I'm spoiling the surprise right away. The "surprise" is potato chips! These are oatmeal cookies with potato chips, courtesy of a reader named Louise who adapted this recipe from one called Key Largo Oatmeal Cookies by Maida Heatter.
In her introduction to the cookies, Louise mentioned she was the official baker for the Bethlehem, PA Trail of Lights. Every year she made dozens of assorted cookies to serve to groups taking guided tours of the lights. While we didn't get to go on Louise's tour, she sent us a box in the mail so I got to try Louise's cookies firsthand.
Surprise Oatmeal Cookies with Potato Chips
So how were they? When I first tried one of the cookies (in a fairly dark kitchen and in a tired mood) I thought the potato chips were coconut chips. Even though I'd used potato chips in cookies before, I wasn't expecting them in oatmeal cookies so they really were a surprise.
Size, Texture, Flavor
These are big, fat, crisp on the outside, and filled with nuts, dried fruit, and of course the potato chips. If you like coconut, you can swap out some of the potato chips for coconut, but if you're not a coconut fan just leave it out and use the full 2 cups of crushed potato chips. I am not a huge coconut fan, but I do like the extra sweetness it brings to the recipe and it's not overwhelming.
Maida Heatter's Key Largo Cookies
Now speaking of surprises, when I went searching for the original recipe from which these were adapted, I could not find Key Largo Oatmeal Cookies in any of my Maida Books. A food writer named Adam Roberts mentioned the recipe was from Maida Heatter's Brand New Book of Great Cookies, so I tracked down a copy and there it was on page 129. Maida says the recipe for is from a small bakery near where Bogart and Bacall filmed Key Largo. She mentions not knowing why the bakery used potato chips, but decided that "chips are chips" and ended up with fantastic cookies where "if you don't tell anyone about the potato chips, they will never guess."
Notes on This Recipe
- 2 cups sifted flour -- Maida didn't use a scale, so the method of measuring the flour (sifting and then filling a cup) mattered. A cup of sifted flour only weighs about 114 grams. If you have a scale, you can skip the sifting and just weigh out 114 grams.
- Add-Ins -- Maida used 4 oz of potato chips which when crushed is about 2 cups packed. She used 1 ½ cups of walnuts, 1 cup of raisins and 1 cup of dried pitted sour cherries. Louise's Surprise Cookies use slightly different measurements and an assortment of dried fruit. Coconut is also an option.
- The original Key Largo Oatmeal Cookies did not have salt or cinnamon. With all of the salt in the potato chips you could probably leave it out, but I've always added it, and I would keep doing so especially if cutting the potato chips down and using coconut.
- Bake time is going to vary from kitchen to kitchen, but the general time for a ¼ cup of dough is 18 to 20 minutes at 350F. If yours brown too quickly, you can bake at 325F. Maida Heatter's oven temps are always a little on the high side which I think might be due to improved efficiency of today's more modern ovens.
Recipe
Surprise Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 8 oz unsalted butter, room temperature or cool (228 grams)
- 1 ¾ cups packed light brown sugar (350 grams)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 large eggs room temp
- 2 cups sifted unbleached flour** (228 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt (optional if using salty potato chips)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- ⅓ cup currants or raisins
- 1 cup dried cranberries or cherries
- 1 ½ cup toasted pecans, chopped
- 3-4 oz potato chips (crushed to make 1 ½ to 2 cups) (84 to 114 grams)
- ½ cup shredded sweetened coconut (optional) (50 grams)
Instructions
- Beat the butter with a mixer until it is creamy. Beat in the brown sugar and vanilla and continue to cream mixture for about 2 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in the eggs, one at time.
- Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture to the batter and stir until it's mixed in, then add the oats, dried fruit, pecans and potato chips. Stir well. Batter should be slightly crumbly from all the add-ins, but not dry. If you used the right amount of flour it won't be.
- Using a ¼ cup measure, scoop up dough and make 24 large mounds. To help shape the crumbly dough, moisten hands with a small amount of water. At this point you can bake the cookies OR you can arrange the mounds on a plate and chill them until ready to bake. I've been chilling mine overnight to get more height.
- When ready to bake, let the dough mounds come to cool room temperature. Place dough mounds on heavy duty ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet spreading about 2 inches apart. Press tops down slightly. Bake at 350 for 18-20 min or till lightly browned and cookies appear set. For moister centers, 18 minutes, for dryer cookies, go with the longer cook-time.
- Notes: To toast pecans, spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes.
Ashley says
What fun cookies!
Anna says
Sheila, they'd be great without the cinnamon!
Sheila says
Anna-
Wondering your thoughts on leaving out the cinnamon in these? I prefer oatmeal cookies without and my thought is with so much "stuff" (including your coconut suggestion!) in these, they would still be great?
Anna says
Hi Jackie,
Have a nice visit! I know that feeling of being on vacation and wanting to get home and back in the kitchen.
Jackie says
I'm presently visiting in HI and can't wait to get home and try these!
Anna says
Louise, maybe mine were a bit larger. At 18 minutes the centers were chewy and at 20, the cookies were slightly less chewy. They would have been overdone at anything more than 20 minutes. I suppose it really depends on the size of your cookies, the oven, etc. Also, I tried dried cherries and they were good, but cranberries were good too.
Mackenzie @ The Caramel Cookie says
MMMmmm these look great! I love how they pack in so many different flavors and textures!
Louise says
I was able to just scoop up the dough in a fairly compact ball and flatten it a bit with a glass. Mine baked in about 14 minutes as a single sheet in the oven. Be careful not to overbake them. Maida Heatter strongly suggests using dried sour cherries instead of cranberries. And storing them back to back. 🙂
the blissful baker says
this is the coolest thing ever! i NEVER would have thought to use potato chips in oatmeal cookies. i bet they really add to the taste and texture, yum!
Katrina says
Those look great. They look similar in thickness and texture to the Hard Boiled Egg Oatmeal Cookies I make all the time.
http://www.bakingandboys.com/2010/04/amazing-hard-boiled-egg-oatmeal-cookies.html
My mom loves oatmeal cookies, she also loves BBQ potato chips. I wonder how those would be in the cookie. hehe jk!
Susan says
Wow! I live so close to Bethlehem and never knew about the Trail of Lights. ( Guess I need to get out of the kitchen more!).
I love potato chips in cookies. I made a Potato Chip Cookie recipe about a week or so ago. Yum!
vanillasugar says
love that. you know i'm all over that one.
Fallon says
Hm sounds delicious! Lots of different things going on in the cookie like sweet, salty, crunch and chew!