The Vintage Baker Cookbook - 9781452163871 by Jessie Sheehan

The Vintage Baker Cookbook - 9781452163871 by Jessie Sheehan
This keepsake cookbook features fetching retro patterns and illustrations, luscious photography, an embossed foil cover, and—surprise! —a tiny, vintage-style, booklet inside. Blue-ribbon recipes inspired by baking pamphlets from the 1920s to the 1960s are rendered with irresistible charm for modern tastes in this sweet package. Here are more than 50 cookies, pies, cakes, bars, and more, plus informative headnotes detailing the origins of each recipe and how they were tweaked into deliciousness. For home bakers, collectors of vintage cookbooks or kitchenware—really, anyone who loves beautiful, quirky gifts—this is a gem (160 pages).

Butterscotch-Potato Chip Balls

Makes 36 cookies

I discovered a recipe for Chip Balls in Good Housekeeping’s Book of Cookies (1958) and realized that

folks have been putting crazy add-ins like potato chips in their cookies since the mid-1950s. I’m a huge fan of cookies like this, particularly if the ingredients combine the sweet and the salty in new ways. So I took the Chip Balls recipe and added butterscotch chips, which pair with salt so beautifully. Then I quadrupled the amount of potato chips called for, rolled the balls in crushed potato chips, and finished them with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F [180°C]. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and whisk together. Add the butterscotch chips and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the melted butter and sugars on medium-high speed until thick, light, and glossy, 3 to 5 minutes, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

Decrease the mixer speed to medium-low and add the egg and yolk, one at a time, beating well and scraping the bowl after each addition with a rubber spatula. Add the vanilla and mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients all at once, mixing just to combine.

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and add 3 cups [105 g] of the potato chips to the dough, combining and crushing the chips with a rubber spatula.

In a small bowl, crush the remaining 2 cups [70 g] potato chips. Scoop the dough into 1½-tablespoon balls with a cookie scoop or measuring spoon, rolling each ball in the leftover crushed chips, and evenly place 12 on the prepared baking sheet.

Sprinkle each cookie with flaky sea salt, and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, rotating at the halfway point, until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and press down on each cookie with a spatula to slightly flatten. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough.

Let cool briefly and serve warm, because who doesn’t love a cookie warm from the oven? The cookies will keep in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3 days.