Surprise Kisses

Margaret Varela

December 15, 2015

I first made these cookies many years ago when my friends and I use to have cookie exchange parties. Now they have become a family favourite!

These are perfect for cookie parties as they are small, easy to make and you can make a lot of them in a short amount of time.

And who doesn’t love hazelnuts and chocolate?

Surprise Kisses

Yields: 60 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter at room temperature (250ml)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (125ml)
1 tsp vanilla 5ml
2 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (575ml)
3/4 cup blanched hazelnuts, finely-chopped and toasted (175ml)
60 unwrapped milk chocolate kisses (or for variety use different flavours of Hershey kisses)
3/4 cup icing sugar (175ml)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl beat together butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy.
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour with hazelnuts.
Slowly stir flour and hazelnut mixture into the butter mixture, mix until well blended; the dough will be a bit crumbly.
Using your hands, mould a small amount of dough around each chocolate until covered.
Place cookies 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined, rimless baking sheet.
Bake on the middle rack of your oven until firm but not browned, approx. 10 minutes.
Let the cookies cool on baking sheets
Roll in icing sugar before serving.

For ease, I use a food processor to grind up the hazelnuts. If you choose to do this, make sure that the hazelnuts DO NOT become a powder, rather they are granules.

You can make these cookies ahead of time and freeze them in an airtight container. I recommend placing wax paper between each layer when freezing. I only roll them in icing sugar once they have defrosted and are ready to be served.