I’m excited to share with you this easy and simple recipe, submitted by Gayle Rigione of Allergy Force! When days are shorter and the holidays near, she finds herself in the kitchen more, baking. Here’s a crowd-pleaser she’s used for years that’s easy to adapt to different food allergies, easy to make and never disappoints.
The recipe’s originally designed to be made with chocolate kiss candies, but I think I like them even better with chocolate bar squares because the entire piece of chocolate gets soft and gooey and is oh so creamy when almost as soon as you place it in the cookie.
I think the best part of this recipe, however, is that it uses only 6 total ingredients… all of which are pantry staples and none of which are top common allergens, so they can be shared with almost everyone!
Chocolate Bar Kiss Cookies {plantbased, gluten free, allergy friendly}
Ingredients
- 1 cup safe-for-you butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (divided) 1/4 cup sugar will go in the cookies, the other 1/4 cups will be used to roll the cookies in before baking
- 1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cups safe-for-you flour This recipe has been successfully tested with gluten-free and regular gluten-containing flours.
- safe-for-you chocolate pieces candy bar squares, baking chunks, or "kisses"
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Prepare the candies (unwrap, cut, etc.) so they are ready to 'plant' on the baked cookies as soon as they come out of the oven.
- In a large bowl, beat the softened butter or margarine, vanilla and sugar together until creamy with a hand-held mixer set on medium speed.
- Slowly add the flour a half cup at a time to the butter-vanilla-sugar mixture, mixing until smooth. The dough’s consistency should be tacky – not so sticky that it sticks to your fingers, but not so crumbly that it won’t hold together to form a ball. If using gluten-free flour, the dough will be a bit stickier.
- Using a tablespoon measure, scoop out a level tablespoon of dough and roll into a small ball. Roll the balls in the bowl of sugar you setaside, lightly dusting them with sugar. Place each dusted cookie dough ball on the ungreased cookie sheets. (When baked, the cookies don’t spread a lot, so the sugar-coated balls can be placed about one inch apart with approx. 16 cookies per cookie sheet.)
- Before baking, make a small depression/divet on the top of each ball. (I use a tiny wooden honey spoon or a ¼ teaspoon measure).
- Bake for 10-12 minutes.
- As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, lightly press your chocolate pieces into the dent on the top of the cookies.
- Let cool completely.
- Settle in and enjoy! Good to the last crumb!
Notes
About the Author: Gayle Rigione is a mom, wife, sister and CEO of Allergy Force , the food allergy management app. She’s also an allergy mom. She’s lived the heart stopping moments when her son ate the wrong thing, second guessed reactions and made the trips to the ER. These experiences inspire her to create tech tools for people with food allergies. Mark Twain once said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Allergy Force is her ‘why’. Whatever you do, do it with a full heart. Audentes Fortuna Iuvat
