Koren's Blue Ribbon Cornflake Macaroons

When my sister, Koren, was about 10 years old she entered cookies in the Polk County Fair. She was pretty confident and excited about them. My mother had entered cookies for the past few years and never won, so Mom warned her several times, "Don't get too excited.You might not win anything." Koren ended up winning not only the blue ribbon for her age group, but the grand prize, a bag of sugar! Mom was flabbergasted. Koren's self-assurance was maintained.

Following is the recipe for Koren's Blue Ribbon Cornflake Macaroons. The recipe comes from my Grandma Gertie Brinkman. According to my mother, "I think the brown paper bag has a play in the cooking." I made them recently and they were very easy and surprisingly good. Surprisingly, because I don't really like meringue. But they had a nice sweetness from the sugar and coconut and a good crunch from the cornflakes.

Cornflake Macaroons
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups cornflakes
1/2 cup coconut

Beat egg whites until stiff. Mix sugar, salt and add slowly to the egg whites. Beat until smooth. Fold in cornflakes. Drop a rounded teaspoon of batter onto a baking sheet covered with a brown paper bag. Bake at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes. 

Note: Even though the cookies cooked perfectly, I had a hard time getting them off the brown paper bag. I ended up sliding a knife under each cookie, scraping it off the bag. 

I brought some of the cookies over to my sister and her family after I made them. She told me she didn't really like the cookies when she was a kid and never made them again after her big win. But she tried one of mine and thought it was delicious. My 8 year old niece loved them.  She wondered if they had marshmallow in them. Koren and I figured that those judges 30 years ago were just tired of chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, and peanut butter.