magic kiss middles
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This is kind of a crossover between two cookie classics—Keebler’s Magic Middles and Hershey’s Secret Kiss cookies.
I’ve never actually eaten a store-bought Magic Middle, but last summer I tried out Stella Park’s copycat recipe in her phenomenal cookbook BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts. The flavor was perfection, and the magic of finding chocolate on the inside of what looks like a plain sugar cookie was real. My only holdback was the recipe required a bit more technique…work…than I want in a fairly straight-forward cookie.
The Keebler Fudge Magic Middle was a shortbread cookie with a soft chocolate center. Was because, from what I gather, the line of chocolate and peanut butter Middles was discontinued nearly a decade ago.
The Hershey’s Secret Kiss cookie is a pecan shortbread cookie dough rolled in powdered sugar and wrapped around a Hershey’s Kiss. It’s a Christmas cookie platter classic.
Magic “Kiss” Middles combine elements of the two: a soft buttery vanilla sugar cookie dough, rolled in sparkling granulated sugar with the surprise of a milk chocolate kiss inside.
It’s a pretty simple idea, simple to make, but oh so delicious.
Quick Note: I’ve tried several different sugar cookie recipes for the base until returning, again and again, to the most reliable and, quite frankly, delicious sugar cookie I’ve ever had: Bakedat350’s Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookie. They work perfectly as roll-out sugar cookies, and they work perfectly here. They are kind of legendary in the food blog world, and rightly so. If you haven’t made these sugar cookies before, do it now. I don’t think you’ll ever use another recipe again.
magic kiss middles
makes 4 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
2 sticks (8 oz) cold salted butter, cubed
1 cup white sugar
1 egg, straight from fridge
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
48 Hershey’s Kisses (about 10 oz bag)
additional white sugar, for rolling
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together cold cubed butter and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until well combined. Scrape down bowl. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined. In another bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder. Add to butter mixture and stir on low until just combined. The mixture will be quite crumbly, so you may want to remove bowl from stand and finish off kneading the dough together by hand.
Unwrap Hershey’s kisses. Take about a tablespoon of dough in your hand, flatten slightly, place Kiss in center, and shape the dough around the Kiss until it’s wrapped completely. Roll ball in white sugar and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat. Repeat with remaining cookies. (I did two sheets at a time, 12 on each, so two total batches in the oven).
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, until cookies look set and just begin to catch golden color around the bottom edges. Let rest on pan for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store cooled cookies in an airtight container for several days.
Cookie base adapted from Bakedat350’s Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookie.