Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies

I tossed a bag of Hershey's Kisses into my grocery cart a couple of weeks ago thinking I'd make Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies this holiday season.While the traditional cookies were cooling on the rack, I couldn't help but see a reindeer face in the making. You MUST make these for your little ones this year!

The Peanut Butter Blossoms are pretty enough, as is, but with a little extra prep, you can turn them into a "wow" cookie. Let's start with the *Best Peanut Butter Cookie* recipe.

1 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup peanut butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

splash of vanilla extract

3 cups of flour

Cream the shortening, sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter and eggs.  Add the baking soda and powder and then a splash of vanilla extract.  Add the flour.  Bake 350F 8-10 minutes.  Yields approximately 3 dozen cookies (using 1.5" balls of dough).

Follow the recipe and baking instructions, but skip the addition of M&Ms. Instead, roll the cookie dough balls in a bowl of granulated sugar before placing on the cookie sheet for baking. When you remove the cookies from the oven, press the Hershey's Kiss into the center of the cookie. The chocolate kiss will warm and starts to soften. This is the perfect time to stick 2 candy eyeballs on the softened chocolate.

 You can see the glossy warm chocolate...

 Warm some white candy melts and a few Hershey's Kisses until melted smooth.

 Place the melted chocolate in a Ziploc and snip a small corner to pipe reindeer antlers.

Pipe quickly! The chocolate gets firm as it cools. It's always a good idea to pipe more than you need in case some break while handling. I piped about 20 sets of antlers onto wax paper.

 Once the antlers set, peel from the wax paper and adhere using a small dot of the warmed candy from the piping bag. You can always reheat the Ziploc in the microwave to soften again.

I wanted to keep the nose shape of the Hershey's Kiss, so I warmed a small skillet on the stove to press into the very tip of the Hershey's Kiss- enough to melt some chocolate to adhere the red candy nose.

 It's just a small egg frying pan.

 That's it! They are so cute and they are sure to make your guests/kids/co-workers/loved ones smile.

This is a simple food craft for kids to help create. Have them roll the peanut butter cookie dough balls in the granulated sugar prior to baking. While the cookies are baking, have the kids unwrap the Hershey's Kisses and help press them into the center of the cookie.