Pumpkin cookies with chocolate kisses

When were chocolate kisses invented?  How did we survive without them? Particularly when making cookies like these luscious soft, mildly spicy, pumpkin cookies. Go straight for the chocolate, or take bites around the edges and let each bite melt in your mouth before munching the chocolate–either way this is just about the perfect cookie.

Actually Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses, have been around since 1907. [In 1907, my mother was one year old and my father had not yet been born. So not only have Kisses been around my entire life, but my parents’ as well.] While that article I linked in the previous sentence talks about red green and silver foil for Christmas, we know that not only have the foil colors expanded, but kisses are no longer limited to dark brown milk chocolate. Flavors this time of year include pumpkin spice kisses!

Naturally, the Hershey company encourages you to bake with their chocolate (or other flavors) kisses.  Their website shares some great recipes.

I am still in my pumpkin phase, and wanted to use up some of that pureed pumpkin I made from baked pie pumpkins.  To kick it up a bit, I added a kiss to each cookie. But being a traditionalist, I used milk chocolate kisses.

You can make pumpkin cookies with a glaze, with cream cheese frosting, with maple frosting (Mmmmm, that sounds good!) , with chocolate chips and/or nuts inside the cookies or leave them clean.

While you can find several recipes on line, I particularly like this one because it offers a solution to how in the world can you store cookies with kisses on top?  After all they have a pretty point on top and that is bound to get broken when you stack the cookies with the tip pointing up.

[Spoiler Alert] Brilliant solution:  turn the kisses upside down.

Pumpkin Cookies

Print recipe

Serves	24-30
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	12 minutes
Total time	22 minutes
Allergy	Egg, Wheat
Meal type	Dessert
Misc	Child Friendly, Freezable

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (softened)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup pureed pumpkin (canned or freshly baked)
• 2 cups flour

Directions

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, or lightly grease.
2.	Beat butter with electric mixer until smooth.
3.	Beat in brown sugar
4.	Stir or beat in pumpkin, spices, vanilla, egg
5.	Whisk together baking soda and baking powder with flour, and then beat the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture.
6.	Drop by tablespoon unto cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes until lightly browned on edges and firm on top.
7.	Take from cookie sheet onto cooling rack. Place a chocolate kiss upside down in center of each cookie and let cool.