Raspberry Hug Cheesecake Blossoms

February is nearly over and we have one pathetic recipe posted! Something is definitely out of balance when everyone is so busy with life that we are not feeding our recipe addictions better than this! The truth is, I have apparently not made anything lately that has been worthy of a blog post...now that is sad. I had better step things up a bit. I did find a recipe to try (after I discovered while cleaning out my pantry that I was hoarding Hershey 's Hugs and Kisses in a variety of flavors) that was a variation of the Peanut Butter Blossom cookie that is a favorite holiday treat, so I decided to give it a whirl. While not the "best cookie you ever ate" it was still a nice cookie with good flavor and texture and was kind of pretty on a plate. So the next time you have an extra bag or two of Hersey Raspberry Hugs laying around give these a try. I did make one small adaptation because I did not have course white sugar to roll the dough in, I used some pearl sugar that I purchased at Ikea to use in a Belgian waffle recipe, which I have never made BTW, which added a kind of sugary crunch and made them kind of cute too. Don't worry you could roll them in regular sugar or even some valentine sprinkles could be cute too.

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar + 2 tablespoons
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk
2/3 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Coarse white sugar (or festive sprinkles, colored sugar, or sugar)
32 Hershey's raspberry hugs
(Not sure why all of the weird amounts...2/3 tsp really, why not 3/4 or 1/2, why not 2 eggs and leave out the milk, + 2 TBSP sugar...strange but I did follow the recipe so there you have it)

Cream butter, add sugar, eggs, vanilla and milk. Stir dry ingredients together then add to creamed mixture. Cover and chill dough in refrigerator for one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put some sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into approximately 1" balls, roll in sugar and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool on pan for about 2 minutes, remove to cooling rack and lightly press one hug on each cookie (minus the wrapper of course!) If you wait a few minutes before putting the hug on top of the cookie it will keep it's shape a little better and not just melt into a puddle of raspberry hug goodness. Obviously if this happens you will have to eat all of the puddle cookies and reserve the pretty ones for others. Sometimes the cook has to make great sacrifices for the sake of others. That is how we roll!