Now, I often complain that, if you know how to bake, you can make personal care products. Because, on a daily basis, I follow a batch care (recipe), adding very precise amounts of ingredients (in this case, chemicals) together, mixing them, heating them, cooling them, until, c'est voila, shampoo. The art comes in by creating a recipe from scratch, understanding how each of the ingredients will work together (or not work, as the case may be) to create one perfect product.
Now imagine, a bunch of scientists (and some non-scientists) competing to see who can create the perfect cookie. There were over a dozen creations, all consumed over lunch. My stomach is still protesting remembering how many sweets it ingested on Monday. I don't think I have ever consumed that many cookies in a day, let alone one sitting. In the end, one cookie reigned supreme. . . my Chocolate Chippy.
In fairness, the Chocolate Chippy had existed in my mind for over a year. People on Pinterest posted recipes adding potato chips to chocolate chip cookies. But, when I tried them, I realized that, putting crumpled potato chips into a cookie made them soggy. By the time the cookie finished baking, you had lost all of the crunch of the potato chip. And, really, the sweet/salty combination wasn't perfectly balanced. I initially tried using adding the chips to a chocolate dough. Then I tried Frito's corn chips (since they are thicker, I thought they would retain some of their crunch). But, my husband vetoed the Frito's, claiming the cookie was overwhelmingly "corn flavored". I tried rolling the cookie in crumbled chips, like you might roll a cookie in nuts or sugar. A small improvement, but not what I was ultimately looking for.
If only I could coat the potato chips in something so that they retained their saltiness AND crunch. Something like the non-nutritive cereal varnish Clark invented in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (a classic). And then, it came to me. Why not coat the potato chips in chocolate before adding them to the cookie? This introduced new challenges. . . how to best coat the chip without getting too much chocolate on the chip (because I wanted to maintain the perfect balance of sweet and salty). Ultimately, I painted dark chocolate onto both sides of the chips, laid them on a cookie sheet in the freezer to set, then crumbled them into smaller pieces to add to the cookies.
In hindsight, coating potato chips this way is very time consuming. If you're crunched for time (pardon the pun), you can order chocolate covered potato chips from various retailers on the Internet. I love dark chocolate, and most vendors use milk, so I'm going to continue painting chips. For anyone who wants to try it, the full recipe is listed below:
Ruffles Potato Chips (can substitute other chips, but the crinkle cut are easier to coat)
1 bar of Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate (can substitute other chocolates)
Break the bar of chocolate up in a glass bowl. Microwave on high at 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until chocolate is melted. With a brush or clean hands, paint the chocolate onto each side of a potato chip. Lay the coated chips on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Freeze until the chocolate has set. Break the chips into pieces.
The Chocolate Chippy
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups of broken Dark Chocolate Covered Potato Chips (see recipe above)
additional sea salt for sprinkling on top of the cookies
Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients, mixing until smooth and uniform. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed to make sure all of the flour is mixed in. Stir in chocolate covered potato chips. Scoop tablespoon sized balls of the dough. Sprinkle or roll the top in sea salt before placing on cookie sheet, spaced about 2 inches apart between cookies. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool for 2-3 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing. Assuming you haven't consumed the cookies (or dough), continue cooling on a cooling rack before storing.
Happy Baking!
Love, The Trahans
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