Chocolate & Potato Chip Cookies

It has arrived again!  The Food Blogger Cookie Swap.  I participated in this event last year, and it was so much fun.  I love thinking of a creative new cookies that other foodies like myself might enjoy.  And the best part is that you get PACKAGES in the mail!  Who doesn't love getting packages?  And then you open the package and get to eat what's inside.  So. dang. awesome.  Last year I made fun little Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cookies.  This year, I decided on Chocolate & Potato Chip Cookies.  I am a sucker for sweet and salty things together, and while at first thought potato chips in a cookie might sound strange, and then covered with chocolate may even sound more strange, I assure you, it's delicious.  Buttery soft cookies with crispy pieces of saltiness, half covered in sweet chocolate.  I hope those that received these cookies from me enjoyed them!

Here are the cookies that I received:

Chocolate Crack Cookies from Melanie of Melanie in the Middle - I don't think this is the actual name of these cookies.  I didn't get anything with the package that had the name of them on it, so I made up a name for them.  They were chocolatey, crispy and super yummy! Thanks Melanie!

Kitchen Sink Cookies from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk - These cookies had all kinds of goodies inside them...coconut, nuts, dates, and oatmeal maybe?  I don't remember what all was in them, but I remember that they were delicious!  Thanks Jenni!

Reese's Monster Cookies from Jennifer of Peanut Butter & Peppers - Reese's pieces, M&Ms, chocolate chips...can't go wrong with any of those things.  Soft little cookies with bits of candy.  Awesome!  Also, Jennifer sent a little coffee giftcard with her cookies.  So sweet!  Thanks Jennifer!

Can't wait until next year!

in the meantime, here is my cookie recipe:

Chocolate & Potato Chip Cookies

Adapted from Martha Stewart

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp coarse salt

4 cups coarsely crushed salted potato chips, divided

1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

4 oz chocolate

2 Tbsp butter 

Preheat oven to 375.  Beat the butter and both sugars together until fluffy.  Add in the vanilla and eggs and beat until just combined.  Add flour, baking soda, and salt and beat on low until just combined.  Stir in 2 cups of the chips and all of the nuts.  

Roll the dough into 2 inch balls.  Roll dough balls in the remaining potato chip pieces to coat.  Place cookies on a non-stick baking sheet (or whatever method of non-stick baking you like to do).  Bake until golden, about 12-15 minutes.  (The original recipe said 18-20 minutes...but they would have burnt for that long in my oven.  Just keep an eye on them!)  Let the cookies completely cool.

Once cookies are cooled off, melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave or in a double boiler.  Dip 1/2 of each cookie into the chocolate and allow to dry and harden.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cookies; Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011

I partook in the 1st annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.  I saw a post about it on a fellow Nashville food bloggers, Lindsay and Taylor of loveandoliveoil.com.  They teamed up with Julie of The Little Kitchen to create a huge cookie swap that consisted of 600+ bloggers from around the US and Canada.  Each blogger got 3 other food blogger's addresses to send them a dozen cookies.  I sent cookies to New York, Maryland and Massachusetts.  You didn't know what kind of cookies you would receive, or who/where they would be from.

I received some pretty awesome cookies, like these cream cheese sugar cookies from Steph at Will Run For Treats.  

And these really yummy and unique Mocha cookies from Teresa at Food On Fifth.  These cookies had chocolate, coffee, salt, and cayenne pepper in them, and they were aaaa-mazing.  And, Teresa is also from Nashville, and used all local vendor ingredients for her cookies! 

*I also received a box of delicious traditional ginger molasses cookies from Amira and Casey over at HungryDancers.  They were yummy!  I actually didn't get a chance to grab a photo of them, as I had family over the day they came, and they were eaten up quite quickly : )

For my batch of cookies to send out, I decided to make mint chocolate chip cookies.  Mint chocolate chip is my favorite flavor (ok one of my many favorite flavors) of ice cream, so I thought I'd try and transform it into a cookie!  They turned out pretty tasty, just a little more crispy than I personally would have liked but the taste was still great!

Here's a few visuals as to how I created the ice cream shaped cookies....

I used the points on a large star cookie cutter to create the cone out of chocolate cookie dough.  I used the flower petal edge of a flower cookie cutter to create an indent in the cone for the "scoop of ice cream" to sit in.  I then took a little knife and carved criss-cross lines into the cone, to make it look like waffle cones!

To make the ice cream portion, I used mint flavored dough with chocolate chunks mixed in.  I used the flower cookie cutter to make the ice cream scoop.  I then took the little middle part of my old fashioned biscuit cutter and rounded off the top of the "scoop" to look more like an ice cream cone.

Then I placed the ice cream scoops on top of the cone, and pushed them together a little.  Baked them, made a chocolate icing to put on top, and topped them with some chopped up Andes mints.  

I think they turned out pretty cute!