Boxed cereal is more common in Amish settlements than you might think. No, you don't see a ton of it being eaten for breakfast. Homemade cereal - grape nuts - is more common.
Amish bulk food stores are full of boxed cereals These cereals are most often bought by non-Amish customers. But the boxed cereals are also bought by Amish shoppers who like to use products like corn flakes and Rice Krispies in various recipes. Nothing better than chicken coated in Rice Krispies or Cheerios to add crunch to a bar or cookie.
Cornflakes don't have a very long historical reach into Amish culture. After all, they've only been around since the early 1900s. You can read a bit about the long, strange, colorful history of cornflakes here.
Today's recipe, Holiday Cornflake Cookies, is a perfect example of the type of inventive, creative, and delicious confection that can be churned out using the crunch of a boxed cereal. The ingredients are so simple, but you can dress it up more if you want. A couple teaspoons of cinnamon would be a good addition, maple syrup, or a tablespoon or two of molasses, I think, would be great in this cookie. If I make these again, I'd be intrigued to add a ½ cup or so of peanut butter to these Holiday Cornflake Cookies.
Or just follow the recipe as is and you'll have a wonderfully delicious cornflake cookie. As you can see above, the recipe ingredients are very basic, which is quite typical of Amish baking.
Mix the sugars well. You can use dark brown sugar or light brown, either will be just fine. And for those of you who don't like oatmeal, you can leave it out. I love oatmeal in my cookies, though!
Roll into balls and flatten slightly.
This recipe comes to me from an Amish woman in Pennsylvania and she had written in the notes that she sometimes uses Frosted Flakes in place of cornflakes in this recipe. Now that would be a nice twist!
🍪 Cornflake Cookie Ingredients
1 ½ cup white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups vegetable oil
4 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons soda
1 ½ cups oatmeal
4 cups cornflakes or frosted flakes cereal
4 cups flour
📋 Instructions
- Combine sugars, oil, eggs, and vanilla.
- Add remaining ingredients.
- Roll into 1 ¼-inch balls and place on greased baking sheet.
- Flatten slightly.
- Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
- Makes 5 dozen.
🍪 More Amish Cookie Recipes
🖨️ Full Recipe
Holiday Cornflake Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup white sugar
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 2 cups vegetable oil
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons soda
- 1 cups oatmeal
- 4 cups cornflakes
- 4 cups flour
Instructions
- Combine sugars, oil,eggs, and vanilla.
- Add remaining ingredients.
- Roll into 1 ¼-inch balls and place on greased baking sheet.
- Flatten slightly. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
Janie
Hi Kevin, Thanks souch for this recipe. Cornflakes in cookies sounds really crunchy and I am going to put the recipe ony Christmas cookie baking list. Have you ever had potato chip cookies? Cookie dough with crushed potato chips and pecan in them. It's one of my favorite cookies. Would eat them over chocolate chip every time.
Kevin Williams
Hmmmm, wow, cookies with potato chips? Never tried that, but I will!! - Kevin
Judy
I usually substitute unsweetened applesauce for vegetable oil (to save on calories as well as fat content) in recipes. Before I try this recipe, do you know if the substitution will work? Thank you!
Kevin Williams
Hi, Judy, I am sorry, I can't give you a definitive answer, but if you usually swap it out and it has good results, then I don't see any reason it couldn't work here. Good idea about doing it to save calories, I'll have to try that! - Kevin