Cream the butter and sugars in a largish bowl till soft, fluffy and light in colour. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.

Mix in the baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and about 1 1/4 cup flour. The batter should be slightly sticky. Add a little more flour, a tablespoon at a time, if it’s too sticky. If you add too much flour, then the cookies will not spread thin enough while baking.

Refrigerate the dough for a about 15 to 20 minutes to make it easier to handle, if necessary. Scoop the dough by tablespoonsful and roll into rounds. Flatten slighty and place on parchment lined cookie sheets.

Bake them at 180C (350F) for about 10 minutes. You need to watch them till they look dry and seem set when touched on the top. You cannot judge browning because of the colour of the chocolate.

Let them sit for about 5 minutes on the sheet. Then transfer to racks for cooling completely.

Pipe a largish blob of royal icing or buttercream on the middle of the cookies. Press the chocolate kisses on them so the icing/ frosting spreads a little around the edges of the kisses to form a “hat band”. Let the icing set. Then transfer to an airtight box.