Here’s the recipe first, because I can’t stand scrolling 9,000 miles to the bottom of a page to get to it.
Kellogg’s Cherry Dot Cookies
- 2-1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup margarine, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped nuts
- 1 cup finely chopped pitted dates
- 1/3 cup finely chopped maraschino cherries
- 2-2/3 cup corn flakes (crushed to 1-1/3 cup)
- 15 maraschino cherries cut into quarters
I found this recipe in my Great Grandma Cora’s recipe box. She was born in 1925, in Madison County, OH and was one of 11 children. She grew up on a farm and married my maternal great grandpa in 1942. He passed away in 1983, and she remarried to who I knew as my great grandpa Bill in 1989. I don’t know if she particularly liked to cook, but as a homemaker she made dinner every night. I’ve been told her dinners were always made up of a meat, potatoes, and another vegetable. They even grew their own potatoes. My grandpa loved her fried chicken and her pickled pigs feet (another recipe I found in her box, that I may never be brave enough to make).
We always called her Grandma Boots, the story goes that when she was a kid she would put on her dad’s boots and try to walk, but they were so tall her legs would get stuck. So her dad called her Boots. I remember her being a very stern, strong willed, and stubborn woman. She did a lot of crocheting and liked playing cards. Unfortunately, I never got to know her well. No one that I have talked to in my family ever remembers her making these cookies.
Now, if there is one thing you should know about me, it’s that I love maraschino cherries. Probably more than the next person. This was one of the few recipes in her box that made me truly excited (along with a banana nut Rice Krispy Treat recipe!? Stay tuned for that.) I knew this had to be the first recipe I made, although as I read over the recipe I couldn’t help but think that they didn’t seem like they’d be sweet enough? I was thinking about why you’d use regular Corn Flakes and not something like Frosted Flakes that would be sweeter.
I couldn’t find much history on this recipe, although I did find another blog that labeled them as “vintage.” I took a closer look at the recipe from my great grandma, which appears to be cutout of a magazine, it had a copy right of 1998 on it. I was born in ‘94, so if this recipe is vintage, I think I should qualify for AARP.
While trying to research this recipe further, I did find the recipe post on Kellogg’s Canada’s website- although it isn’t the exact same (You can find that recipe here: https://www.wkkellogg.ca/en/recipes/cherry-dot-cookies-recipe). It calls for slightly less Corn Flakes, skim milk specifically, and a hair less flour. Having made these cookies, I don’t think that’s going to make a difference.
I went back and forth on deciding if I was going to make these with nuts and dates, as a general rule I usually skip both dried fruits and nuts when I am baking. No hate, it’s just a personal preference. Although, I ultimately decided to split the recipe in half and make half according to Kellogg’s recipe, and half with my own twist. (Plot twist for later: apparently I don’t know how to read, you’ll see.)
The recipe from my Great Grandma, nor the recipe on Kellogg’s Canada website specified what type of nuts to use, so I used walnuts because they were cheaper at the store. I was also going to try part of the batch in crushed Frosted Flakes, but my dear husband told me it wasn’t a great idea to buy not one, but two boxes of cereal we probably wouldn’t end up eating. We’re a Cocoa Pebbles family, don’t judge.
I started by preheating my oven, pulling out my cook wear, and setting out my ingredients. I finely chopped the walnuts, which turned out to be a great size for these chunky cookies. I only used 1/2 cup for the walnuts and dates (more explanation below).
Then came the dates *dun dun dun*
Admittedly, I was a little afraid of the dates. Turns out, I don’t think I’ve ever actually had a date before. I wasn’t brave enough to eat one whole, because eating dried fruit really feels like I’m chewing on a pinky rat. If you don’t know what that is, maybe don’t google it while you’re thinking about food. I started by cutting the dates in half length wise, and then halving each half (re: quartering). Then I diced the date slices, as small as I could get, but they turned into a sticky mess. After that, I forced my husband to try a diced date piece with me. I honestly didn’t think they were bad! Surely not an offensive addition to a cookie, but certainly nothing I would go out of my way to purchase for an afternoon snack. If you’ve never had a date, they taste like a very mild-flavored raisin, but somehow sweeter. My husband stated “I mean, they’re not bad, but I don’t like them.”
After that, I unknowingly misread the amount of maraschino cherries. I measured out one cup, but the recipe calls for 1/3 cup (don’t read and cook, kids). I bought two 16oz jars or maraschino cherries, had I correctly read the recipe, one would have been enough. I laid the cherries out on a paper towel to help absorb some of the extra juice and minced them.
