Sunday, June 28, 2009

World's Best Cookies

Summer and picnic season has me thinking about family.  My mom's family has a reunion every year.  Usually I am unable to attend, but I think about the whole family often.  One of my favorite summer/reunion time memories is my grandma making World's Best Cookies.  She would make these during the last week of July as my cousins were scheduled to roll in from where ever they were stationed at the time (my uncle was in the Army).  Then, on the first Sunday in August, we would pile into our cars, with the cookies, and caravan to Washington, PA for the family reunion.  Aside from the samples at Grandma's house, she would (try to) keep the cookies under tight wraps so that there would be some left for the reunion lunch.
Grandma got sick and passed away rather quickly in late 1997.  We didn't get a chance to ask her about every detail we now wish we had.  Several favorite recipes I think she had committed to memory and are now gone.  However, we did find this one and I made sure that I copied it for my files.  I have held on to it tightly.
Although we will not be able to make it to the reunion this year, I am looking forward to an upcoming picnic with my Mom and Grandpa.  My goal is to make a batch of Grandma's World's Best Cookies for dessert.
World's Best Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup cooking oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup corn flakes -- crushed
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup nuts -- chopped
3 1/2 cups flour -- sifted

Combine ingredients.  Shape into small balls.  Bake at 325 for 12 minutes.
This was all the direction that I found.  I start with softened butter in my mixer and gradually add the ingredients in the order given.  Years later I found this recipe in Southern Living's 30 Years of Our Best Recipes as Crispy Oat Cookies.  I was so thrilled to see it in published form that I bought the book on the spot.

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