Potato Chip Cookies

Yes, you read that title correctly. Today, we're going to be making potato chip cookies. 

This is an old recipe from my mother who (looking at her recipe card) got it from her friend Debbie.

Notice how Debbie didn't write down how many people this recipe serves? It's because there's a pound of butter in this recipe and (I'm speaking from experience here) you probably don't want to tell people that when you're sharing these cookies with them...especially if they're trying to be health conscious. 

But then again, you may not want to tell them the name of the cookie as well! 

Okay! For those of you who are still with me and want to try this recipe (hello? You're still there right? I hope I didn't scare you off with the pound of butter?), we'll start with four sticks of butter (softened)! 

To the butter you'll add 1 1/2 cups of sugar, then you'll need to cream those together with your mixer. 

After that, add 3 1/4 cups flour and 1 teaspoon of vanilla to your creamed butter and sugar. 

Once you've poured those in, use your mixer to combine all the ingredients and set them aside.

Now its the fun part: 

Licking the beaters!

Now it's time to grab a bag of potato chips!

Pour some of the chips in a ziplock bag and start crushing! You need 1 1/2 cups of crushed potato chips, so start with less then you think you need (because eating crushed chips is a sad thing). 

Use a wooden spoon if needed to really get the pieces small.

Once you have them all measured out, pour them into your cookie dough and stir them in!

Next, roll balls of dough with your hands or use a cookie scooper and set the cookie on an un-greased baking sheet (because these have enough butter in them already). 

Place them in the oven at 300 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the edges get golden brown.

Don't those just look yummy? Now, if you've never heard of potato chip cookies, I can see how someone would be a bit nervous to try one, but believe me: you don't taste the potato chip. It simply adds a crunch and a bit of saltiness to a sweet sugar cookie.

Yes, we could stop there.

But we're not going to.

Adding a little bit of powdered sugar is the icing on the cake!

Now for some unsuspecting parents to taste test!

Paul gave them a thumbs up and had no idea there were potato chips in the cookie till we told him.

Melissa loved every bite of hers until she heard how much butter was in them...then she promptly handed the rest of her cookie to Paul.

Sorry mom!

Next time I'll make...kale cookies.

Or something.

Even Xochie loved the cookies (but she loves junk food, so this wasn't a surprise). 

Well I hope I haven't scared you all off by making these! I promise they're super yummy. I do have something to admit though: Quinn and I did not make them all. In fact we only made one pan full. To make sure we can still fit into our clothes tomorrow (and for the sake of the rest of the family as well) we'll be taking the remainder of the cookie dough over to my parents house so that my siblings will eat all the cookies. 

We recommend sharing them with your friends and family too, otherwise you may find yourself sick having eaten a pound of butter (in the form of cookies).

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Potato Chip Cookies

     Taken from my mother's old recipe card (from her friend Debbie)

1 lb (or four sticks) of softened butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1 1/2 cups crushed potato chips

powdered sugar (optional) 

In a large mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter together. Add in flour and vanilla, stir together. Pour in crushed potato chips and stir to combine. Roll into balls, set onto un-greased cookie sheet and put in oven at 300 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until edges are light golden brown. Optional: sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Sugary Peanut Butter Hearts

Believe me when I tell you that these will be gone as they come out of the oven! These adorable peanut butter hearts will have you wishing Valentine's Day would hurry up and come back. 

But really, you don't need a holiday like Valentine's Day to give your friends and loved ones these cute cookies. 

Lets get our aprons on and get started!

We start with the best parts of any cookie recipe: the sugars!

Add 3/4 cup each of white and brown sugar (don't forget to pack that brown sugar like cute little sand castles!), 1/2 cup softened butter, and 1 cup creamy peanut butter.

Stir all that yummyness together until will combined. 

We'll then add in 2 large eggs.

Quinn, Laura, and Abigail and I all grew up with chickens. Of course, for them, they lived here in Juneau, while I had been living in Texas when my family owned chickens. We all agree that having chickens was a lot of fun, and if we ever stop touring, we'll be getting them again. There's just nothing like fresh eggs straight from your backyard (but be careful of those roosters!).

After the eggs, add in 1/3 cup milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla (Though, my philosophy is that extra vanilla is always a good idea. That way, if your cookies turn out terrible, at least they'll smell good!).

Beat those last three ingredients in with the peanut butter and sugar and set aside. 

Now for the dry ingredients! Combine 2 1/2 cups of flour, and a 1/2 teaspoon each of baking powder and baking soda in a bowl. 

After a quick wisk, pour the dry ingredients in with the wet and start your mixer! If your dough gets too thick for your mixer, switch it out for a wooden spoon.

My little mixer can't handle anything too thick, but that just means I get an arm workout with my wooden spoon!

After your cookie dough is all mixed together and no flour is showing, place in the refrigerator for two hours, or until easy to handle.

I know, I know. I don't like waiting for cookies that have to be refrigerated. But believe me! These are worth it!

Once your cookie dough is ready to be rolled out, lightly flour a counter top and roll our your dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. Now comes the fun part...

Cookie cutters!

