for the cookie monsters . . . .

There is no doubt I’ve eaten hundreds of these over my lifetime.  These were a favorite cookie that my mother baked and if I ate a few hundred, she must have baked many thousand!  Made with old fashioned rolled oats, breakfast cereal, coconut and chopped walnuts, they are packed full of healthy ingredients.  How can you go wrong having this cookie for breakfast?

I rediscovered them by chance on an outing last summer.  A friend brought a container of them for us to share and the minute I bit into one, I knew it was my mother’s Ranger cookie.  When I expounded on the merits of this delicious cookie (and knocked off three of them in no time) my friend graciously agreed to send along a copy of her recipe.  In the interim, I was able to locate several speckled and spattered copies of Mom’s note cards with the ingredients she used. When I compared the two recipes, I noted they were exactly alike except for two features: 1) My friend’s recipe was for “School House Ranger Cookies” and called for Corn Flakes; and 2) Mom’s recipe was simply entitled “Ranger Cookies” and she made hers with Rice Krispies.

To be fair to Mom, I made several dozen with the Rice Krispies for a family gathering and they disappeared like I knew they would.  I recently baked 10-dozen of them and put them in the freezer.  We take out a few at a time, warm them slightly in the microwave and they are heavenly!

Ranger Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. soda

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

2 cups Rice Krispies

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Sift flour with baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Mix in cereal, coconut and nuts.  Blend dry ingredients into creamed butter mixture.  Roll dough into 1-1/2 inch balls, place on oiled baking sheet.  When baked, cookies will be approximately 3″ in diameter.  Recipe makes 60 cookies.  They store and freeze well.