The Ultimate Salty-Sweet Cookie

I have a friend who likes sweets, but is much more of a crunchy, salty, snack person.  This past weekend she invited me to come see her new home and I wanted to bring her a treat.  I love to bake, so creating and baking new things is kind of selfish, but I always make sure to take the individual person’s likes, allergies, and dislikes into account.

I have made it a mission to know all the crazy food quirks about my friends.  I mean, I may not remember the name of their adorable 2-year-old niece or their beloved pet cat, but I can tell you that they are semi-allergic to some nuts, do not like peanut butter but loves peanuts, or has a serious thing for lemons.  Yes, those important things in life I do not forget.

Well this friend, let’s call her VJ, has always had a thing for chips.  I remember back in our college days, on Thursday night when we had to use up the rest of our weekly meal plans before they reset on Friday, I would always stock up on cookies and VJ would always go for the chips.  When VJ does go for something sweet, she prefers salty-sweet, like peanut butter cookies or snickers bars (which I have combined into a cookie for her before).

This time, I wanted to take salty-sweet over the top and came up with a cookie that was so VJ that I was worried I would not even like them.  Instinctively, I knew all the ingredients would work together, but I still just was not sure about these.  Anyway, I got over my apprehension, put on my big girl panties, and just made the cookies.  No guts, no glory!

The cookies are a simple chocolate chip cookies base, but that is where conventional ends.  The mix-ins contained Ruffles Potato Chips, Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels, and Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chips.

These cookies are the epitome of salty-sweet.  You get the crunch and fried, saltiness of the potato chips, and the salty, flaky crunch of the pretzel.  You also get the strong, slightly dry peanut butter taste from the pretzel filling.  Lastly, you get sweet burst of chocolate and peanut butter chips with the cookie being one big, soft and chewy fifth texture holding all that goodness together.  Seriously, it hit so many taste buds on my tongue upon first bit that I was actually overwhelmed… by a cookie.  Did I like it?  Did I love it?  It is weird?  Did I hate it?  Maybe too much salty?

All those questions were answered upon second, third, and fourth bite.  No, I did not like it; I LOVED it.  Yes, it is weird, but I don’t hate it.  Not too salty at all.  Though I would not eat potato chips in everyday life, I would in a cookie, this cookie!  That says it all.  Oh, and VJ liked them too!