My grandmother used to bake three different kinds of cookies, which she’d store in a tin together, then keep in the freezer; so that when she had visitors, she always had homemade cookies on hand. The chocolate chips were the kids’ favorite; the date-filled shortbread cookies were the ones the grown-ups preferred, and then there were these, the “Miss Congeniality” of grandma’s cookie tin: those 1970s Cornflake Cookies.
For us kids, we settled for these when the chocolate chip cookies ran out. It’s not that they’re bad or anything… they just don’t have any chocolate. 😀
But recently I experienced one of those bouts of nostalgia and started thinking of the cookies in grandma’s cookie tin, wondering if I could find the recipe for those date-filled ones, as well as the cornflake cookies. The great thing about the internet is you can find anything, if you know where to look. And after perusing a lot of recipes, I found one that — once I played with it a bit — re-created my grandma’s cookie to perfection.
I should mention that these are just as tasty as I remembered, but as a grown-up, I can appreciate the subtlety of the flavors, even without any chocolate. 🙂
So without any further chatter, here’s:
Those 1970s Coconut Cornflake Cookies
adapted from a recipe by MelissaJ at allrecipes.com
link to MelissaJ’s original recipe: All Recipes
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup cornflakes cereal
1 cup flaked coconut
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder; stir into the creamed mixture. Add the oatmeal, cereal and coconut and mix until combined.
Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet.* Cookies should be about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies should be light brown at the edges and on the bottom. Remove from baking sheets to cool on
wire racks.
*If making larger cookies (I use a 1.5 tablespoon scoop), bake for 14 to 16 minutes.
This recipe yields approximately 24 cookies using a 1.5 tablespoon scoop. You’ll get more making smaller cookies, but who wants small cookies? 😀