Love Bites

For Joe's faculty meeting this month I wanted to make something a little Valentine's Day-ish but I didn't want to buy a lot of ingredients. Right after Christmas I had picked up a bag of Dark Chocolate Mint Truffle Hershey's Kisses on clearance because I thought they sounded delicious (and they are, they taste just like Andes mints, which I adore). But I didn't need to eat the whole bag myself, so I thought I would use them up and make the recipe for Mint Capped Brownie Cookie Cups that was on the back of the kiss bag. I added some red sprinkles and candy hearts for decoration - a little nod to the holiday is better than none, right? These are very tasty and simple to make. I finally got to use my mini muffin tins, and I loved them for this recipe because it helped me with portion control (I tend to make giant cookies and then I don't get as many out of my recipes) and allowed me to bake all 48 cookies at one time. The chocolate and mint go wonderful together, but you could use any flavor Kiss you like - and with all the new flavors they keep unveiling you have a wide variety to choose from!

Mint Capped Brownie Cookie Cups

48 Hershey's Kisses brand Dark Chocolate Mint Truffles
2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Powdered sugar (optional)

Heat oven to 350 and line 48 small muffin cups with paper or foil baking liners. (I just sprayed the tins with non-stick spray and they were fine.) Remove wrappers from chocolates.
Beat butter, granulated sugar, water and vanilla in a large bowl on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; beat well.
Stir together flour, cocoa, salt ang baking soda. Gradually add to sugar mixture, beating on low just until blended. If necessary, refrigerate until firm enough to handle. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place in prepared muffin cups. (I did not refrigerate the dough and just spooned the dough into the cups free-form.)
Bake for 11 to 13 minutes or until cookie surface is set. Cookies will appear soft and moist - do not overbake. Cool about five minutes in muffin cups on wire rack. Press Kiss into surface of each cookie cup. Cool completely in pan on wree rack. Sprinkle each cooke with powdered sugar, if desired.