Sunday, December 5, 2010

Saint Nicholas Purse Cookies


I printed this recipe a couple years ago after seeing it shared by Amy Heyd, author of Saints at the Dinner Table.  I just loved the idea, but I never got around to baking them until today.

The cookies turned out darling, not to mention sooooo yummy, and they will make a perfect addition to our St. Nicholas Celebration tomorrow.  I think I might just have to make them again for Christmas!

Saint Nicholas Purse Cookies

Ingredients:

1 stick butter (8 tablespoons)
¼ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup corn starch
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
24 Hershey's Kisses filled with Mint Truffle
¼ cup mini chocolate chips (optional)
about 2 teaspoons powdered sugar (optional)


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º. In large mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar together on low until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix for 1 minute on low speed.

Sift the flour, corn starch, baking soda and salt into the butter mixture. Mix on low speed for about 3 minutes. The mixture will look crumbly at first and then suddenly it will begin to blend together. When the dough forms into a ball it is ready.

Lightly roll about a tablespoon of dough into a ball.  (I used the small scoop from Pampered Chef and was able to make 30 cookies.)  Press a Hershey Kiss into the center of each ball and mold the dough up to shape a cookie that looks like a cinched bag (they settle during baking).


Optional: To further enchance the appearance of a bag, you may want to place mini chocolate chips like a tie around the cinched part of the cookie.

One of my sons walked by at this stage and said "Oh, neat!  Those look like money bags!"  :-)

Adding the mini chocolate chips is so much fun for little helpers! 

Place the dough on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes in a 350º oven until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let sit on pan for one minute before placing on a cookie rack to cool. When cookies are cool, dust with powdered sugar.


This recipe is easily doubled, as there are plenty of Hershey kisses in a package.


Wishing you and your families a very blessed
 Feast of St. Nicholas! 

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7 comments:

  1. Oh, so neat! They look wonderful! I love how you do so much great baking with your children!

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  2. Thanks Jenn! I am enjoying it more than ever, now that we have a DISHWASHER for the first time in 11 years! :-)

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  3. LOVE the aprons with the CC logo. Way to go! Yum.

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  4. We just made these today also! So very easy and fun. I had extra dough because we doubled the recipe, (also used PC's small scoop), so I dug around and found some caramel Rolo's which also worked. The mini chocolates look great too. We'll have to try that next time. Thanks again for sharing.

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  5. These sound wonderful ... I was thinking I would try something along the lines of sticking a marshmallow in the center (like resurrection cookies) so that when the marshmallow melts it leaves a hole to be filled with "gold").

    I might just do yours this year and try that next year!

    THANKS!

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  6. Do you think these would work with mini Snickers instead of the Hershey's Kisses?

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  7. Though I love the idea of the "mint" representing the money (aka: mint) in the "purse", mini-snickers would probably work. I am not sure if they would "settle" like the Hershey Kisses though. If you try it, I'd love to hear how it worked out for you.

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