap your Hershey’s kisses and place one in the center of each cookie. If you are using sprinkles or some other sugary decoration place them on the cookie before baking them.

For chewy cookies leave the cookies in the oven for about 8 to 10 minutes. But if you like your cookies with a crunch then leave it in for about 10 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the sheet or on a plate before storing them away or the cookies will stick together. I usually store my cookies in a tin with wax paper between them. The cookies should hold up for about two weeks or so.

Everyone loves my besos, even furry blue monsters!








1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Missy, I ate your besos at arlene's grocery last month and they were delicious! But some of the cookies were broken. I guess you can't have Valentine's Day with out a few broken hearts right?