I’m pleased to share these Candy Cane Kiss Cookies with you because they’re my favorite holiday cookie recipe of all time! Watch the short video showing you how to make these cookies, then scroll to the bottom of this post and print out the recipe so you can bake them at home.
Candy Cane Kiss Cookies
You’ll want to print out this recipe and save it for the holidays. Candy Cane Kiss Cookies are the best Christmas cookie recipe!
When the fall holidays arrive, the Candy Cane Kisses begin to appear on supermarket shelves too. These are an incredibly delicious flavor delivered by the Hershey’s Kisses people. And they’re amazing tucked into a cookie too.
Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses
I love these things. I mean truly love these. They’re addicting, and they shouldn’t be purchased unless you plan to share… or bake Candy Cane Kiss Cookies.
These Candy Cane Kisses can be found during the fall/winter holidays at Target or drug stores and some grocery stores too. They’re amazing little treats. And I love them. Have I mentioned that?
These delightful little kiss cookies have some of those Candy Cane Kisses chopped up and incorporated into the cookie itself.
How to Make Candy Cane Kiss Cookies
The pepperminty cookie dough is rolled into balls and then tossed in a little bit of granulated sugar.
And the baked cookies are topped while warm with a Candy Cane Kiss. Then they’re placed into the refrigerator or freezer to set the chocolate so it doesn’t melt into the cookie. They’re such a pretty cookie for the holidays.
The Best Christmas Cookie Recipe
Candy Cane Kiss Cookies are good make-ahead cookies. They freeze well… so you can take them out for cookie platters when you’re ready for plating, or just take them out of the freezer and chow-down on Christmas treats when the mood happens to strike.
I believe they’re the best Christmas cookie recipe because they’ve been the number one favorite on my holiday cookie platters every year for the last ten years now!
When my son was little, he used to think these cookies were a good one to leave out for Santa, along with a glass of milk and a carrot for Rudolph.
You must find these specialty Kisses this holiday season and try them, and then definitely make some Candy Cane Kiss Cookies too!
If you’re looking for more festive cookie recipes for the holidays, you might also like to try my Chocolate Mint Wafers or these Holiday Nuggets. Christmas Crinkle Cookies, Molasses Honey Ginger Cookies and Gingerbread Christmas Tree Cookies are lovely holiday cookies too!
Candy Cane Kiss Cookies
Ingredients
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
- 1¼ cups (2½ sticks) butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract (optional- see recipe notes)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup finely chopped Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses
- granulated white sugar
- 30 unwrapped Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Make room in either the refrigerator or freezer for your cookie sheet.
- In a large mixer bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the powdered sugar, butter, egg and extracts. Beat at medium speed, scraping the bowl often until creamy (2 to 3 minutes). In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and beat, scraping bowl often until well blended (1 to 2 minutes). The mixture will be a bit crumbly. Stir in the chopped Kisses.
- Shape the dough into 3/4-inch to 1-inch balls; roll in sugar. Place 1-inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until set. As soon as they come out of the oven, press a Candy Cane Kiss into the center of each cookie. They'll crack a little around the edges, so just use your fingers to kind of hold the cookie together while you set the kiss inside. Put cookie sheet (with cookies) immediately into the freezer (preferred) or refrigerator so that the Kisses will set quickly. As soon as you press them into the cookie, they will begin to soften... so if you can get them into the freezer then they will keep their Kiss shape.
- Store in a covered container- at room temperature for up to a week. In the freezer they should be okay for a couple of weeks.
Notes
- *The addition of peppermint extract is completely optional. The cookie gets plenty of peppermint flavor from the addition of the chopped kisses, but if you’d like it really minty then go ahead and add the peppermint extract.
- *I’ve spotted these Kisses at Target and CVS Pharmacy.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I LOVE this recipe! Adding it to my must make recipes! So delicious! I couldn’t help but snack on the dough the whole time!
Great recipe! Solved the melting kisses. I froze them so I could put tge cookies in the refrigerator and didn’t need to rush doing it since they were frozen.
How much sugar do I use in the recipe? All it says on the recipe is granulated white sugar
Powdered sugar is in the dough. The granulated sugar is for rolling the balls of dough before baking. Just a little bowlful is fine.
These have too much flour! Taste is okay, but this is a SUPER DRY cookie.
I think you must have over-baked them?
If you chill the kisses before setting them, they will melt less before they are able to chill in the freezer. Awesomeness.
How long do you have to keep the cookies in the refrigerator before you can remove the cookies from the cookie sheet? (Freezer has no room.)
As soon as the kisses have hardened a bit!
This is my first time making these cookies this past Christmas and oh boy has my family been missing out. These were an instant hit and have now become a yearly make in my household for the holidays ONLY! They are easy and cook really well. One tip I would give is when it comes time to add the kiss do not push hard when topping the cookie. They are very delicate and need to be handled with care at this stage. Thank you for sharing these with the world! xoxo
Can I use pre made sugar cookie dough to save some time?
I haven’t tried that…
The cookies are absolutely delicious! I made my own errors by not using enough dough for each cookie, therefore, winding up with 72 instead of 30. Also, did not heed your advice about quickly putting them in my refrigerator. Many kisses melted! Will definitely make these again next year.
For the peppermint Hershey kiss cookies —-can you put these in a tin with other cookies or will the other cookies absorb the peppermint flavor ?? Thanks
I think they should be fine with other cookies!