Ciao amici! Hello my friends!
I hope you had a wonderful week and are ready to welcome another beautiful summer month of August. Speaking of summer, in my area we had a very hot and humid weather streak this past week. This made it a challenge for my week long baking plans for a special event but that didn’t stop me- challenge accepted!
The event was my beautiful niece’s college graduation. It was important to me to make cookies for her party. I’ll explain why…
I love my niece like a daughter. Four years ago, when she had her high school graduation party, I had promised to make cookies.
Well, the week I was supposed to start baking, a tornado hit my area. It was an unexpected one that even the meteorologists did not see coming.
The path that the tornado took went right over my house. I was home alone at the time since Dan had left to pick up Sabrina at school.
I’ll never forget how quickly it swept through my yard, taking majestic trees down like toothpicks! I was so scared that I ran downstairs to the basement but, as I was going down the steps, I could hear trees hitting my house. I thought I was going to be buried alive!
It only lasted a few minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. When it stopped and I carefully went back upstairs, I was shocked by the scene around me.
My yard looked like Jurassic Park after the T-Rex went through! There was not an inch of clear area. Everything was covered by downed trees and debris. And, five of the 30 trees down had fallen over my house.
We were very lucky that our house is made of bricks and lots of cement or I may have very well been buried under it. I guess the story of the Three Little Pigs was right in teaching us that the house of bricks will withstand the huffing and puffing of the big bad wolf! Lol
Because of the major damage to my town, we were without power for two weeks. Needless to say, because of that, I was unable to make cookies for my niece then, but I was determined to keep my promise this time. And, humid 100 degree temperatures were not going to stop me!
I baked as many cookies as I would in 10 days baking time in only two days! I ran a “bake-a-thon” and got it done. Sabrina helped me make the favor boxes, which came out looking better than I had imagined.
The party was last Saturday and everyone enjoyed going home with a box of homemade cookies. I’m just happy that I was able to finally fulfill my promise to my sweet niece.
In honor of this bake-a-thon event, I will share a quick, easy and gluten free recipe for Peanut Butter Kisses that my sweet friend Holly was kind enough to share with me.
I hope you stay cool and don’t forget to visit with me again next week, as always, in my kitchen.
Bacioni (Big Kisses)!
Nonna Antoinette
GLUTEN FREE PEANUT BUTTER KISS COOKIES
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 bag Hershey Kisses
Directions:
Mix the sugar, peanut butter and egg together until well blended.
Make round balls (about 1 inch in diameter).
Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet, making sure to leave space between them.
Bake at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes.
While cookies bake, remove wrappers from Kisses.
Take cookie sheet out of the oven.
Gently press a chocolate Kiss in the center of each cookie.
Allow to completely cool before storing.
Makes about 16 cookies.
Tips:
Use regular peanut butter (such as Jif, etc) for this recipe. Do not use natural or cookies will not come out well.
You may make the cookie dough ahead of time and store it, covered with plastic wrap, in refrigerator until ready to bake.
Feel free to double or triple this recipe. It is so easy to make that it’s worth doing. Plus, the cookies are so good that they will go quickly.
If you decide to double the recipe, one 16 Oz container of peanut butter is equal to 2 cups. That will save you a step of having to measure the PB.
Since these cookies are gluten free, they are a good alternative to the original recipe for PB Kiss cookies and great to bring to a party where there’s always someone on a GF diet.
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