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Turkey Cookies (Hot Chocolate Kiss Cookies)

If you want to know how good little kids are at remembering things at inopportune times, I have an excellent example. Mila, tonight, when she was supposed to be falling asleep, couldn't possibly close her eyes because she badly needed an answer IMMEDIATELY as to when we could make the cookies below again.

We last made them in 2018. I know that for a fact because I have the blog post to prove. And also, pandemic. All the "for other people" cooking stopped for the pandemic. We haven't talked about them even once in those three years. But did Mila suddenly remember? Of course she did.

Anyway, I promised to make these again soon, regardless of the fact that we won't be sharing them with a haggle of kids. Just don't expect me to eat the candy corn. I still don't consider it to be food.

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Mila REALLY loves taking treats to school. Mostly Mila likes eating treats at school, but the easiest way to make that happen to is to deliver them. Thus, she has recently made it her full-time job to nag me into making treats for her friends. Specifically, Thanksgiving treats.

Ask and ye shall receive, kid.

Mila actually decorated these herself, with me acting as the supporting character who showed up with a little "glue" when instructed to do so. They're easy enough for her little hands.

Any cookie will work - peanut butter, hot chocolate, sugar, whatever. Just make the cookie, smoosh a peanut butter cup onto it slightly off center, and then decorate with candy. I do highly recommend homemade buttercream for the "glue" as the store bought frosting proved to be not sticky enough. (I switched after about a dozen tries).

I used the Hot Chocolate Cookie recipe from last week because we're still obsessed with those cookies. They're SO good.

Hot Chocolate Kiss Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 packages hot chocolate mix
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup dehydrated marshmallows (like the ones in hot chocolate mix)
3 packages mini Hershey Peanut Butter Cups
Candy eyes
Candy corn
Red frosting

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a few cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the butter and sugars at low/medium speed until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix some more.

3. In a medium mixing bowl,  combine the dry ingredients - flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and hot chocolate mix.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the stuff in Step 2 and mix at low speed until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and marshmallows.

5. Break off a small piece of cookie dough and roll it into a ball. The ball should be about 3/4" across. Roll the happy little ball in some granulated sugar then place on the parchment paper.

6. Once you have a cookie sheet filled with little balls, bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

7. As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, top with a Peanut Butter Cup. Place it a little off center so that it forms the turkey's body.

8. Wait about a minute and then move the hot cookies to a cooling rack. Once they're cool, decorate them like Mila showed up in the video at the top.