Potato Chip Cookies (hey, don't judge until you try it!)

Potato chips are one of our guilty pleasures, at home. I'm pretty good about doling out (and limiting myself) to eating a  small handful of chips, with a burger or a sandwich.


My husband, on the other hand, is a potato chip addict. The brand that he loves most is "Lay's" potato chips.  If they're in plain sight, they're gone in no time at all.

When the June/July 2012 issue of Cook's Country Magazine arrived, I began to eagerly read through all the of the recipes.  I paused at the Potato Chip Cookie recipe, and read the article, and it didn't tickle my visual taste buds.  Potato chips?  I then passed on to reading the rest of the recipes looking for something else to make.  My husband spotted the recipe, and exclaimed that they sounded "terrific"!

Moi: "Really?  You want me to make those?"
Husband: "Yes!"  "Please?"

How can I say no?

I had to buy baked potato chips, though.  I don't buy them otherwise, because I don't like the way they taste.  I mean, if I'm going to indulge in chips, I'm going to buy the real deal.  I figured that Cook's Country had a reason for listing reduced-fat chips, so I added that ingredient to my shopping list.   Cook's Country says, "It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it: We fearlessly ate many batches of cookies baked with potato chips of every sort. In the end, we preferred reduced-fat chips in this recipe. Because of the extra oil, the edges of cookies made with ordinary fried chips get too dark before the cookie is fully baked. Also, some testers detected a disagreeable fried taste in cookies that were made with fried potato chips. "

The ingredients listing also includes flour, confectioners sugar, granulated sugar, butter, egg, vanilla and pecans.

The dough is rolled into balls, then flatted with a floured glass-- actually, I found that spraying the bottom of a glass with non-stick spray works best. 

 

Bake at 350F for 10-13 minutes; cool and enjoy.

TASTING NOTES:  The cookies are crispy, with a subtle balance of sweet and salty.  These reminded me of "Pecan Sandies", because the pecan flavor is in the foreground of this cookie.  I nibbled on one or two, but I wasn't as over-the-moon about them as my husband was.  So, there you have it-- a cookie with an unusual ingredient, that got enthusiastic thumbs up. My husband is hinting around that he wouldn't mind my making them again, so I'd say that if you love potato chips, then these are the cookie for you.

A printable recipe card is at the end of this post.

BALL CANNING GIVEAWAY WINNER:   A big thank you to all of you who entered to win a Ball Canning Discovery Kit.  The winner is: Larry of "Big Dude's Eclectic Ramblings".   Email me at foodiewife (at) gmail.com with your mailing address, so that Ball Canning can ship this off to you.  Thanks, Ball, for sponsoring this giveaway!

Funfetti Cookies-- put some sprinkles in your life!

When my son was a little boy, I remember baking Funfetti Cupcakes for his classroom, because that was the cake mix he always chose.  (That was, back in the day, when I used to buy cake mixes.)  My favorite cake is white, as is my son's.

The colored sprinkles are festive, and I think that most kids love Funfetti anything for that very reason.

I first spotted this recipe on "Two Peas and Their Pod", that led me to "Tasty Kitchen", that led me to "Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body" -- which is where this recipe originated. 

If I had to pick my favorite cookie, it would sugar cookies.  When I read that this cookie recipe uses both vanilla and almond extract-- and I happened to have a collection of colored sprinkles on hand, I decided to make them for me surprise my boys with cookies for their lunches.

These were super easy to make-- in fact, the batter was ready in less than 10 minutes.

Despite all the warnings about eating raw cookie dough, and raw eggs-- I have survived my addiction fondness of cookie dough.  This cookie dough rocks!  OMG!  The dough tastes just like Funfetti cake batter!

 

For the first batch, I used an ice cream scoop to measure the cookie dough; that yielded 8 cookies.

The cookies were huge!  We're talking the size of my hand, huge.

For the second batch, I used a smaller scoop and it yielded 12 cookies.

