#46: Candy Cane Blossoms

I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I also love that this year I have a whole list of Christmas treats to make. I have BIG plans for this blog post-New Years, so I want to make sure I get in all of the sugary, buttery goodness I can as quickly as possible. Savor the holidays without any guilt, you know what I'm saying? ANYWAYS, the first weekend in December has brought with it an opportunity to harness my baking powers for good, so I quickly took out my laptop and scanned through my Pinterest account looking for a cookie that I knew would WOW the women of the branch. THIS is the best I could do. I wanted something festive, yet not overly complicated so I knew I couldn't mess it up. I still managed to, but the results were still deliciously edible. Here goes...

#46: Candy Cane Blossoms (as found on bakedperfection.com)

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 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons milk

Red and Green colored sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove wrappers from candies (approx. 35)

Bowl full of awesome.

2. 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.

     - This sugar cookie recipe isn't very sugary. Although obviously the gobs of colored sugar I added to the cookie prior to baking definitely sweetened them up, I'm not sure if this is a recipe I would use for just, straight sugar cookies... you know what I'm saying?

3. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in red and/or green colored sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 8 - 1o minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cookies is set. Remove from oven; cool 2 to 3 minutes. Press candy piece into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Yields approximately 35 cookies.

     - So many lies. First of all, NO, 12 minutes is the amount of time I kept them in. My parent's poor oven strikes again. Second, three minutes to wait isn't enough either. I placed the kisses in the center of the cookie after said time, and they immediately melted. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of this mistake... subconsciously I think I didn't want to admit I am STILL a klutz in the kitchen.

There you go. SO CUTE. I have seen this recipe ALL OVER Pinterest, and it is worth making. My mom is even going to make this recipe again for our own family cookies, they're that easy and ADORABLE! Here are some pictures to prove it:

But I'm too silly to remember to take pictures of the cookies once they're COMPLETED, so here is the picture from the recipe: