Potato Chip Shortbread Cookies

We first read about potato chip cookies several years ago in the Washington Post's annual cookie round-up.  If you haven't seen these articles, we highly recommend them.  The reporters take their cookies very seriously, going so far as to trash noted chef Michel Richard for a cookie recipe that doesn't produce perfect results and independently testing every recipe several times.  Only the best make the cut, and the recommendations are always interesting.  We filed the Post's recipe and forgot all about it until reading Mother Rimmy's and Brie's posts last month about their potato chip cookies.  What could be a better baking project for kids than cookies which include greasy, old-fashioned potato chips, a snack that is contraband in our house.  The fact that the recipe requires smashing the chips to smithereens first makes this recipe even more fun, and with only 5 ingredients, young children can easily take charge of this baking project.  The results really do taste like shortbread, with a bit of potato chip crunch here and there.    Admittedly a bit odd, but what can we say, the kids loved these from start to finish.


Potato Chip Shortbread Cookies 

produces 16 big cookies
recipe adapted from Washington Post


Ingredients

8           oz                 unsalted butter, room temp
1/2        cup               sugar, plus more for rolling
1 3/4     cup               unbleached A.P. flour
1           cup               coarsely crushed potato chips
1            tsp               vanilla

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 325° convection (350° conventional).  Combine flour and potato chips.
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, then add vanilla.  Add dry and mix just enough to combine.
3. Form balls of dough by hand about 2" across (or to suit your preferences).  Roll in granulated sugar, then place on sheet pan with silpat or parchment paper.  Flatten cookies with your hand (they won't spread much in the oven) and smooth edges if they crack a bit when flattened.
4. Bake until golden and just starting to brown around edges.  Our cookies were big and fairly thick, so they took a while to bake through.
   

Lindsay recommends adding chocolate chips
Molly suggests adding pecans and drizzling chocolate on top