Chocolate Mint Surprise Christmas Cookies

These look great for christmas treats for kids to leave for Santa and they will have a blast making for him! I know that my kids don't care for the normal peppermint candy canes yet, so you can probably omit those and add more of the mini chocolate chips instead! I also found them to be egg free, which should be great for those allergic or don't care for them and they still worked out great! As for the amount of Hershey kisses to use, I am not sure on the size of bags they come in, so I am guessing on the amount for the ingredients. You can probably add more or less to suit for the recipe. Enjoy!

• Ready In: 2 hrs 30 mins
• Serves: 36
• Yields: 3 dozen

Ingredients

• 10  ounces  hersheys  chocolate mint kisses
• 1  cup butter, thats been softened
• 1⁄3 cup granulated sugar
• 1⁄3 cup  packed light brown sugar
• 1  teaspoon  almond extract
• 1  teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2  cups flour
• 1  cup  mini chocolate chip
• 2  big  candy canes
• 1 1⁄2 cups white chocolate chips
• 6  teaspoons shortening
•  green food coloring
•  red food coloring

Directions

1. Using a medium sized ziploc bag, crush the candy canes in little pieces. Cut the hershey kisses in half. I found that a whole hershey kiss was too much for the cookies, but a half one is perfect!
2. Heat your oven to 375.
3. Add the butter to a stand or hand-held mixer and mix well until smooth. Add the sugars and mix well. Add the almond and vanilla extract and mix well. Add the flour and mix very well on low speed until well mixed.
4. With a wooden spoon mix in the crushed candy canes and the mini chocolate chips well.
5. Scoop out a teaspoon of dough and add one half of a hershey kiss. Roll up the dough in a ball to keep the kiss inside! Place the dough balls on a parchment covered cookie pan and bake for 10-12 minutes and golden. Allow them to cool for about 2 minutes before removing from the pan and allow to cool. I have found having a sheet of tin foil on your table or counter works great in cooling cookies!
6. In a medium sauce pan, add the white chocolate chips and the 6 tablespoons of shortening. Melt slowly on medium/low heat as not to burn the chocolate.
7. Divide the melted chocolate into 3 cups. In the first two cups, add a bit of green and a bit red food coloring seperately to the shades that you like. Using a fork, drizzle the colored chocolate over the cookies to decorate. The kids will love this part! Enjoy!