Chocolate-Dipped Potato Chip Cookies

I've always had a thing for sweet and salty. That's why chocolate-covered pretzels are one of my favorite snacks - homemade or bought. So when I stumbled across a few recipes lately for cookies filled with crushed potato chips, I knew making them wouldn't be far off. And thank goodness I didn't wait too long.

These cookies are all at once buttery, crispy, chewy, salt and sweet. Basically, everything you could ever want in one bite. Of course, if you add the optional chocolate coating (and since when is chocolate optional), you'll arrive at a whole new level of bliss.

If you wander into most American supermarkets, you'll encounter more variety of potato chips than you will for toothpaste or sliced bread. That isn't the case here in Israel, so I used the standard ubiquitous basic chip that every kid here grows up on. But if you have the selection: Experiment! I've read about good results made with the kettle variety (my favorite) or even reduced fat. I imagine ruffles wouldn't be a bad way to go either... though I think sour cream and onion is only for the brave of heart.

Recipe: (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
1 cup/2 sticks butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt (may want to taste the dough and adjust salt level - I found even with the chips salt was necessary)
1 cup finely crushed potato chips (somewhere in the vicinity of 2-3 snack-sized bags)
2 cups flour

Optional:
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 teaspoon canola oil

Cream together the butter and 1/2 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla and salt. Add the crushed potato chips and flour and mix until just combined.
Place the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar in a bowl. Form the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and dip in the sugar, flatten with your hand or a drinking glass and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Bake on 350 F for about 15 minutes, until starting to brown around the edges. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Melt the chocolate and oil together until smooth. Dip half of each fully cooled cookie in the chocolate, sprinkle with any spare potato chip crumbs and let dry and harden on a wire rack.