Pumpkin Pie Kisses

I found these Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses at the store while looking for ideas for cookies for Kyle's soccer team. I immediately decided to make some sort of blossom kiss type cookie, but I knew that the traditional peanut butter cookie base would not cut it. While searching for something to use as the base to these cookies I found an amazing Brown Sugar Cookie recipe in the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking cookbook. The result was a cookie to rival any pumpkin pie!

1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
24 Hershey's Pumpkin Spice Kisses, unwrapped

1. Adjust the oven rack the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Whisk together the 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar together in a shallow bowl.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside for later.
3. Melt 10 tablespoons of the butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat, swirling the pan constantly until the melted butter is a dark golden brown that gives of a nutty aroma, this should take about 3 to 5 minutes. Carefully transfer the butter to a heatproof bowl and add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter stirring until they are also melted. Set aside for 15 minutes until cooled completely.
4. Stir the remaining 1 3/4 cups brown sugar and the salt into the cooled butter until evenly combined. Stir in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and mix until completely incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined.
5. Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls with your hands wet and then roll them in the sugar mixture. Place them on the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
6. Baking one sheet at a time bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes. Remove them from the oven and immediately press an unwrapped Pumpkin Spice Hershey kiss into the middle of each still soft cookie. Allow the cookies to cool for about 3 minutes on the cookie sheet until moving them to a wire rack. Be careful will begin to melt just a bit.