Kiss Me Cookies Recipe Ingredients:
3/4 cup of honey
2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
4 Tbsp. butter or margarine
(HINT: use butter, they sure taste better even if there are a few more calories. Geeze! You’re eating a cookie, not a piece of celery. Forget the diet for once!)
2 eggs (lightly beaten in a small bowl with a fork, remember, like I told you in those other recipes?)
3 -3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup almonds, ground
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 cup minced candied orange peel
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 Tbsp. water
Purchase decorating icing in tubes.
In a small cooking pan, combine honey, sugar, lemon peel, and butter; stir over medium heat until butter is melted. Turn off heat and let cool.
Get out a big bowl and your electric mixer, beat the eggs until foamy; stir in honey mixture.
In another bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, salt, almonds, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange peel; gradually add to egg mixture, blend together thoroughly.
Make a large heart shaped pattern out of heavy paper. A 7 or 8 inch size heart will work nicely. Divide cookie dough into 8 equal portions; dust with flour and shake off excess. On a lightly floured board, roll out one portion of cookie dough until just slightly larger than pattern. Transfer cookie dough to a greased baking sheet and place pattern on top; cut around pattern with a knife and remove the scraps.
Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing cookies 1/2 inch apart on cookie sheets. Combine scraps and re roll to make 1 more perfect shaped heart. Brush cookies with egg yolk mixture. Bake Kiss Me cookies in a 350 degrees oven for 12 to 17 minutes or until lightly browned.
Transfer hot kiss me cookies onto racks to finish cooling.
Decorate cookies with icing, making a decorative border around the edges. White icing and a regular tip work well for writing your special messages. Let icing dry, uncovered, until icing is firm (2 to 20 hours). Wrap each cookie snugly with plastic wrap. Tape plastic wrap together on back if needed. With a tool, make two evenly spaced holes at the top of each heart. Next, force a piece of narrow ribbon through plastic and cookie holes. Tie ribbon ends together, making loop long enough to fit over a person's head.
Store kiss me cookies airtight for up to 2 weeks.
Recipe makes 8 to 10 big kiss me cookies.