This is the funnest part of course, so choose your cookie cutters with care! I wanted to make hearts because I had just gotten this particular cookie cutter on sale after Valentine's Day. It was too cute to not be used!

My mother's favorite cookies have always been peanut butter. One of my earliest memories is of her teaching me to use a big fork to mark the top of her peanut butter cookies. 

Even though I chose to make these shaped like hearts, I still wanted to make sure they had that special mark on them.

Put your cookies on an un-greased baking sheet and stick them in the oven at 350F for 7 to 9 minutes. Your kitchen will smell wonderful, and like I said before, these cookies will vanish right before your eyes as they come out of the oven!

 Here are my cookies before and after. They don't spread out too much, so feel free to stick them close together on the baking sheet. After all, the more cookies the better, right?

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Sugary Peanut Butter Hearts

     Adapted from the 2003 Country Women Christmas Cookbook 

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 large eggs

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla 

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2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon making soda

In a large mixing bowl, cream sugars, peanut butter and butter. Add in eggs, milk, and vanilla and beat until fully combined and creamy. In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and mix well, using wooden spoon if dough becomes too thick for mixer. Cover and put in refregorator for two hours, or until dough is easy to handle. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Use desired cookie cutters and carefully place cookies on un-greased cookie sheet. Put in a 350F oven for 7 to 9 minutes. Watch them vanish before your eyes!

Molasses & Ginger Crinkle Cookies

Time to get those aprons on! 

Today, I made one of my most favorite types of cookies: molasses and ginger crinkles! I thought I would share the recipe here with you for fun.

Lets get started!

I'll walk you through the recipe here in this post. The full recipe will be listed at the bottom of this page for your convenience later - when you make your own crinkle cookies! 

Please let us know how yours turned out!

Dry ingredients first! 

Pour 2 1/2 cups of flour into a nice big bowl - soon there will be a lot in it! 

Next add 2 teaspoons of baking soda.

Three of my favorite spices are next! Add in 1 1/2 each of ground cinnamon and ginger, then 1 teaspoon of ground cloves. 

Your kitchen will smell like Christmas itself!

Add a pinch of salt (1/4 teaspoon) and then your dry ingredients are ready to be...

Mixed together and set aside!

On to the wet ingredients! Though...we actually start with 1 cup of packed brown sugar (which should be dry, not wet). Put that 1 cup of packed brown sugar in an empty bowl.

From there, we will add in 3/4 cup of cooking oil. Don't throw that measuring cup in the sink just yet, we'll be using it again in a moment!

Now, the next part Quinn had to help me on. Molasses jars can be very hard to open with their sticky contents, so to all you ladies out there, make sure you have a nice, strong man around like Quinn to help you out with it. After you have your molasses jar open, use the measuring cup you used for the oil to measure out 1/4 cup molasses. Because of the oil, the molasses will pour out nice and smooth!

And last, but not least, a single egg is all that needs to be added for this cookie dough to be ready for mixing!

Now mix all your wet ingredients together and pour them in to the nice big bowl of dry ingredients you had set aside earlier. 

Now you're going to mix mix mix with a nice mixer till the dough is too thick to continue. Once this happens, roll up your sleeves and start stirring with a nice wooden spoon. 

Boy, my siblings and I could tell you stories about wooden spoons. Namely, being spanked with them. Not that I got spanked often. You can ask my parents, it's the truth. Quinn also agrees he got spanked a lot. 

Don't worry though, it hasn't done either of us any lasting emotional damage. Once you're done, all the flour should be totally mixed in. Make sure there's no white left!

Now's the time for your man (mine being Quinn) to light your stove and turn the gas on. Set your oven to bake at 375 F.

Pour some white sugar into a small bowl. (we're going to roll our cookies in sugar because it makes them extra good!) 

Now, use a cookie scooper (or your hands) to scoop out cookie dough in 1 inch balls. This particular cookie scooper I got as a bridal shower gift from two girls I babysat for several years. 

They knew how much I loved baking cookies, and they thought the most important thing I needed to have in my new kitchen was a cookie scoop! Thanks Rebecca and Melissa! 

Roll the cookies in sugar and place them about an inch or so apart on a cookie sheet (no need to grease it, remember all that oil?). 

Stick your cookies in the oven for 10 minutes. It may seem like an eternity, but try to wait! I promise these cookies are worth it.

Now don't those just look yummy? In fact, lets put the kettle on and make some tea!                                                        And after the tea is ready, maybe you could snuggle up with a blanket and your freshly made cookies?

I think that sounds like an amazing idea!

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Molasses & Ginger Crinkle Cookies

     Adapted from the Better Homes & Gardens Ginger Crinkles Recipe

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

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1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup cooking oil

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

Stir together the first five ingredients plus 1/4 teaspoon salt, stir to combine. Combine the other remaining ingredients and beat. Add wet ingredients to dry mixture and beat well. Form one-inch balls with hands or cookie scoop. Roll in granulated sugar if desired (but you should!), then place two inches apart on un-greased cookie sheet for ten minutes in a 375 degree oven. Take out and let cool on racks. Seal in container for munching on later, or enjoy right away!