Ranger Cookies

These are some of my favorite cookies [I have many] and just about the only cookie recipe that I don’t screw up… even when I experiment with them.  They’re my go to recipe when I need to provide snacks, or contribute to holiday eats, or when I’m hungry.  I got the recipe out of my Texas Ranger Cookbook which is a collection of recipes contributed by Texas Rangers [not the baseball players, but the real deal law enforcement] and their wives.  It’s a book near and dear to my heart not only because my PaPa was a Texas Ranger, but because several recipes in the book were contributed by his wife, my MaMaw, a wonderful cook.

Here’s the recipe as it appears in the book:

Texas Ranger Cookies

1 stick butter                      

½ cup of shortening

1 cup sugar                    

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs                                

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour     

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt                  

2 cups quick cooking oatmeal

2 cups rice crisp cereal        

1 cup pecans

1 cup coconut.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter, shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to the creamed mixture. Stir in the oatmeal, cereal, pecans, and coconut. With a large spoon, portion out the dough. Roll into small balls and flatten on cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Here’s how I change them:

I omit the coconut and pecans.  I add either peanut butter or chocolate chips or both [yum!].  I add a fourth a cup of flaxseed meal [because it’s healthy].  If I really want a healthier cookie, I omit the shortening and just add a little more butter.  I substitute brown rice crisp cereal for the regular stuff.  I cut the sugar in half and add some honey.  I can’t tell you how much honey or how much butter because I was experimenting.  It would have been smart to write things down, but since I didn’t even measure, recording it would have been futile.  Thankfully, this cookie  is forgiving, or maybe it just has pity on me because it knows how many times I’ve messed up a perfectly good cookie recipe.  Either way, the end results have been deliciously satisfying, even to the smallest of critics.

Enjoy!

Nessa Dee