Maple Pecan Potato Chip Shortbread Cookies

These Maple Pecan Potato Chip Shortbread Cookies feature a deliciously balanced salty/sweet flavor profile and are easy to make! They’re a fun addition to a festive holiday cookie tray.

I think food-related gifts are the best gifts, whether it’s a celebratory meal you’re sharing or a plate of homemade treats. Or better yet, a tried and true family recipe.

One of the biggest perks of being a food blogger is that when people hear what I do for a living, their eyes  light up and their ears perk up, and they immediately ask me if I have a great recipe for such-and-such, or if I’ve ever tried this-or-that.

They tell me about their favorite dishes…what they ate growing up and what they make for their own families. The foods they’ve eaten while traveling, and the places they hope to go because they’re dying to submerge themselves in the cuisine of the region. If I’m lucky, they’ll talk about a dish that’s been in their family for generations, and tell me how exactly what occasions their great grandma used to make her special Chocolate Velvet Cake or about their uncle’s famous Chicken and Leek Fricassee.

Some memories are so intertwined with food that it’s nearly impossible to determine whether a meal was special because of the occasion, or if the meal was the special occasion. These are the stories I consider it an honor to be privy to.

And sometimes, if I’m really lucky, people will gift my friends and family with food stories or recipes to give to me.

I first heard of potato chip cookies three Christmases ago when one of my dad’s customers gave him the recipe during the holiday season to give to me. He had been telling her how his daughter was a food blogger, and the woman wanted to share one of her family’s favorite holiday cookie recipes with me. I meant to share the recipe a while ago, but truthfully, it slipped my mind and life got in the way, as it tends to do. I was reminded of these lovely cookies when we had them for dessert one night during the Idaho Potato Tour last September.

So here they are now. The recipe I was gifted by my dad’s customer was a bit more basic, more similar to classic shortbread but with the added crunch from potato chips. It’s fabulous. However, I wanted to put my own spin on it and I went with the addition of maple and pecans. If you’re a fan of that flavor combo, I highly recommend giving this recipe a try.

In this recipe I used Bob’s Red Mill Organic Unbleached All Purpose White Flour, which is freshly milled from organic hard red wheat without any additives. Both the bran and the germ have been removed, leaving the endosperm that is made into white flour. This is the flour that I keep stocked in my own pantry; it’s incredibly versatile and is my go-to for traditional baking. And if you’ve been following my blog for a while now, you probably already know how much I stand behind the quality of Bob’s Red Mill products; I had the honor of featuring Bob on my blog a while ago and had the pleasure of meeting him face-to-face this year! He is as kind in person as you’d expect. If you want to try their products for yourself, you can head over to this page for a Bob’s Red Mill coupon.

Back to these cookies for a minute. They are always a hit, and if people can see the potato chips in them, they’re immediately intrigued. This is why I like to use the potato chips with ridges; they tend to show a little better (the un-ridged kind of potato chips will work fine too though). Flavor-wise, these cookies are pretty well-balanced without being overly salty or sweet. Next time I make them, I’m thinking of amping up the salt a touch and going the “salted” route (because I love the salty/sweet profile!) and adding a little sprinkle of sea salt to the top of each cookie before baking. Take note that the overall saltiness of the cookies will depend on how salty your chips are; be sure to use unsalted butter so you have more control over the salt level of these cookies, and taste your chips before you decide to add a sprinkle of sea salt on top of each cookie.

These would be a lovely addition to a festive cookie platter!