Chocolate-Potato Chip Cookies

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup crushed potato chips
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix sugar and butter until it becomes creamy. Fold in vanilla extract, chocolate chips, and potato chips. Finally mix in flour until it becomes a crumbly texture. Using your hands, form into balls about the size of walnuts. Flatten between palms. Bake for approximately 18 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Yeilds about 2 dozen cookies.

Tonight was actually my second attempt at these cookies. The first attempt was Tuesday night. Soph and I had to head up the Poconos, because I had a meeting Wednesday morning. We spent the night at my parents house up there and these cookies were meant to be a nice cozy activity for the two of us before bed. They were a disaster. I followed the recipe, but I managed to use too much butter. I had to trash the entire batch. I don't know if I can actually call what I made a "batch". They all melted into one giant rectangle that filled the cookie sheet. When I saw this, I thought I could save them by letting it cool and cutting it up to make cookie bars. No such luck. They were so melty and soft that they just crumbled. Definitely too much butter. It was a stupid mistake on my part. I was scared to attempt these again, but I have been so excited over this recipe and what I plan to do with it. So I proceeded to round 2 with low expectations.

The cookies are pretty good! I do think I crushed the potato chips too small though. As this was a test run for the big cookie blowout I am planning, the next batch will have larger and possibly more chip chunks to make the salty potato flavor stand out a bit more boldly. While I don't particularly like foods too salty, I am a huge fan of salty combined with sweet. Not many people would think of mixing potato chips with chocolate. A lot probably wouldn't even try it. I never heard of the combination until a family trip to Hawaii. We visited a chocolate factory and there I found chocolate bars filled with crumbles of potato chips. I fell in love right then and there. I also fell in love with chocolate covered pineapple while in Hawaii, at the Dole Plantation. I spent years with my eye out for any sort of chocolate-potato chip mixture with no luck. It wasn't until this past spring, when Soph and I moved into our own apartment, that I thought about combining the two myself. I made a huge batch of chocolate drizzled potato chips. They are a little bit of a pain to make, but so worth it!

I am not sure if I have shared this yet, but currently I am out of work. I have been working part-time to try to make ends meet while I look for a full time career to support me and my child. Anyone out there hiring?? Obviously money has been tight this year. I usually buy presents for all my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and Sophia's teachers. Not something huge, but something. I decided it would be more from the heart and definitely more frugal to do homemade presents this year. Homemade presents usually look just as they sound, homemade. AKA: crap. I am not really into handing someone something I made if it isn't something that can actually be used. Needing something somewhat simple, I searched the internet and found gold! Gifts-in-a-jar! There are so many recipes and ideas that can be put in a jar or mug. I even found this potato-chocolate chip cookie recipe on that site. Perfect for me. It shares my love of cooking with my loved ones, while helping them experience such a crazy good combination of flavors! Plus, I can manage to keep some of my funds intact. I plan on sharing a more in depth post about these jars when I actually make them. The basic idea is to layer the dry ingredients in the jar and tag it with instructions on how to finish the recipe.




Just an idea of what my finished product will look like.