This Maple Pecan Potato Chip Cookies Recipe features a deliciously balanced salty/sweet flavor profile and is 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. For example, 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, people talk about a dish that’s been in their family for generations. They’ll tell me how exactly what occasions their great grandma used to make her special Chocolate Velvet Cake for, or how their uncle’s famous Chicken and Leek Fricassee came to be.
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. One of my dad’s customers gave him the recipe during the holiday season to give to me. He told her that 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. Truthfully, it just slipped my mind. 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. It was 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.
Potato Chip Cookies Recipe
These cookies are always a hit! Seeing pieces of potato chip in the cookies is intriguing, especially if you’ve never had these cookies. This is why I like to use the potato chips with ridges. They tend to show a little better (but the un-ridged kind of potato chips will work fine too though).
These Potato Chip Cookies have a well-balanced flavor profile. They’re both salty and sweet 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 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. Also, 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!
What Can You Do with Leftover Potato Chips?
When you have just a bit of (mostly crushed) chips in the bottom of the bag, don’t throw them out! There are quite a few delicious ways to use crushed potato chips.
- As a gratin topping! Replace the buttery Ritz topping in this Cauliflower Gratin Recipe with Buttery Ritz Topping with crushed potato chips.
- Use crushed chips as a breading for chicken. Instead of coconut in this Coconut Chicken Tenders recipe, try crushed potato chips.
- Potato chips also work well as a casserole topping. Use them instead of the buttered toast topping to make make this Cheesy Tuna Noodle Casserole recipe.
- And of course, use leftover potato chips to make these delicious Maple Pecan Potato Chip Cookies!
More Unique Cookies for Your Holiday Cookie Tray:
- Ma’amoul (Middle Eastern Date Filled Cookies)
- Chewy Molasses Ginger Cookies
- Chai-Spiced Vanilla Shortbread Cookies
- Almond Butter Cookies (Inspired by Peanut Butter Chocolate Kiss Cookies)
- Candy Cane Kiss Sugar Cookies
- Russian Tea Cakes
Did you make this recipe? Please rate it and leave a comment below because I love hearing from you! You can also tag @anediblemosaic on social media. To stay up-to-date FOLLOW ME on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Xoxo, Faith
Maple Pecan Potato Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon pure maple extract or pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup pecans toasted and chopped
- 1 1/2 cups coarsely crushed salted potato chips I used the kind with ridges
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F; get out 2 large cookie trays (I use half sheet pans).
- Cream together the butter, sugar, and maple flavor, and then mix in the flour. Fold in the pecans and potato chips.
- Use a 1 1/2-tablespoon scoop to measure out the dough and drop it onto the cookie trays, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between each cookie.
- Bake until the cookies are golden on the bottom, about 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the trays once halfway through.
- Let the cookies cool completely on the trays before removing.
Video
Helpful Tips
- This recipe makes about 30 cookies. Each serving is 3 cookies, for a total of 10 servings.
- Store these cookies covered at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
- You'll need about 2 to 2 1/2 cups of whole potato chips to get 1 1/2 cups of crushed chips.
- This recipe is easy to customize! You can use any type of nuts you like instead of pecans. And if you can't find maple extract, you can use vanilla extract instead.
Nutrition
This post was first published on An Edible Mosaic on December 2, 2015. I updated it with more information on December 4, 2020.
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links to products I believe in, which means that even though it doesn’t cost you anything extra, I will receive a small amount of money from the sale of these items. Thank you for helping to support An Edible Mosaic!
I’m Faith Gorsky, the writer, cook, and photographer behind An Edible Mosaic. My goal is to inspire you to get in the kitchen and try something new! Feel free to 
I love a good salty sweet cookie, these are perfection!
Sweet, salty crunchy perfection!
It’s so true that some of the best recipes are ones with great stories behind them. The sweet and salty combination in these cookies is so appealing to me!
I am ALL about the sweet & salty combo! These cookies sound amazing! I need to make them asap. :)
The best meals and occasions are when you can’t tell the difference between the two. And Christmas cookie season always feels that way with those you love.
I love salty and sweet together – I think this cookie is everything I love in one!
What a yummy flavor combination!
Whoa! Don’t mind if I dip mine in some chocolate first, mmm!!
Beautiful work! For my purposes, I would probably try to make these gluten-free/ even paleo, but I agree that if you can eat wheat flour, organic is absolutely the way to go. As for your opening here, about how stories of food connect us all….. I couldn’t agree more. I think there is something so primal about wanting to feed those we love, or sharing our thoughts and feeling through food. And I can’t help but think it’s incredibly sweet your dad’s co-worker really wanted you to have this recipe!