Gingerbread Kiss Cookies
Pillowy soft gingerbread cookies, lightly coated in sugar and topped off with a Hershey’s chocolate kiss. A must make holiday cookie.
This is my official kick-off to holiday baking. Or rather, Christmas holiday baking. Because there’s always a holiday of some sort. I’ve made a handful of thumbprint cookies before but never a kiss or blossom cookie. I don’t really get why some people call them blossoms. Chocolate blooming from a cookie? They don’t look like flowers blooming.
Due to a fairly recent allergy diagnosis in my immediate family, making traditional peanut butter blossoms, aka kiss cookies, were out of the question. My next logical thought was Biscoff because it’s a fantastic substitution for peanut butter in just about any recipe or situation, but it just wasn’t screaming Christmas or holiday baking to me.
I had one of those light-bulb moments of o m g it needs to be gingerbread. Yes, seriously. Pillowy soft gingerbread cookies, lightly coated in sugar and topped off with a Hershey’s chocolate kiss. They’re out of this world incredible. I’m not even remotely exaggerating. Of course, you must be a huge fan of gingerbread flavored goodies… but I am, so I’m completely allowed to make that kind of statement. A-maaazing!
Make these, love these and never think about peanut butter or Biscoff again. Okay maybe that’s going too far.
Gingerbread Kiss Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 C all purpose flour
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 C unsalted butter softened
- 3/4 C light brown sugar
- 1/2 C molasses
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 C granulated sugar
- 60 Hershey's Kisses unwrapped
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine first six ingredients, set aside. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar. Add molasses, egg and vanilla, mixing until nearly combined. Mix in flour mixture, beating until fully combined.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 2-4 hours or overnight. Dough should be fairly firm but still easy to work with and roll. Remove dough 20 minutes prior to baking.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare baking sheet with silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- Shape dough into 1" balls, roll in sugar and space 2" apart on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes. Immediately press an unwrapped chocolate kiss into each cookie. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in a covered container.
Great idea! They look amazing!
Love this twist for a nut-free version, so perfect for the holidays!
Gingerbread is one of my all time fave Christmas flavors. Love the update to the classic PB blossom!
Adorable! And such a great substitution for peanut butter at the holidays. :)
LOVE this gingerbread/chocolate combo…GREAT idea!!
Gorgeous photos, girl! And these cookies look amazing.. I easily want a dozen to myself.
I love gingerbread and chocolate together
oh yum..I love this! I love soft cookies more than anything..I can’t wait to try these!
Love this! I love gingerbread so I bet the combo is great!
First, that cake plate is adorable. Second, there is no way my self-control would hold for these. I love how soft and chewy they are!
i unwrapped all my kisses last night to make cookies tonight. these kiss cookies are so addictive.
Love the idea of gingerbread ones
These look great, I’m bookmarking this!
just wanted to say i had the PLEASURE of devouring 3-4 of these at Mixed this weekend and they were AMAZING. Super soft gingerbread cookie! I loved it. And I love you. A lot. I can’t wait to see you again :) :) :)
these look fabulous! i LOVE ginger and chocolate together :)
These are so cute. I love kiss cookies. I usually end up eating all of the kisses though.
I think all but one time I’ve bit the Kiss off before eating the cookie :)
These look delish! I must try them later.
They are so puffy and delicious looking!!
these look SO good. soooo festive!
Gingerbread is more festive than peanut butter,great idea !
What a fun combo Rachel – I love gingerbread and chocolate together! I so wish I had Hershey’s Kisses in the house right now.
Yeah and Thanks! I was looking for a different kind of kiss cookie to add on to my list! Yum!
These look so lovely! That’s the kind of gingerbread cookie that I will eat!
Yum! These sound amazing!! Thanks for sharing.
I also wanted to let you know that I featured you on my blog today
Hi! I made these last night and they turned out AMAZING! I think I love them more than the peanut butter version!
I posted about them on my blog, if that’s a problem just let me know and I will remove :)
Thanks so much for sharking this recipe!
So glad to hear you enjoyed them so much! And thank you for linking back :)
I am making the dough for these tonight for my Christmas gifts. Using this recipe as well as a few other favorites from your site.
Hey. loove the recipe, just beautiful cookies :)
I have one little problem, here in my country there’s no molases, is there any substitute for molases? maybe honey? or just skip the molases?
Pleaasee, let me know so i can bake this wonderful cookies as soon as i can :D
There are some great substitution suggestions on the Joy of Baking website: http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html Hope that helps!
These look great!! I would have loved to made them for this Holiday. On the other hand, I can happily eat gingerbread cookies all year long!
I am so excited about these since Peanut Blossoms were one of my favorite holiday treats and I recently found out I needed to be peanut free . Will be trying these soon. Thank you!
I might be biased but I think these are worlds better than peanut butter blossoms. Of course, I haven’t had a peanut butter version in probably a decade lol. I hope you enjoy them!! :)
These are so wonderful. I love the hershey pb ones but my husband didnt. We both love this cookie. Will definitely make them again. Thanks for sharing.
So glad to hear it! :)
Hey! I saw these and they looked delicious! So i tried to make them, but the dough was super crumbly and dry but if i pressed them together they were okay. After baking them they were still a bit dry but still good! Any suggestions? I live in Utah, so its a higher elevation and really dry, don’t know if that has anything to do with it.. :/
Thanks!
I’ve made them multiples times without issue. Occasionally it’s the difference between using a hand mixer vs stand mixer. A stand mixer is much more powerful, giving better results for certain recipes over what a hand mixer would offer. It’s also possible that measurements were off or as you noted, the altitude could have played a role. Unfortunately when it comes to baking there are so many possibilities that I cannot pinpoint it for you.
These little bites look so inviting. Love your presentation and photographs. I would love to make these for Christmas!
Thanks Alida!
Just made these yesterday..Yum! Oh, and I subbed dark chocolate kisses for the regular (they were out of regular at the store) and it was sooooo good!
So glad you enjoyed them, Robin! :)