Sometimes, you read a recipe and it wrecks your head.
Case in point: while nosing around the the Idaho Potato Commission website (as you do), I happened upon this, a recipe for baked potato cookies with sour cream and chives. It fairly stopped me in my tracks, I can tell you.
It wasn’t that the recipe called for the use of mashed potato in a sweet, baked good. What with potato bakewell tarts, potato apple parcels and chocolate potato buns, I’m all over that one myself.
No, frankly, it was the chives.
Chopped, dried chives.
In a cookie.
Couldn’t get my head around it.
Neither could I get away from the fact that, in my never-ending quest to explore the far reaches of the possible, potato-wise, I was going to have to make some. The things I do for spuds, eh?
Yes, the cookies are sweet and the green flecks are chives
I followed the recipe more or less as written, substituting butter for margarine and yoghurt for sour cream. I did hedge my bets when it came to the chives, though, and only added them to half of the mixture (I mean to say, I wasn’t that optimistic about a good outcome). In they went to bake, while I waited and wondered. I wasted no time in downing several as soon as they were done.
They were moist (as I’d expect for something with that amount of mashed potato) and spongy (think kitchen sponge, not victoria sponge), fairly plain and not too sweet. Thing was, the ones with chives didn’t taste remotely chive-like and – though truth be told, there wasn’t that much of a difference – I preferred them to the ones without.
Cue an audible sigh.
Seems I had made them, eaten them, but still not made sense of them.
An interesting experiment. I have always found dried chives to be pretty tasteless and are really only useful or adding flecks of green to something.
Sound like a gimmicky recipe to me LOL
The title of this post made me laugh out loud — and then the post itself made my mouth water!
Mike: I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. I instinctively think of dried herbs as being more concentrated and requiring smaller amounts than fresh (as with thyme, sage etc.) but it’s clearly not always the case. The chives, once dried, were very mildly flavoured – useful in the green flecks department, though :)
Meister: I just couldn’t resist the title… :D
I don’t think I’ve ever used any type of herb when baking something sweet. You’re a brave pioneer :)
Well, I don’t know about brave, Aine :) I have used rosemary in baking and desserts and really liked both, but I reckon I’ll leave chives to the savoury side of things in future!
Wow, that is one unique cookie for sure. Fun to try.
Definitely different, Natasha & never any harm in trying out something new :)
Positively bizarre. In a good way! And there’s nothing wrong with a green-flecked baked good every once in awhile! The things you do in the name of Spud-dom–awe inspiring. :) Hee!
I am nothing if not dogged in my pursuit of all things spud, Jenni!
Being adventurous is the best thing about being a cook! So much fun to try out new combinations. I always knew that chives are a beautiful addition to savory food, but never knew it would make a cookie look so enticing!
Hey Jessica, you’re absolutely right of course, being adventurous is part of the fun, and you never know what you might discover by trying new combinations out.