So, we are in the Halloween season and that always turns my thoughts to witches and ghosts and vampires and werewolves. Which, of course, means my thoughts turn to the Penumbra Papers. And when I saw this recipe, I decided these cookies would be loads of fun, especially for Harry Potter fans. And since the Potterverse is in England and Scotland, yup. My thoughts went straight to the last book released in that series. And seriously, how cute are these sorting hat cookies?

Total Time: 53 mins.
Prep Time: 45 mins. (includes making and decorating)
Bake Time: 8 mins.

Ingredients
30 HERSHEY’S KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates
6 Tbsps butter softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup REESE’S Creamy Peanut Butter
2 tsps water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsps egg beaten (and YES, this means beat an egg and scoop up 2 tablespoons. You can make scrambled eggs with the leftover, I guess. LOL)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup white frosting (Ready-to-spread or Homemade)
food color (red, yellow, blue, and green)
sugar (Extra to roll dough balls in–or if you want special, use crystalized sugar)

READY TO MAKE THIS?
Directions
1 – Heat oven to 350° F. Remove wrappers from chocolates; set aside.

2 – Beat butter, sugar, peanut butter, water and vanilla in medium bowl unitl well blended. Beat in egg. Stir together flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended.

3 – Divide dough into 30 equal balls (about 1 inch each). Roll in sugar (if desired). Place on ungreased cookie sheets and flatten to make 1- 1/2 inch circles.

4 – Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until cookie edges are set. Top each cookie with chocolate piece; gently loosen cookie from sheet but leave on cookie sheet.

5 – Allow heat from cookie sheet and cookie to soften chocolate. (Chocolate will soften from bottom toward tip and becomes shiny–about 10 minutes) Use toothpick or end of small paring knife to draw facial features on chocolate. Cool completely. Allow chocolate to firm before finishing cookies.

6 – Divide white frosting into four small bowls. Tint frosting so that you have red, yellow, blue and green frostings. Place in piping bags or heavy-duty food storage (freezer) bags with #47 tip and #1 tip for accent on scarfs. Pipe frosting band around base of each chocolate piece. Garnish as desired. Makes 30 cookies.

Check out all the details and nutritional info at HERSHEYLAND. Now, we all know that while Sade is something of a foodie, when it comes to the actual preparation and cooking part, she’s better at ordering in or heading out to a favorite restaurant, coffee shop and/or bakery. Also, as of yet, there are no kids in the Penumbraverse. Not yet anyway. But I know a secret that not even the characters know about each other. 🤫 Don’t tell, ‘kay? Every one of the characters has read the Potter series and loves the books. Well, except Sinjen. And maybe Alice Cooper. But Sade, Caleb, Roman (who got turned onto the books by Verity), and Ariel have them. I’ll leave it to y’all to decide which house they wish/or should be sorted into. All I know is they’d all scoff at these cookies until no one was looking and then they’d load up on them and escape to munch on them while reading. I’ll admit, they do make a tasty treat while reading GHOSTS AND THE ANCIENT STONES. If you have grabbed your copy, click on the title to get to the Books2Read landing page to find your favorite online store. If you have a Hoopla subscribtion, or your library does, you can read it for free from Hoopla. The link should be there, too. In the meantime, are you a Potterhead? And if so, what house would you belong to?