 I followed the recipes directions to bake them just until they turned golden brown.

They come out of the oven puffy, but quickly cool nice and flat-- and perfectly round.

 I set aside the larger cookies, and I taste tested a smaller one.

..and I smiled, and moaned, and devoured the rest of the cookie with glee. This cookie brought out the child in me, with the colors and the flavor of white cake!

TASTING NOTES:  There is a perfect balance of vanilla and almond.  The flavors remind me of white cake. The edges of the cookies have a light crispness, and the inside of the cookie is chewy.  This cookie has moved up on my list of favorite sugar cookies.  My husband and son gobbled these up very quickly.  

The large cookies became ice cream sandwiches, filled with a Buttermint Ice Cream that I made.  I think traditional vanilla ice cream would do just fine.   These cookies are so good, served warm.  The next day, I figured out that 20 seconds in the microwave worked really well.  

You want these cookies in your life.  My husband says that people, at his job, would pay good money for these.  Hmmmm....

A printable recipe is at the end of this post.  If you can view the recipe card, then click here to be directed to Key Ingredient.

The winner of my Jeni's Ice Cream Recipe Book Giveaway is #15 (chosen by Random.org)...Joanne Bruno of "Eats Well With Others"!  Congratulations, Joanne.  Thanks for being such a loyal follower, and I hope you enjoy using Jeni's ice cream recipe!  Email me at foodiewife@gmail.com with your mailing address, so I can get this shipped off to you.

 

Cranberry White Chocolate Almond Cookies for the Secret Recipe Club

It's time again, to reveal a recipe that I've chosen for the Secret Recipe Club. Once a month, members are assigned a blog to peruse, and to choose a recipe, make it and blog it.  It's a really fun way to discover new blogs.

The fun part is that we keep our assigned blog a secret until the reveal day.  When I found out that I was assigned to "Through the Bugs on my Windshield", I cracked a big smile.  Suzanne has been a very loyal follower of my blog, and she's one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. She's a Texas gal, who is quite the photographer. She's a wife, mom, and traveler.  Her blog name is derived from her saying "Life is like a windshield-- there's gonna be a few bug splats along the way".

Suzanne has a wide assortment of recipes, and it was hard for me to hone down my final choice.  Her Bacon and Bleu Cheese Dressing/Dip would have been something my men would love to sink their teeth into.  Then, I spotted the Southwestern Chicken Tortilla Stew. That's right up my alley. Her Southwestern Stuffed Poblanos is what I decided to make....

...

...and then I realized, that as much as I love baking cookies, I haven't made any in a long time.  So another savory recipe will have to wait, while I switch over to baking something sweet.  My husband always appreciates having some cookies to toss in his lunch box, and my son is known to eat a few at a time.  So, when I spied the Cranberry White Chocolate Almond Cookies, and realized that I had all of the ingredients on hand, this was my SRC choice for the month.

Cranberries and white chocolate does sound like a winter Christmas cookie combination. But, I use dried cranberries year-round.  (I stock up on them to make my homemade Cranberry-Almond granola.)  I love white chocolate.  Combine that with any kind of almond flavor, and I'm sold. 

The batter is similar to a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe, except that this one uses all brown sugar. 

I debated between using pecans vs. almonds, but decided to use some toasted almonds-- and I ramped up the almond flavor by adding some almond extract and some vanilla extract.

While the oven preheated to 350F, I chilled the dough; then scooped the cookie dough onto parchment paper.

Eleven minutes later, they were baked to golden.

This recipe made 3 1/2 dozen.  For my own sake, so that I don't become a cookie monster, they are boxed up and ready to go to my husband's office.  I'm sure they'll be appreciate by his co-workers.

