I rewrote and revised the first sentence of my novel Food Person so many times, I know the finished one by heart: “Isabella Pasternak baked treats to bring to work every day; not as a way to endear herself to her co-workers, but as a way to avoid them.”
The question became, as I moved beyond the first sentence into the novel itself, what actual treats does Isabella make as we kick off her story? I wanted the treats to reveal something about her character. I knew that she was obsessed with vintage cookbooks and not-so-mainstream food celebs, which is how I landed on Maida Heatter, that exquisitely named doyenne of cookies, cakes, and other baked treats. I had Isabella bake Key Largo Cookies from Heatter’s 1995 book, Brand-New Book of Great Cookies.
At first, I just liked the way they sounded: “Key Largo Cookies” seemed a bit dated (in a good way), maybe a bit tropical. Turns out I was wrong on both fronts; when I bought the book and read the recipe, they weren’t at all tropical — the ingredients are more commonly found in a Brooklyn Bodega — and instead of dated, they felt timely in that they anticipate and maybe even inspire the Milk Bar Compost cookie.
I made Key Largo Cookies for the first time, earlier this year, when I made this promotional video for Barnes & Noble.
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I really loved them that first time around. Most of the ingredients would be familiar to anyone who’s ever made an oatmeal cookie (oats, raisins, dried cherries, walnuts), but then the surprise addition of potato chips takes things in a totally new and exciting direction.
The cookies are full of contrasts: they’re salty, they’re sweet; they’re fruity, they’re nutty; they’re wholesome, they’re trashy; they’re crispy, they’re soft.
I ended up making 220 of them (!!) this past weekend for The Great Community Bake Sale, organized by the delightful and talented Natasha Pickowitz. Most of them I made a few days ahead, so they could age in the refrigerator (and so I didn’t have to make more than a hundred in one day); the rest I made on Friday after a quick trip to Boston, and then baked them off sixteen at a time (eight per cookie sheet).
It’s no joke to make 220 cookies, but doing it for charity makes it less of a chore. And when I set these out at the bake sale, it was so fun to talk to people about them and to explain their origin. I even had a few V.I.P. tasters.
Yes, I served these Key Largo cookies to baking legend Dorie Greenspan (who wrote the intro to Maida’s book Happiness is Baking!), social media superstar chefs Hailee Catalano and Chuck Cruz, and former Le Bernardin pastry-chef Michael Laskonis and his lovely wife. Everyone who tried one remarked on the surprising, salty-sweet combination. It’s a really balanced cookie, one that I’ll definitely be making again: not just because it’s a winner, but because I bought way too many ingredients and I have enough dried cherries, raisins, walnuts, and potato chips leftover to stock a summer camp canteen.
Ingredients
Method
- Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat and set aside.
- Place the potato chips in a plastic or paper bag and squeeze the bag a few times with both hands to break the pieces just a bit; they should be coarse, not fine. (I opened the top of the potato chip bag to let air escape, and then rolled over it a few times with a rolling pin.) They should measure 2 packed cups. Set aside.
- Break the walnuts into large pieces; set aside.
- Sift together the flour and baking soda; set aside.
- In the large bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter until soft. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat until mixed. Add the eggs and beat to mix. Then add the sifted dry ingredients and beat on low speed only until incorporated. Add the oatmeal and beat to mix. Now you can do as Maida Heatter does and stir in the raisins, cherries, nuts, and potato chips by hand with a wooden spoon; or you can do as I did and just add them all to the mixer and beat just until everything’s distributed (but no longer, or the cookies will be tough).
- Use a small ice cream scoop (2-inches in diameter) to scoop out 1/4-cup portions of dough. Flatten the cookies with damp hands to about 3/4-inch thickness and place eight cookies per cookie sheet, spaced two inches apart.
- Bake two sheets at a time for 18 to 20 minutes, reversing the sheets from top to bottom and front to back twice during baking. When done, the cookies should be lightly browned all over. Do not overbake.
- Let them cool briefly, then with a wide metal spatula transfer them to racks to cool.
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