Flying Saucers Identified

DEAR SOS: You printed a recipe for City School Flying Saucers for Beverly, who was looking for cookies made with chocolate chips, raisins and coconut. I have in my file a recipe for Ranger Cookies made without chocolate chips, which, you said, were also known as Flying Saucer Cookies. Which is the real Flying Saucer cookie?

--MARIAN

DEAR MARIAN: The names are interchangeable. Lynn Uusitalo, of Nutrition Services at the Los Angeles Unified School District, dug out the original 1952 recipe for Ranger Cookies made with cereal, coconut and walnuts and baked in a 4-inch circle.

1952 CITY SCHOOL RANGER COOKIES

1 cup (2 sticks) butter at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs, well beaten

2 cups sifted flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups rolled oats

2 cups cornflakes

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cream butter with granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs.

Sift flour with baking powder, salt and baking soda. Blend into butter mixture. Add vanilla, oats, cornflakes, coconut and nuts and mix until blended.

Drop by tablespoonful on ungreased baking sheet. Flatten to 4-inch diameter. (Use square of wax paper to keep dough from sticking to fingers or whatever you’re using to flatten dough.) For smaller cookies, drop by rounded teaspoon. Do not flatten.

Bake larger cookies at 350 degrees 10 to 12 minutes. Cookies should be slightly soft when removed from oven. Bake smaller cookies at 375 degrees 8 to 10 minutes.

22 (4-inch) cookies or 6 dozen small cookies. Each small cookie:

77 calories; 56 mg sodium; 13 mg cholesterol; 4 grams fat; 11 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.10 gram fiber.