Super Moon Ranger Cookies

On Sunday, we were lucky enough to watch the Super Moon rise while sailing in New York Harbor aboard the Pioneer, the South Street Seaport Museum's 1885 schooner. (A sail on this vessel is highly recommended, during any phase of the moon.)

Our children and their others brought themselves (always a treat), our friends brought the wine and I brought a portable dessert --  fantastic ranger cookies in quantities large enough to share with the crew.

These are beyond delicious cookies, chewy and crisp, and way more than the sum of their parts.  I was stunned at how good they were, especially because they called for corn flakes.  Corn flakes!  A little research revealed that while there are many variations of ranger cookies, they always contain oats, coconut and some sort of breakfast cereal, usually rice crispies or cornflakes.

Begin with soft butter (two sticks!), and white and brown sugar.

Prepare the "secret" ingredients: oats, coconut and corn flakes.

Mix everything together. The corn flakes will break up naturally when mixed in to the batter.

Roll the batter into small balls, about one-inch diameter.

Place them on a baking sheet and depress each one with the tines of a fork.

Production notes: I used all butter (no solid shortening).  Because this recipe is difficult to read, I've written out instructions below.

Ranger Cookies

1 c. butter
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
2 c. quick-cooking oats
2 c. whole corn flakes
1 c. sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 375 F

Cream the butter with the sugars.
Add eggs and vanilla, mixing until smooth.
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.  Add to the mixture.
Add a small amount of water.
Add the oats, corn flakes and coconut. Mix until well combined.
Roll into small balls and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving space for spreading.
Flatten each cookie slightly with a fork.
Bake 9 to 13 minutes until brown.
Let cool for a few minutes and then remove to baking rack.

Titanic: The Cookie

Like many, I've held a longtime fascination with the Titanic and when the book, Last Dinner on the Titanic was published in 1997, I attended the opening dinner -- where we were served the April 14, 1912, first class menu that was to be the last meal of many of the passengers.  (And one of my favorite afternoons ever was spent in Walter Lord's apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side -- he wrote A Night to Remember, the best book about the Titanic -- where I interviewed him for a story and he signed a 1955 first edition of his book for me.)

And so, to commemorate the centennial of the ship's sinking, I baked a dessert on the second class dining saloon menu that last night, published in the Last Dinner book.  Coconut Sandwiches sounded great -- a creamy filling between two coconut cookies, like re-imagined homemade Oreo, using coconut instead of chocolate.

But like the ship, these sunk.  Not in flavor -- they are quite delicious -- but the process to make these was a bit frustrating.  (And the fact that my oven is barely working added to problem and explains why the cookies above look so different from one another.)

But before we get to baking, I'd like to encourage everyone to visit the South Street Seaport Museum's new exhibit about the Titanic.  The luggage tag, below, was printed at the Museum's Bowne & Co., Stationers, a letterpress shop where everything is done the old-fashioned way.  Bowne is also open -- do visit, watch printing at its best and buy some lovely gifts there to support the Museum.

So if you feel like throwing caution to the wind, and paying sweet tribute to the great ocean liner, you can make these unusual and wonderful (at the end) cookies.

Don't worry if the mixture looks like it's breaking (above).  Just keep combining and it will come together beautifully (below).

The dough is nearly impossible to roll out, as called for in the recipe.  You can just roll the chilled dough into balls and press them down with the heel of your hand.  And do make more filling than the recipe says, or you won't have enough.

A Wedding [Cake] at the Seaport

When I purchased this card at the Seaport Museum New York a few months ago, it was with great sadness, for mismanagement had caused the museum to close nearly all programs, save the gift shop.

Bowne and Co., the museum's historic letterpress print shop which created this card, was shuttered.  The historic fleet of ships was neglected.  Galleries were empty and education programs had ceased.

These things rarely end well, but remarkably this one did.  The Museum of the City of New York has taken over the seaport museum (and reinstated its original name, the South Street Seaport Museum), and is forging ahead to return the museum to its former glory.  Cheers to Peter Stanford, founder of SSSM; Susan Henshaw Jones, president of the MCNY, and all the folks at Save Our Seaport and Friends of Bowne.

This definitely has all the ingredients for a  marriage made in heaven.

For those who want recipes, here are links to two from The South Street Seaport Museum's cookbook pamphlet, printed in 1972, just a few years after the museum was founded to preserve the history of New York's port (which is more important in understanding the city's -- and nation's history -- than one might think).

Mocha and Spice Chest 3 Layer Cake:
http://www.acakebakesinbrooklyn.com/2010/01/birthday-cake.html
Canada War Cake:
http://www.acakebakesinbrooklyn.com/2010/01/canada-war-cake.html