How to make peanut butter kiss & chocolate snowball cookies

There's so many great types of Christmas cookies but who has time too bake dozens of different kinds of treats? The answer is have a cookie exchange. Hi. I'm Cricket Azima. With a cookie exchange, each guest bakes one kind of cookie, and then everybody swaps and goes home with a wonderful assortment of holiday yumminess. Whether you're hosting or participating, I've got a couple great recipes that are perfect for you to try.

We're going to combine two of my all time favorite ingredients-- peanut butter and chocolate. Yum! These peanut butter blossoms are a holiday favorite that everybody's sure to love. First start by preheating the oven to 375. Start with a peanut butter cookie mix and add water, oil, and egg. Stir until a dough forms. I've made some dough ahead of time. We're going to take about a teaspoonful and roll into a ball and dip it into some sugar.

After you filled the cookie sheet, placing the balls about two inches apart, bake them in the oven for about eight to ten minutes. As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, you want to take one of the unwrapped Hershey's Kisses and press it into the cookie. Remove the cookies from the sheets onto a cooling rack so they can cool completely before eating. These peanut butter blossoms are always a hit.

Next we're going to make a cookie with the present baked right inside-- chocolate snowballs. We're going to start by using a sugar cookie mix. Then you're going to mix in butter or margarine, an egg, some all-purpose flour, some unsweetened cocoa, and some finely chopped almonds, and some almond extract. Stir all the ingredients together until a dough forms. And then you're going to roll the dough into balls.

And here's where the present comes in. Make a little well and then take one of the Hershey's Kisses chocolates and tuck it inside. Wrap the dough around so that the chocolate candy is completely tucked in and hidden.

As you make the balls of dough, place them on your cookie sheet about two inches apart. Bake them in the oven for eight to ten minutes. When they're out of the oven, you're going to let them cool for about five minutes so they're safe to handle. Then, roll them in some powdered sugar. You're going to let them cool completely before you roll them in powdered sugar a second time. Now they're really going to start to look like snowballs.

With these recipes, your cookies are going to be a huge hit.  And not ony will you get to enjoy your own tasty treats, you get to sample all the wonderful baking your friends bring over too. I'm Cricket Azima, bringing you great ideas fro Betty Crocker, Hershey's, with Howdini. To see more videos of great cookie recipes, visit us at BettyCrocker.com/CookieFun.