September's Cookie of the Month: Potato Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe caught my eye on my very first perusal The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book. But it wasn't until I heard Prairie Home Companion's highlights of shows performed at state fairs called State Fair on a Stick that I decided the time was right for Potato Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies, which seem tailor made for the state fair feed lot along side the deep fried Twinkies and the much lauded hamburger with doughnuts instead of a bun.

But these cookies are much more edible than all those questionable comestibles on a stick. My independent taste tester adored them and celebrated the return of yummy cookies with chocolate chips after the previous two months of chiplessness. I liked these cookies more after they cooled as they struck me as a bit greasey when they were warm. This is a bit of a backhanded compliment as so many cookies are only good warm, but the whole point of cookies is that they should be portable, which usually means served room temperature.

You could try to make them a little weirder by substituting flavored chips, like barbecue potato chips, as the authors suggest. I used Sea Salt Kettle Chips, which was probably not the wisest choice. I felt the cookies lacked salt. There is no salt called for in the recipe as it relies on the potato chip to provide the salt. I think my chips weren't sufficiently salty. Now that I'm reading the description of the chip on the Kettle website my suspicions are confirmed,

Our original Lightly Salted just got better! We now use sea salt in our recipe to provide a more natural alternative to regular salt. The sodium content has not changed, and you'll still find the same great Kettle Brand® flavor that you know and love.

Mumble. The next time I make these, and I probably will as they are super yummy, simple, and a bit of a novelty, I'm going to use full-salt high-sodium chips. Or barbecue, as I think the nutmeg would really set off the barbecue flavor well.

Heed the instruction to space the cookies 2 inches apart. These cookies spread, but not ridiculously so. Only such that their crispiness is maximized. Also, the recipe estimates a yield of 4 1/2 dozen cookies, but I only mustered about 30, though mine could have been smaller. But since when is state fair food about appropriate serving sizes?

Potato Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book: From Chocolate Melties to Whoopie Pies, Chocolate Biscotti to Black and Whites, with Dozens of Chocolate Chip Cookies and Hundreds More by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 t baking soda
  
• 1/2 t grated nutmeg
  
• 1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cool, cut into small pieces
  
• 1 C granulated sugar
  
• 3/4 C packed brown sugar
  
• 1 large egg, room temperature
  
• 1 large egg white, room temperature
  
• 2 t vanilla extract
  
• 5 oz. potato chips, crushed
  
• 3 C Ghiradelli 60% Cacao chips
  

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour, baking soda, and nutmeg into a medium bowl.

2. Soften the butter in a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed. Add both kinds of sugar and continue beating until the mixture is homogeneous but grainy, not smooth, with no bits of butter visible, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, beat in the egg, then the egg white and vanilla.

3. Add the prepared flour mixture and beat at low speed just until a sticky and thick but nonetheless soft batter is formed. Stir in the crushed potato chips and chocolate chips, just until evenly distributed.

4. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto two large baking sheets lined with silicone mats, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate the baking sheets top to bottom and back to front. Bake for another 7 minutes, or until lightly browned and somewhat firm to the touch. Cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Cool the baking sheets for 5 minutes before baking further batches.

Previous Cookies of the Month:
January's Cookie of the Month: Soft Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
February's Cookie of the Month: Chocolate Cream Sandwich Cookies
March's Cookie of the Month: Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
April's Cookie of the Month: Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
May's Cookie of the Month: Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies
June's Cookie of the Month: Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies
July's Cookie of the Month: Big Soft Chocolate Cookies
August's Cookie of the Month: Viennese Chocolate Pepper Cookies

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