Pro tip: do not do this while wearing a light colored shirt. No matter how much you squeeze or pat dry the cherries, juice will spray everywhere.
Then came the fun part: taking 30 years of pent up rage out on 2-2/3 cups of Corn Flakes with a wooden spoon.
Once I had sufficiently beaten the cereal, I divided the crumbs into two bowls. One I left alone to follow the Kellogg’s recipe, and the other I added about 2 tbsp of sugar too- for my own attempt at the cookies.
I began mixing the batter according to the directions, creaming the butter and sugar until fluffy. I added the eggs one at a time, stirred in the milk and vanilla. My biggest advice here is to Scrape. The. Bowl. Seriously, scrape your bowl. After this was fully mixed, I added the flour mixture about 1/3 cup at a time, letting it get mostly incorporated before adding more. Once it was fully added, I scraped the bowl.
At this point I divided the batter into two bowls, in one bowl I added the 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1/2 cup chopped dates, and the 1/2 cup of cherries that definitely shouldn’t have been a half cup but I didn’t know at this point I read the recipe wrong. Maybe I was a little too excited about the prospects of delicious maraschino cherries in cookie format. For the other half, I only added 1/2 cup cherries.
After mixing these until my arm fell off until fully dispersed, I used a tea spoon (not like the measuring teaspoon, but one of those oddly long handled spoons you’d use to stir sweet tea. Do you know what I’m talking about? We have loads of those, they’re the superior spoon) to drop lumps of the dough into both crush Corn Flake bowls.
I did this in two batches, first the Kellog’s recipe with both the regular Corn Flakes and the Corn Flakes with added sugar, and then the cherry only in both Corn Flakes bowls. If I am making any sense, I ended up with four slightly different cookies at the end.
I will say that the 2-2/3 cups crushed Corn Flakes wasn’t enough, I had to crush up more just over half way through the dough. But this also only made about 2.5 dozen cookies, so maybe there is some Corn Flake to Per Dozen ratio I’m not privy to because I made my cookies way too big. Then I topped them with the quartered cherry bits, and I had more quartered cherries left over than I knew what to do with.
10 minutes wasn’t long enough for these, but I feel that’s directly attributed to my Texas-sized cookies. They ended up taking nearly 20 minutes to cook, and came out a firm cake like texture that I was hesitant of.
Overall, I think the cookies looked great. The cookies with dates and nuts appeared to be more golden-brown. But both recipes looked “very pretty” in person, according to my Nan.
But how did they taste?
I had 5 testers, plus myself. No one seemed to notice a difference in the cookies rolled in Corn Flakes + sugar (I didn’t tell them there was a difference haha), so maybe I was hallucinating when I thought they did taste a tad bit sweeter. However, the extra sugar in the coating did not have much of an effect on the overall texture of the cookie. I think both cookies came out rather mild in terms of sweetness, and I stand that they could be sweeter.
Personally, out of the options I thought I would like the recipe with dates and nuts less than the recipe with just cherries. I was very surprised to compare the two and find I preferred the dates and nuts over the cherry-only cookies. The dates and walnuts added a richer, more well-rounded flavor that helped balance the flavor of the cherries. I think the accidental extra cherries worked well in terms of flavor, but I do think they made the dough stickier than it should have been. The cherry-only cookies were just okay, a mild cookie in terms of flavor and sweetness that didn’t bring any wow factors to the table.
The 5 other testers enjoyed the cookies, most of them eating 2. The consensus seemed to be a hard preference to the Kellog’s original recipe, however while pushing my family for a better review other than “they’re good,” most of my family decided they were good cookies but they wouldn’t go out of their way to ask me to make them again. One of those cookies where you’d eat one if it’s offered, but not one of the most memorable cookies of their lifetime.
Overall, I had a great time trying this new recipe. I love how beautiful and bright the cookies looked, and they were a fun and relatively easy cookie to make. It seemed like the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon and a great recipe to start this journey. I spent some time thinking about Grandma Boots while I made these, and I found myself wondering if she ever made these too. If she saw the recipe in a magazine and got as excited about maraschino cherries in cookies as I did. If she just squirreled away the recipe in a box and thought “I’ll make those someday” and never did. I think there is a lesson to be learned about not saving good things for a rainy day, bake the cookies today, even if you don’t have a reason to.
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