Chocolate Recipe ∞ Chocolate Cherry Kiss Cookies

My grandma loved chocolate-covered cherries, so I combined 2 recipes to come up with these yummy cookies. She loved that I made a special cookie just for her. These are also Jessie's favorite cookie.

Ingredients

• 2 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shortening (such as Crisco®)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 4 teaspoons maraschino cherry juice
• 4 drops red food coloring
• ¾ teaspoon almond extract
• ⅓ teaspoon cherry flavoring (such as Wilton®)
• ¾ cup drained, chopped maraschino cherries
• 48 milk chocolate kisses (such as HERSHEY'S), or more as needed

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Whisk flour and salt together in a small bowl.
3. Combine shortening, powdered sugar, cherry juice, red food coloring, and cherry flavoring in a large bowl. Add flour mixture and mix well. Stir in maraschino cherries.
4. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; arrange 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until edges are light golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Immediately top each cookie with a chocolate kiss, pressing firmly. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Nutrition Facts

• calories99.5
• carbohydrateContent11.3 g
• cholesterolContent1 mg
• fatContent5.8 g
• fiberContent0.4 g
• proteinContent1 g
• saturatedFatContent2 g
• sodiumContent28.3 mg
• sugarContent2.6 g