This cookie is a cracker

CORN CHIP CRUMBS IN A COOKIE

Here are two nice things about making cookies: 1) They can be as small or as big as you want; and 2) you can flavour them with whatever you want. Well, Nice Thing #2 isn't completely true, because who would want pickled beets in their cookie? (Then again, who can say for a fact that it is terrible?)

But there’s also the Not So Nice Thing about cookie recipes: most of them make a batch of at least two dozen cookies. Sure, most cookies keep well and cookie dough can be frozen, but with only two people at home, I don’t want to keep having the same kind of cookies over and over again.

With the two Nice Things and the one Not So Nice Thing in mind, I set about making just a few cookies, only to find that I didn't have everything I needed in stock. But it taught me Nice Thing #3 about cookies: to some extent, they do allow for improvisation.

So I mixed together some chopped pecans and the crumbs from a bag of cheese-flavoured corn chips with flour, butter and sugar. Some vegetable shortening replaced the egg I lacked. The dough melded well and wasn’t crumbly. It produced 10 large cookies, each one perfect for a single serving with coffee, and they were chewy – just the way I like them.

All in all, a Very Nice Thing.

Chewy, cheesy and egg-free

Corn Chip Cookies

Makes 10 large cookies

55g butter, softened

20g vegetable shortening

50g caster sugar, plus extra for shaping

½ tsp pure vanilla extract

110g cake/pastry flour

25g finely chopped pecans

25g finely crushed cheese corn chips

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Beat the butter, shortening and 50g sugar until creamy and well-blended. Add the vanilla and beat again until blended. Stir in the flour, pecans and and corn chips until just combined.

Divide into 10 pieces and shape into balls, arrange 5cm apart on the sheet. Put some sugar into a shallow bowl. Wet the bottom of a drinking glass with water. Dip the glass in the sugar and press down on the dough ball until about 0.5cm thick. Repeat dipping and pressing with the remaining balls.

Bake until cookies look dry on top and the edges are light golden, 10-12 minutes, rotating the sheet for even baking. Place on wire rack to cool completely before storing in an air-tight tin.

PRINTABLE RECIPE


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Poppy Seed Crescents
Chocolate and Fresh Mint Wafers
Date Pillows