What’s she hiding in there?

I will start this out by saying that I am a sucker for a secret ingredient…BIG time! I love hiding things in food and then, much to my family’s chagrin, make them guess what is hidden in there. It’s a fun game…for me! Needless to say I LOVE Jessica Seinfeld’s book Deceptively Delicious. I am sure you have heard of it, it was on Oprah a few years back. The concept is pureeing and hiding veggies in your kid’s food so they are eating all their vegetables, but don’t even know it. I am in love with the sneaky part, not necessarily the health factor (that’s an added bonus), but for the fact that it’s like April Fool’s everytime I try a recipe! Once I made her recipe for chocolate chip cookies that are made with WHOLE chick peas. It was hilarious ~ and the kids liked them until I told them what they were. After they got over the initial “eewww” factor they ate the whole batch, because they were good!
They usually know something is up when they can feel me staring at them waiting for a response…actually I guess that sounds a little creepy, but you know what I mean.
OK-so this post was not to promote her book (although I do recommend it), or even to post one of her recipes, but to stress the fact that I am a “secret ingredient” junkie!
My latest experiment was the Potato Chip Cookie… I know this is not a new recipe and after a few quick searches I found that there were a lot of versions. I pieced together a few to come up with my own.
2 1/2 cups crushed potato chips – I used regular Herrs because that’s what I had on-hand…Lays would work, but I am not sure if the Kettle Chips would be good
1/2 cup brown sugar – light or dark would work..I used dark
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 t. vanilla
1 c. AP flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
2/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
coarse sea salt for garnish-optional

Preheat to 375
Combine the sugars, egg, milk and vanilla and whisk together to combine in a medium mixing bowl. In a small bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder to combine. Add dry ingredients to batter then mix in the potato chips and nuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined baking sheet.
Here’s the batter…
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until lightly browned.
If you are using the sea salt as a garnish, as soon as they come out of the oven sprinkle just a touch on each and give it a little tap to stick.
Let the cookies cool completely before eating. They are better cool because the potato chips get their crisp back. When they are warm there isn’t a lot of crisp, so for the full effect cool all the way!
**if you like nuts in your cookies you could take out the chocolate chips and sub in some walnuts or pecans…I think even a butterscotch chip would be good!

These were an interesting cookie, not to be compared in anyway to a regular chocolate chipper…they are lighter and fluffier…they will definitely have you saying…”what is that?” The potato chip is pretty undetectable and they actually aren’t that salty. My kids had no idea! But I promise if you put out a tray of these and tell people they are made from potato chips there won’t be one left…So if you are a kindred spirit in the secret ingredient department give these a try!!