Chocolate Kiss Cookies are a great way to transform an ordinary sugar cookie recipe into a decadent and incredibly inviting treat with just four main ingredients! The rich chocolate flavor with crispy sugar outer edge and slightly softened Kiss candies make these cookies addictive!
Whipping up a batch of these Chocolate Kiss Cookies will take you less than 20 minutes. After that, it’s just a matter of allowing the cookies to chill before serving or gifting them to friends and family as homemade baked holiday gifts! While premade sugar cookie dough such as store-bought refrigerated cookie dough adds convenience to this recipe, you could make your own dough from scratch as I’ve done for these Valentine’s Sugar Cookies.
While Hershey’s Kisses are commonly seen as cute and tasty additions to simple sugar cookies like these chocolate kiss cookies or Fudgy Chocolate Crackle Cookies, they can also be added to brownies, tarts, or used as decoration on cakes and cupcakes. If you’re looking for an excuse to bake with Hershey’s chocolates, try these Smookies (Gooey Delicious S’mores Cookies) and Chocolate Pastry Puffs!
Why You’ll Love Chocolate Kiss Cookies
- This chocolate holiday cookie recipe only calls for four ingredients, making them easy to assemble and budget-friendly.
- Chocolate kiss cookies are stunning – perfect for the holidays, cookie exchange parties, or other special occasions.
- These cookies are soft and chewy with a crispy sugar-coated exterior, while the chocolate kiss candies provide extra rich flavor.
What Ingredients do I Need for Chocolate Kiss Cookies?
- Sugar cookie dough – You can use a Cut-Out Sugar Cookie Dough or a roll of refrigerated sugar cookie dough.
- Cocoa powder – I’ve used unsweetened cocoa powder for these cookies since the rest of the ingredients are already very sweet.
- Coarse sanding sugar – This helps to create a crispy cookie exterior and a beautiful look.
- Hershey’s Kisses – I’ve used milk chocolate kisses, but you use any variety of Hershey’s kisses with different flavors to make your chocolate cookies stand out!
PRO TIP: Don’t leave the freshly baked cookies to cool completely before adding the chocolate kisses. The cookies still need to be warm enough for the dough to be pressed into without cracking or breaking the cookies.
How to Make Chocolate Kiss Cookies
PREP: Mix the sugar cookie dough in a stand mixer with unsweetened cocoa powder until fully combined. Add the dough to the fridge to chill for an hour. Use a cookie scoop to make uniform dough balls and roll them in your hands to smooth them out. Roll each cookie ball in the coarse sanding sugar and add to a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
BAKE AND ASSEMBLE: Press each cookie ball gently with the palm of your hand to help the cookies flatten slightly and then bake for 8-9 minutes. Once baked, gently press the Hershey’s Kisses into the top of each cookie and allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Be careful not to flatten your cookie dough too much when using the palm of your hand. While you need an indentation in the middle of the cookies for placing your chocolate kisses, you don’t want your cookies spreading too much.
- I use parchment paper to line the baking tray but you could also use a silicone baking mat. The parchment paper or silicone baking mat is a great way to prevent your cookies from spreading instead of using a greased tray that will be absorbed by the cookie dough while baking and cause the cookies to spread.
- You’ll want to press your chocolate kisses into each baked cookie fairly soon after the cookies have been removed from the oven and while they are still warm enough to be pressed into.
Fun Fact
These adorable cookies are made with Hershey’s famous chocolate Kisses. The little tear-drop chocolates allegedly got their name from the noise made by the machine on the production line when depositing the chocolate into the mold. What started as a simple product addition to the public has exploded in popularity and is now offered in an array of flavors and types of chocolate.
Variations
While I must say that these cookies are super scrumptious as is, here are some great ideas if you are looking for ways to vary this recipe:
- You could make cookies and cream sugar kiss cookies by adding in some crushed Oreos and vanilla extract;
- Use a variety of Hershey’s Kisses from dark chocolate to Kisses filled with peanut butter or white creme.
- Set one-half of the sugar cookie dough aside while adding cocoa powder to the remaining (albeit half the quantity of cocoa powder). When it comes to scooping and rolling your cookie balls, join plain cookie dough with the chocolate and roll into smooth balls for a marbled effect.
- Make a batch of Christmas sugar kiss cookies by adding in some red and green sprinkles to your cookie dough and use the Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses.
- Use different colored sanding sugar which is visually effective if you decide to keep the cookie dough plain.
- Make your own sugar cookie dough from scratch by combining the usual dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar) with wet ingredients (egg, extract, and butter).
These Chocolate Sugar Kiss Cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
You can also make a batch ahead of time and store them in the freezer for up to 3 months in an airtight container. Allow them to reach room temperature prior to serving or heat them up slightly in the oven although you could risk melting the chocolate Kisses.
Yes, of course! Go ahead and use your favorite sugar cookie dough for this recipe. I made use of premade cookie dough which cuts down the time for making a fresh batch of delicious Chocolate Sugar Kiss Cookies.
If you want to make a batch of cookie dough ahead of time for cookie recipes such as this but don’t have a good sugar cookie recipe, you can follow my recipe used for these Valentine’s Sugar Cookies.
Chocolate Kiss Cookies
Ingredients
- 16.5 oz refrigerated sugar cookie dough
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup coarse sanding sugar
- 26 Hershey’s milk chocolate kisses
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer or standing mixer to thoroughly mix the sugar cookie dough and the cocoa powder.
- Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about one hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Use a cookie scoop to form even balls of dough. Roll the balls in the palm of your hands to form a smooth cookie.
- Roll each cookie dough ball in a shallow bowl filled with the coarse sugar until completely coated.
- Place the balls 1 ½ inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten the top of the cookies just a bit with the palm of your hand to help them spread evenly.
- Bake for 8-9 minutes or until the cookies are puffy and the dough no longer looks wet.
- Remove cookie sheet from the oven. Press a chocolate kiss gently into the top of each warm cookie and allow cookies to cool for a couple minutes before carefully transferring to a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way.
Nutrition
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