TASTING NOTES:  Cranberry and white chocolate are a great pairing.  If you like a soft cookie, that has a perfect balance of butter flavor, brown sugar, tart cranberries and just the right amount of white chocolate-- this cookie is for you.  I'd make these again, but I have to admit-- I'm a much bigger fan of cookies that are crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle.  I'm not saying these aren't good cookies, because they are.  I'm just going to tweak the recipe a little bit, next time, with a combo of butter and shortening, to get that "crispy-chewy" combo that I love so much.   

A printable recipe card is at the end of this post. If you can't view it, then click here.  At the very bottom, you'll find even more recipes from the rest of Group B, for the Secret Recipe Club.

S'Mores Rice Krispie Treats

Other than French Fries, Rice Krispy Treats are one of of my guilty pleasures. There's something about biting into crunchy cereal that has a gloriously chewy texture of marshmallow that transports me to my childhood, with great memories. Seriously, I could eat an entire pan of these, if left to my own devices. Fortunately, my son is as crazy about these treats as much as I am. That means they'll be gone before I have a chance to go overboard with eating these. Amen.

It has been years since I've made these. My son was in Middle School, 13 years ago, and I tried my best to play the role of June Cleaver when his friends would hang out at our home. (Little did my son know that a mom's secret weapon is to feed his friends all kinds of treats-- the better to get to know the little monster darlin's, so that I could keep a closer eye on the hormonal-raged tweens.) A couple of weeks ago, my son asked me to make a pan of rice krispie treats. It took all of 5 minutes to do, and my husband thought it was an odd dessert for me to make-- so different from my fancier Apple Brown Butter Tart orRed Velvet Layer Cake.. I mean, melted marshmallows and a cereal? Uh-huh. My husband polished off his fair share of them. I think he understood, at that point. These are very addicting.

I'm fortunate to be a member of the Secret Recipe Club ("Group B"). I say "fortunate", because there is a waiting list to join. Each month, we are assigned a blog, and are to stealthily peruse their recipe index and to choose, make and blog about it. We are given the same reveal date, and it's fun to see who got my own blog, and what they chose. I was super excited to be assigned to Greens And Chocolate.  Taylor is a 20-something young lady who loves to bake. It's fair to say that she's a good cook, because I was drooling over her savory dishes as well. I had a hard time choose just one recipe, but the S'Mores Rice Krispies Treats was my son's resounding selection. My son enthusiastically asked me to make these, so how could I resist?

Let's face it-- S'Mores are so popular in Blogsphere. I've seen S'Mores Cupcakes, Pies, Cookies, Brownies.... who doesn't love melted Hershey's Chocolate, graham crackers with gooey melted marshmallows?

 The prep work is very minimal, other than measuring chocolate chips. I chose to go with milk chocolate, but if you prefer semi-sweet please be my guest. I chopped up one package of graham crackers.

I decided to increase the 4 cups of mini marshmallows to 6 cups, because we love our rice krispie treats to be super gooey. I use the microwave, by adding 3 Tablespoons butter and nuking it for about one minute. Then, I give it a stir.

 I've measured five cups of rice krispy cereal with 1-1/2 cups of coarsely chopped graham crackers.

After nuking the marshmallow-butter mixture for another 30 seconds, it melted and ready to be poured into the bowl of cereal and graham crackers.

I added 1-1/2 cups of the milk chocolate chips and started to fold everything in, mixing it well. Then I poured it into a 9x13 pan, that I had placed a foil "sling" into and sprayed with non-stick spray. I like to butter my well washed hands so that I can easily pat the mixture evenly. I let this set for about 30 minutes.

I measured 1-1/2 cups of milk chocolate chips and microwaved them for about one minute, then stirred vigorously until silky smooth. I will adjust the printable recipe card to be 2 cups of melted chocolate, as I ran out!

 Much better, as I used an off-set spatula to get chocolate into every nook and cranny. Next I added the reserved 1-1/4 cups chopped graham crackers and spread them evenly-- then pressed them into the melted chocolate with a flat spatula. I chilled the dish for 30 minutes.

 The beauty of having a foil "sling" is being able to lift out the entire bar to cut it more easily.

