This year the Irish Food Bloggers Association organized a holiday cookie recipe exchange. Bill and I love baking Christmas cookies, so I eagerly signed up. I was paired in the recipe exchange with Evin from Evin’s Cooking Peas & Q’s. Turns out Evin is a fellow American, so knows a cookie from a biscuit. And her recipe uses US measurements which is handy enough for me.

Evin sent me a recipe for one of her friend’s cookie traditions. First thing you’ll notice about the recipe is that it contains potato chips. Then you might wonder who Gladys Lum Bower is.

These cookies go together very easily. This is a flexible recipe; I used twice as many pecans for the heck of it, and the cookies turned out great. I used golden caster sugar and Kettle Chips potato chips. I’m not sure we would have identified the potato chips if we didn’t already know they were there, but the chips do add an extra bit of crunch. These cookies have a nice crumble and taste of butter and pecans. They are similar to a pecan sandie, which is great because I like pecan sandies.

I don’t know who Gladys is, but she makes a fine cookie.

Gladys Lum Bowers’s Pecan Crunch Cookies
1 cup butter, softened (of course) [225 g]
1/2 cup sugar [100 g]
1 tsp vanilla [5 ml]
1/2 cup finely crushed plain potato chips [?? g]
1/2 cup chopped pecans [50 g]
2 cup flour [240 g]

1. Preheat oven to 350 F  [180°C/gas mark 4].
2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla. Add potato chips and pecans.
3. Sift flour and mix in gradually.
4. Form into small balls and place on cookie sheets. Press balls slightly with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.
5. Bake 14 to 18 minutes (until lightly brown around the edges).



See Evin’s take on my recipe from the swap: Frosted Oatmeal Cookies.