Lady Bird Coconut Wheatie Cookies
Lady Bird Johnson was the 36th First Lady to our nation. She was known as the Environmental First Lady. She was First Lady from 1963 – 1969. Born in Texas in 1912, she was roughly the same age as my Grandma Virgie, and my husband’s Grandma Pulido. I learned this recipe from Grandma Pulido in 1994, she made these every Christmas along with an assortment of other fabulous cookies, her cookie tins were always an eagerly anticipated gift. Each of us had our favorites, the Anise Biscotti, the Chocolate Moon Crescents covered in powdered sugar, the Polvorones that would melt in your mouth, (She ground the Almonds herself for these!) And my favorite, the Wheatie Cookies with a Cherry on Top! I didn’t know that she got this recipe from the White House Cookbook, until I researched where these originated. Grandma Pulido and My Grandma Virgie had many clippings of recipes around their kitchen from newspapers, magazines or mailers. The good recipes stuck around for generations, and this is one of those recipes. Hope you Enjoy!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup Shortening
- 2 eggs well beaten
- 2 cups coconut
- 1 tspn Vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 tspn baking soda
- 3 cups crushed Wheaties cereal (Set aside to roll dough in)
- Maraschino Cherry halved. (Optional)
These cookies, use Crisco Shortening as the fat component, you can use butter or even Coconut Oil. They tend to be a little sweet too, so you could even cut the sugars in half, if you like a little less sweet cookie. But use sweetened coconut flakes. (The above suggestions for changing up the recipe is highly protested by my husband!) Lol. The Crisco will keep the cookie crisp and traditional.
