Hershey's Kisses and the holidays: recipe review and giveaway

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Hershey's

When the chocolate makers at Hershey's were looking for some bloggers to turn their kitchens into test zones and then blog about it, I was a little dubious. But the twinados nearly died of excitement when I asked them about it, so we signed up. We were told to choose three Hershey's Kisses recipes from the official web site and then give them a whirl. Needless to say, the girls and I had radically different criteria when it came to choosing recipes. They were drawn toward the most colorful, most candy-per-inch items, while I leaned strongly toward the things that had the least number of ingredients and steps (anyone who has ever cooked with Ro and Ree will attest to my wisdom).

In the end, we settled on three mutually agreeable choices (Kisses Candy Twists, Double Chocolate Kisses Cookies, and Hershey's Hugs and Kisses Crescents), tied on some aprons, and away we went! It was lots of fun and I'm happy to report that the kitchen is still standing.

Ro (pink flower barrette) and Ree (yellow flower barrette) heartily enjoyed unwrapping all the candies (and sneaking as many as they could):






They also sniffed many, many of the chocolates quite deeply. Not sanitary, not sanitary at all, but I'm sure the germs all died in the oven...


The Kisses Candy Twists were fun and tasty—an easypeasy treat for kids of any age to make. We mixed it up with plain chocolate kisses and minty candy-cane ones.





The Hershey's Hugs and Kisses Crescents were really fun to make, and they looked awesome too. But I have to be completely honest and say that none of the adults liked the taste at all. The biscuit dough and chocolate flavor just did not work together, in my opinion. Maybe if it had been a sweeter puff pastry dough or something? Anyhow, they were awfully cute and the girls were mighty proud of them.





And, finally, the Double Chocolate Kisses Cookies were my favorites. They looked and tasted great. (Although the next time I'll add even more cocoa to make the cookies a little richer tasting. Yeah I tend toward excess like that...)




So there you have it, the results of our fun Hershey's Kisses baking. And, in keeping with one of our family holiday traditions, we'll be using the twist and double chocolate cookies in our annual holiday cookie exchange with friends so that we can sample even more deliciousness:


The Giveaway:
Hershey's is giving away a $100 Visa gift card to one lucky Salsa reader. To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me your favorite holiday recipe (Ro and Ree lovelovelove to cook and bake, so you'll make them smile extra big if you can give me the directions or a link to the recipe). The contest will begin right now (12/4/09) and will end at midnight on 12/31/09. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct (feel free to use weird spaces and spell out "dot" or "at" or that sort of thing).

The Rules:
No duplicate comments. You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments. You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments. This giveaway is open to US-residents only. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail. You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. Please see the official rules here. If you'd like even more entries, check out the BlogHer.com special offers page to see the other reviews (you've got 8 chances to win).

For other recipes, and some craft ideas, take a peek at Hershey's Holiday web site.

~~ The giveaway is now closed, no more entries will be accepted, and I'll draw a winner at random and announce the winner sometime today (Jan 1st). Happy New Year! ~~