Farmer Cookies

---

Some years back I inherited my Grandma Abbas’ personal recipe book. It’s an old Car-Ferry notebook in which she hand wrote all of her best/favorite recipes. Each one contains notes as to where she got it, variations, who likes it, etc. This particular recipe has the following notations: “These are great cookies if you are in a hurry. They are also about the best cookie recipe for the wood stove. They hold up well in a medium or hot oven. You can use a variety of ingredients above and beyond what I have listed here. They keep well and are good dunkers. Jeffrey likes them a lot. Eats more than any three-year-old I have ever seen!”
Obviously, I don’t remember eating a lot of them as a three-year-old but I do remember the cookies. Grandma would often make them with M&M’s instead of chocolate chips. When Christmas rolled around, she made them with crushed candy canes and chocolate chips. It is an amazingly customizable recipe, so have some fun with it.
It does say to “drop by tablespoon” onto a cookie sheet. I found the batter to be too dry for that so I simply made golf ball sized balls and baked them that way. Worked like a charm!

---

Farmer Cookies
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups oatmeal (uncooked)
2 cups corn flakes or 2 cups crisp rice cereal (either one works nicely)
1 cup flaked or shredded coconut (optional, but very good with the chocolate chips!)
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Directions
1  Melt shortening, pour over sugars. Mix well.
2  Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
3  Stir dry ingredients together and add to sugar mixture. Mix lightly.
4  Add oatmeal, cereal, coconut, chocolate chips, and nuts and mix well.
5  Drop by tablespoon on greased cookie sheet.
6  Bake at 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes.
Makes 4 dozen cookies