Hershey's Kisses Peanut Butter Blossoms- Jasmine Terry

Hershey's Kisses Peanut Butter Blossoms

Ingredients:
1 bag of Hershey Kisses

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Granulated sugar

Directions:
1.) Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove wrappers from chocolate

2.) Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cups granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture

3.) Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on untreated cookie sheet

4.) Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will cracked around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely

Preparation Method:
For this recipe I looked on the back of a bag of Hershey Kisses. Every year we make these cookies for Christmas and this year I was the one who made them. I followed the recipe exactly except I replaced the shortening with butter because we were out of shortening. In the end, though, it didn't effect the cookies. The type of cookie this I made is the drop cookie because it was soft dough that is dropped from a spoon on to the cookie sheet. I used the creaming method as a mixing method for this recipe. In the creaming method you have to mix the fats first then add sugar and that's what I did. Also I had to mix all the dry ingredients together separate from the other ingredients; then add it in later, slowly, with the fat mixture. The purpose of the creaming method is aeration and increase volume of fat by adding sugar, which acts as an abrasive. This causes cutting tiny holes into the fat, which then seals over, creating tiny bubbles that will help with the texture of the cookie. A good tips for baking cookies is to take the cookies out when they are golden brown on the edge because cookies carry-over bake. Carry-over baking contiunes to bakes the cookies when they are outside of the oven so you don't want to over bake cookies or they can become burnt even outside of the oven. In the end I had one batch of cookies a little darker than the the other batch but they still all tasted good.

Critique:
My cookies were thirt-quenching cracked light chewy cookies. The sugar on top of it just glistened in the light calling for you to eat it. The smell of peanut butter filled the air as I pulled them out of the oven. And the texture was just so soft. The cookies were so moist and chewy as I ate the sugary sweetness. The hint of peanut butter and chocolate made the cookie even more perfect. My family and I couldn't control ourselves around these thick fluffy cookies.

Assessment:
I would definitely make this recipe agian in my free time. The cookies turned out really good and I would like for that result again. I learned that if your going to replace an ingredient with a different ingredient you will have to make sure it won't ruin the final product. Overall, my cookies turned out good and I am excited to make them again.