Potato Chip Cookies

When I started this blog, I started it before my last semester of my MAcc program. This last semester I am taking a course on social media and social media analysis. One of the requirements of this course was to try to become an influencer on either Instagram or Twitter. As a result, I've been able to coordinate some postings with this blog! Unfortunately, both summer classes I am taking consist of many projects and it's been easier to post pictures of cakes I have done than it is to put in recipes. So today, I am trying to remedy that.

My mom would make these when I was a kid. Growing up in the Detroit-area, we had plenty of access to Better Made Potato Chips. These chips work well because they are very greasy and quite salty. I recently used a kettle-style potato chip and found that to be a bit better. In honesty, any PLAIN potato chip will do. Don't use BBQ and complain to me that it tasted like hot garbage. These cookies are perfect! Deliciously salty and ever so lightly greasy from the chips. Think of them as the pecan sandies' fun sister.

Potato Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

8 ounces (1 cup) of unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar; more for shaping

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

8 ounces (scant 2 cups) of all purpose flour

2 ounces (1/2 cup) of finely chopped pecans

1/2 cup of finely crushed potato chips

1/2 teaspoon of salt* (SEE NOTE!)

*(If your potato chips are not that salty, feel free to add this. If you are using salted butter or your brand of potato chips are quite salty, SKIP THIS)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350-degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Beat the butter and the sugar together until creamy and well blended, scraping the bowl as needed. I prefer to use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment for this, but if you're a masochist, feel free to do this by hand. Add the vanilla and beat again until well combined. Add the flour, pecans, potato chips, and salt (if you're using). Mix until well blended together.

Put some sugar into a shallow bowl and set aside. Roll your cookies into 1.5 inch balls. Roll the cookies in the sugar and set on the baking sheet. Using a greased glass or cookie stamp dipped in sugar, press the cookies down until they are about a 1/4 inch thick. Bake the cookies until they look dry on top. This may take 10 to 12 minutes. If you are using a brand-new shiny pan, you may need to cook the cookies an extra minute or two since shiny metal pans tend to reflect heat more than well-used pans. Once removed from the oven, let the cookies continue cooking on the cookie sheet for another 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. 

London Fog Cookies & Earl Gray Buttercream

I saw a recipe for a crepe cake that had 20 layers of crepes with each crepe having a layer of earl grey buttercream. While it looked delicious, it also looked like a lot of work. Also, I've never had a tea-based frosting. I didn't want to make the crepe cake and be met with a mouthful of disappointment. I based these cookies off of a cookie recipe I already had (because I wanted to utilize a box of cake mix) and my favorite Swiss buttercream recipe. The result was fantastic. The tea was subtle and paired amazingly well with the chocolate cookie. Neither flavor was dominating the party and the end result was sweet, buttery, subtle, and delicious.

London Fog Cookies

Cookie Ingredients:
2 boxes of devil’s food cake mix
4 large eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2/3 cups of vegetable oil
Confection’s Sugar for rolling

Directions:
Mix the cake mix, eggs, vanilla, and oil into a mixing bowl and mix very well. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for one hour. While the dough is chilling now would be a good time to start the butter for the Earl Grey buttercream as shown below! Preheat the oven to 375. Roll cookies into small balls about the circumference of a nickel. If you weigh them, they should be about 15 grams. Roll them into confectioner’s sugar. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and tap the tops of the cookies to flatten slightly. Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, pipe a dollop of Earl Grey buttercream on the bottom of one cookie and top with a second to make sandwiches.

Earl Grey Buttercream

Frosting Ingredients:
2 egg whites

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar
2 and 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter (separated!)
5 bags of Earl Grey tea

Directions:
Gently melt 2 sticks of butter in a saucepan and bring to a slight boil. Steep the tea bags into the butter and let them sit for 15 minutes in the melted butter. Squeeze the tea bags to extract any butter absorbed into the tea bags. You should notice some dark brown liquid coming out of the tea bags. This is the butter infused into the tea. Make sure to get as much of it out of the bags as possible. Discard the used tea bags. Stir the melted butter and pour into a bowl and put into the fridge for 30 minutes. This will firm up the butter but keep it soft/spreadable like room temp butter. When the cookies are cooling, put the egg whites, sugar, and tartar into the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix very well. Place over a double boiler. Gently cook the mixture until it comes to 160 degrees, whisking often. Immediately place the bowl onto the stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Beat well for about 8 minutes until heavy peaks form. This takes 5 to 8 minutes. Change the whisk attachment to the paddle attachment. At this point, the melted butter that was in the fridge should NOT be melted but spreadable like room temperature butter. Give it a good mix. If it’s still melted and not the consistency of spreadable butter, put it back into the fridge or freezer to firm up some more. The other half a stick of butter should be room temperature. Slowly add a tablespoon or two of the butter (doesn’t matter if it’s the infused butter or the regular butter) to the frosting beating well after each addition. After all the butter is added, beat the hell out of it until it’s the consistency of frosting. Should only take a few minutes.