Gluten Free Potato Chip Cookies

These thick and chewy gluten free potato chip cookies are buttery, salty, and sweet, with a bit of crunch from lightly crisp edges and, of course, crushed potato chips. Your new favorite cookie!

What are these cookies?

Have you ever had potato chip cookies? They’re not a “Thing” like chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, or shortbread cookies are. But they’re a delight…

Since they’re not a classic cookie style, there must be a million different ways to make them. Some seem to be more like perfectly crumbly shortbread cookies or delicate butter cookies.

My version, this version, of gluten free potato chip cookies is thick and chewy, and modeled loosely on oatmeal cookies in concept. I think of the crushed salted potato chips mixed into the cookie dough like I do oats in oatmeal cookies.

The potato chips add crisp texture, like oats add chewiness to oatmeal cookies. But the potato chips add a salty-fried note, and they shatter when you bite into the pieces.

Rolling the outside of the cookie dough in even more chip pieces makes them all the more beautiful outside. Plus, it adds some extra crisp crunch to every bite.

I like these cookies best with white chocolate chips added to the dough, because they add more mellow sweetness. Plus, they’re blonde, so they blend in beautifully.

But if you’re anti-white-chocolate, use another flavor of chip. I think peanut butter or even butterscotch chips would be nice.

What type of potato chips work best?

We buy lots (and lots) of miniature bags of Lay’s potato chips for our kids’ school lunches. They, like everything else, have an expiration date, and our bags were approaching theirs.

I don’t put a lot of stock in most food expiration dates. My nose knows, and I trust it. But my kids were extremely dramatic about their “expired” chips, and they were perfect for potato chip cookies.

You really can use any sort of classic thin-and-crispy “plain” salted chip in this recipe. Lay’s is a standard plain chip, but Utz or your favorite third brand would work equally well.

Avoid anything with extra flavors (there are so many flavors out there now!). Avoid anything with ridges, since they’re cut much thicker and won’t fold into the cookie dough like the thin ones will.

About ingredient temperatures

Don’t chill the dough

Unlike our gluten free chocolate chip cookies, and most of our thick and chewy cookies, these cookies don’t call for being chilled before baking. When we’re trying to prevent cookie dough from spreading, it’s often important to chill the shaped dough a bit first.

But this recipe calls for making, shaping, and baking the dough while it’s at room temperature. When you chill the cookie dough, the cookies don’t spread enough.

When baked in a hot (375°F) oven at room temperature, they spread just enough. And they develop that beautiful crackled top.

Make sure your ingredients are “room temperature”

But that means that the ingredients that start off refrigerated, like the butter and eggs, are brought to room temperature before using them. Otherwise, the ingredients won’t combine properly and you might be tempted to add some water to the dough (which will only make your cookies spread too much).

In cold months, “room temperature” butter can actually be quite stiff. It should give to your fingertip, but shouldn’t feel greasy, like it’s leaking. That’s why the microwave isn’t a great place to warm butter to room temperature.

Instead, try slicing the butter into cubes, spreading them apart from one another, and letting that sit at room temperature until it reaches the proper consistency.

If you’re desperate to give it a jump start, place the chopped butter in the microwave for just 10 to 15 seconds on 50% power. Or pour boiling water into a bowl large enough to cover the butter when inverted, spill the water out, and invert the bowl over the butter. The residual heat will help soften it.

If your eggs are cold, try floating them in warm water for 10 minutes. Don’t place them in boiling water, though, or you’ll cook them.

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

The main source of dairy in these cookies is the butter. I think vegan butter would replace it well. My favorite brands are Miyoko’s Kitchen and Melt.

If you’re dairy-free, avoid using white chocolate chips in these cookies—unless you can find a dairy-free white chocolate chip.

Be sure your semi-sweet chocolate chips are safely dairy-free, if that’s important to you. Dark chocolate chips would also balance the salty-sweetness really well.

Eggs

There are two eggs in this recipe. You might be able to replace each of them with a “chia egg.” For each, place 1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds and 1 tablespoon lukewarm water in a bowl, mix, and allow to gel.