 That's what we're talkin' about!

 My husband was lurking close by, waiting for his taste.

TASTING NOTES: Yesssss! These are sinfully good. I'm so glad that I chose milk chocolate, over semi-sweet, because it has that authentic taste of S'mores. Though I added 2 extra cups of marshmallow, I think I'm going to increase it to at least 7 cups....maybe 8. I'd love just a bit more "goo", which my son concurred-- as he stuffed one eagerly into his mouth.


 A printable recipe card is at the end of this post.

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Cranberry-Almond Biscotti

While I didn't accomplish the Christmas Cookies I had hoped to make, as gifts, I was able to make two biscotti recipes.  This one comes from an Italian friend that I work with.    I've never made biscotti, and I'm amazed at how easy they are to make.  I even dipped them in chocolate and packed them away until I could wrap them in gift bags and ribbon, for my coworkers.

Apparently, both my son and husband loved these as well.  Let's just say that the "kitchen mice" got into them. They pouted when I gave what they hadn't eaten-- and they had barely left me enough to package as gifts. So, I made more. Just for them.  Well, I like these too. A lot.

The dry ingredients are flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Room temperature unsalted butter and eggs bind it all together. (Why are my eggs soaking in water? It's my shortcut for bringing refrigerator cold eggs to room temp-- I soak them in hot tap water.)  To flavor this biscotti, you need a little orange and lemon zest.

To know me, is to know that I love shopping at King Arthur Flour.  I am really fond of their fiori di sicilia extract.  This has notes of vanilla and citrus, and I use it a lot.  I decided to try their Pure Orange oil and lemon oil (not to be confused with extract).  Sometimes, I just don't have a fresh orange or lemon on hand, so I wanted to see how I liked using these products.  These are very concentrated, so I added less than 1/8 teaspoon of the citrus oils and about 1/2 teaspoon of the fiori di sicilia.

Begin by creaming the soften butter and sugar until fluffy-- about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs, lemon and orange zest (or, in my case, the citrus oils) and then about 1/3 of the flour mixture. 

Add the cranberries and sliced almonds, and slowly add the remaining flour.

The batter tastes so good!  I got just the right balance of citrus and vanilla. 

I doubled the recipe, so I divided the dough in half and shaped them into "logs".  Wetting my hands made this easy to do, without the dough sticking. These do spread quite a bit, so they need to be spread.  A silpat mat or parchment paper really helps, too.

Bake at 350F for until light golden-- about 40 minutes.

Allow to cool just until you can touch them-- about 10 minutes.

A serrated knife makes cutting them, on the diagonal, at about 3/4" much easier to do. I found that pressing straight down works better, than sawing. I got less broken cookies and crumbs.

NOTE: My personal preference with biscotti is to bake them just until they are a very light golden color.  I want to underbake by five minutes, because I prefer mine to be a little softer inside. On the other hand, my son prefers them to be baked harder, because he dunks them in coffee. 

Set each slice on one side and bake for 15 minutes. I like to turn them over, at 7 minutes, so they bake more evenly.

Transfer the baked biscotti to a rack and allow to cool.

VERDICT:  I love these. Plain and simple. They are slightly sweet, but not too much.  They crumble a bit, and have a soft inside and a crisp outside. Just the way I like them.  I didn't photograph the batches that I dipped in dark chocolate.  They are excellent.  I prefer my biscotti without chocolate, only because I enjoy them with my morning coffee-- and that counts as breakfast, right?

This biscotti recipe saved me, because I wanted to give something edible as Christmas gifts.  They took about 15 minutes for the batter to be ready, and by doubling the recipe, I got 24 biscotti.  They got a lot of compliments, so mission accomplished.   Thanks, Kelly, for sharing your Italian recipe with me.   A printable recipe is at the end of this post.

2011 has been a good to me. I have no complaints.  I wish all of you a safe and wonderful New Year!

Thank you for your friendship.  You have made blogging a lot of fun for me.