We Wisk You a Merry Kissmas

I recently came into possession of three bags of dark chocolate Hershey Kisses. Lord, help me, they were buy two, get one free at Food Lion and I had a $1 off coupon. So 216 individually wrapped kisses later, I was trying to figure out what to do with them--besides eat them immediately. I made a batch of Rich's favorite Peanut Butter Blossom cookies, whose recipe promised to use 48 and only used up 24. Drat. So I made the Triple Chocolate Threat Kiss cookies, knocking off another 36 or so. Only 156 or so left, right? Then, my friend Jenna gave me the great idea of filling the tines on stainless steel wisks with kisses and attaching a note that says "We Wisk You A Merry Kissmas." Too cute and great teacher gifts. So I used 40 for 4 wisks. Are you keeping up with the math? Today, my sister, Rebecca, gave me another great/horrible idea to make these pretzel treats. WOW! I never knew I could eat so many kisses in one sitting. We made 85 of these babies tonight, using the last of our kisses. Phew. Wait a minute, you say. That doesn't add up. There are 31 unaccounted for kisses. Where did they go? I'll never tell.

Now, hurry, Christmas, hurry! I've gained three pounds in as many weeks. If I keep baking I won't be able to fit into my brand new jeans.



Pretzel Kiss Surprises

• 85 square pretzels
• 85 Hershey Kisses, any variety except the filled ones would work I imagine (there are about 72 in a bag so use more or less as you like)
• assorted M&Ms, marshmallows, salted peanuts, raisins or other topping

Preheat oven to 200'. Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. Arrange pretzels and top with one Kiss apiece. Bake 5 minutes, or until the Kiss melts into the pretzel when pressed with the back of a spoon. Remove from oven and working quickly press toppings as desired into Hershey Kisses. Let cool before storing.


We topped ours with marshmallows, raisins and M&Ms. We also made pretzel sandwiches. The pretzel sandwiches were actually my favorites, but I really enjoyed the raisins too. Would love to try these with salted peanuts next time. Thanks Becca, great idea! I think I'll be taking a bag of these to the childcare workers at the gym tomorrow. I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot of them in the next few weeks. :-)