I'm back!

Christmas baking!

My daughter asked me this week, "Why do we make so many desserts and eat so much candy during Christmas?"  I had no answer for her, but it got me thinking....maybe we should just keep on baking through the New Year?  In preparation for a few Christmas celebrations coming up this week, I spent my Saturday (and first day of Christmas vacation:) grocery shopping, cleaning, baking and wrapping.  I'm going to share a recipe for Coconut kiss cookies tonight.  My husband says they're really good...I don't know...I do not care for coconut.  He says they taste like a macaroon.  I also made 2 batches of chocolate fudge, 1 pecan pie, 1 loaf of zucchini bread, and prepared the scalloped potatoes for tomorrow.

Here is the recipe, as copied from Pinterest:
(I made some changes which I'll explain below)

Coconut kiss cookies

2 1/2 cups All purpose flour

1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt

2/3 cups butter, softened

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 egg yolks

1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon juice from a fresh orange

10 cups sweetened flaked coconut, divided in to 6 cup and 4 cup portions

1 bag Hershey Kisses (48 pieces)

Step 1: In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Step 2: In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, vanilla and orange juice and beat till smooth.

Step 3: In 1 cup increments, mix flour in to the butter mixture. Add the 6 cups flaked coconut and beat to combine.

Step 4: Refrigerate dough for 1 hour. While dough is chilling, remove wrappers from the Kisses.

Step 5: Preheat oven to 350. One at a time, scoop dough into 1.5" balls (about the size of a large walnut, roll between your palms, then roll in the bowl of remaining coconut (4 cups). Arrange on an ungreased baking sheet, at least an inch apart (cookies will spread slightly). A standard cookie sheet should accommodate a dozen cookies at a time. Bake 12-14 minutes, until the cookies puff and are very lightly browned.

Step 6: Remove from oven. Immediately press one Kiss into each cookie. Return pan to oven and bake for an additional minute.

 

Step 7: Remove pan from oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes. With a thin spatula, gently move cookies on to a rack to finish cooling.

 

My changes:  I did not use orange juice and I used half the coconut that the recipe calls for (again, I don't like coconut). 

 

 

And there you have coconut kiss cookies!

 

I started this blog last year, as part of a New Year's resolution.  I started out pretty good, and was encouraged that people actually looked at the page, but then somewhere between the middle of summer fun and the craziness that always comes with the new school year, I dropped the ball.  So, here I am, sitting on the couch waiting for the elevel o'clock news, and thinking about resolutions.  One of them is going to be to get back on track with this project.  Baking and cooking are things I enjoy doing for my family.  And, I'm looking forward to sharing my successes here.

 

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!