Kisses and cookies... a match just waiting to happen

We had to push back the weekly Wednesday Treat Day a couple days this week, but never fear, the co-workers will get their treat tomorrow! While I should be playing with recipes out of my ever-growing piles, lately we've been baking from those Holiday magazines that are out now and chose these Chocolate Cherry Blossoms to make.

There is a specific reason why I decided on these cookies this week - I had a bunch of those Hershey's Dark Chocolate Cherry Cordial Crème kisses leftover from Halloween and wanted to try them out in a recipe.

These rich little bites begin by making a fudgy batter that needs to chill in the refrigerator to make it easier to work with. To tie in with the flavored dark chocolate kiss that graces the top, chopped pieces of dried cherries are dispersed into the dark cookie dough. Once the dough has firmed up, it is rolled into small balls and then tossed with sugar - if you like, you can do a duo of coatings like we did. I rolled half of the dough balls with regular granulated sugar for sparkle and then the other half with confectioners' sugar for a more "snowy" look. You could skip this entirely, but this process highlights the gorgeous cracks that develop as the cookie bakes. As soon as the cookies are set, they are adorned with a sweet cherry kiss - this will soften the chocolate just enough so it adheres to the cookies, but won't melt it into a puddle. Just be sure to not touch the kiss as it will be quite soft from the heat - after about an hour or so, the chocolate should have firmed back up enough though so you can stack them to store if needed.

The chocolate candy kisses on their own have a slight artificial flavor, but paired with these chewy chocolate cookies, I couldn't detect that anymore and completely enjoyed the pair of cherry flavors. You can play around with the dried fruit in the dough - try using golden raisins, cranberries, strawberries or a blend of whatever you like!

I've had this Chicken Chili with Hominy on my mind for awhile and got around to making it for dinner tonight - I believe we've only had hominy once before in a soup, but remember we both enjoyed it enough to try it in another dish.

This is not a dark tomato-y chili as the base of the liquid ingredients are milk and chicken broth. With common chili add-ins like chili powder, smoky cumin and green chilies, it does have that familiar scent as it bubbles away though. Since there is no tomato sauce, paste or cornmeal in the recipe, it does need a bit of help to thicken up. This recipe has you pan-toast a couple corn tortillas to first heighten their flavor - they are then sliced up and added into the chili. As the chili cooks away, the tortilla strips begin to break down and you will begin to notice how the milky liquids turn much more viscous and thick. It calls for using four tortillas, but I think it might be better to start out with 3 - I felt it was a touch too thick once we sat down to eat it. The chicken and firm hominy brought a very hearty feeling and chunky texture to this dish while still keeping it fairly light. Serve with a slice or wedge of lime to squeeze into the chili to freshen the flavor right before eating.

Recipes
Chocolate Cherry Blossoms
Chicken Chili with Hominy