I like reaching goals, which is why I keep them simple. Today’s goal was to use up some cornflakes. Mission accomplished, thanks to this recipe for Can’t Stop Cookies.
I’m not exactly sure where I found this recipe, but it’s a good one. The cookies have a light, crispy texture elegant enough to be served with tea at The Ritz. In fact, I think “Ritz” came into my mind because these are almost as flaky as the cracker with the same name. I guess the high amount of butter combined with the cream of tartar and baking soda is the secret to this cookie’s ethereal texture.
Can’t Stop Cookies Tips
This recipe was developed with salted butter and only calls for 1/4 teaspoon of salt. If you use unsalted butter, be sure to increase the salt to at least 3/4 teaspoon. You could probably even go up to 1 teaspoon. Also, the recipe does not call for any eggs, so make sure to measure the dry ingredients carefully so that the dough will hold together. If you accidentally use too much flour or cereal, you’ll get very crumbly cookies. I do not recommend leaving out the nuts because they tame some of the sweetness, but if you need to make nut-free Can’t Stop Cookies you can. Just leave out the nuts and add another 1/3 cup of cereal.
There’s Also a Peanut Butter Version!
Can’t Stop Cookies are fun, but if you’d prefer Cornflakes cookies made with peanut butter, the Ultimate Cornflakes Cookies are good, too.
Recipe
Can’t Stop Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 190 grams
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt increase to 3/4 tsp if using unsalted butter
- 2 sticks butter softened (salted) (230 grams)
- 1 cup granulated sugar 200 grams
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 cup pecans toasted and finely chopped
- 2 cups cornflakes cereal
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla. Using a spoon, stir flour mixture into butter mixture and stir until well mixed. Stir in pecans and cornflakes.
- Using a teaspoon, scoop up dough and shape into balls of about 1/2 to 3/4 inch. Place on ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheets, 12 per sheet, spacing a few inches apart. Bake for 13-16 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for about 4 minutes (they'll be delicate at first!) then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Note: This cookie has no eggs and is easy to halve if you only want a small batch.
- Note #2: My next experiment will be making these with Post “Banana Nut Crunch” cereal in place of Cornflakes.
Anna
Hi Patsy,
There’s enough butter in these cookies to where you don’t have to grease (or spray) if you have a nice clean cookie sheets. These days I bake all my cookies on big rimmed baking sheets, and the pans are so old that things that shouldn’t stick DO, so I always line them with parchment or foil. So if I were to make these, I would line the pan with parchment out of habit.
patsy hairell
Do you grease the cookie sheets?
Anna
Lou, thanks for letting me know! I’ll try your version next time I need to use up some Frosted Flakes.
Lou A.
I was looking for a new cookie recipe and stumbled on this in my file. My recipe called for twice the ingredients than your version, so I chose yours. We were trying to get rid of a box of Frosted Flakes left from a grandchild’s visit. So I thought I’d substitute them for the corn flakes. So I cut the recipe sugar to 3/4 to compensate for the extra sugar in the flakes. I creamed the ingredients in a food processer, then mixed in the nuts and flakes. The resulting dough was stiff, but sticky, not rollable. So I just spooned the dough on to the cookie sheets. Fourteen minutes seems to be the perfect time. They came out perfectly, very light and short. My wife approved.
Laurie
Hello Anna,
My husband got this recipe from some one that had brought these cookies to his work about 6 years ago in Mckinney Texas. He liked the cookies so well he asked for the recipe (something guys don’t usually do) I had never made them before today, but the recipe looked odd, no eggs, no milk and was dry, so I thought he may have copied it down wrong , so I googled it to check ingredients and thats when I found your post, and they matched up exact with the exception of your recipe had vanilla and his recipe was double the quantity of yours. Sure am glad you had this posted ! They are in the oven as we speak !
(update: the cookies are out and they are great)
Thanks for posting this recipe !
Anna
Nope, I didn’t press them. I’m going to make them again just to make sure I accidentally didn’t double the baking soda or something! They were really good.
Krooie
I made these, but they didn’t spread out flat like yours did. I rolled them into balls, but they pretty much stayed ball-shaped. Do you press them out like you do a peanut butter cookie before baking them?
They still tasted great, btw!
ThereseB
Hey Anna!
One word for these! YUMMY!!!!
I haven’t heard from NYC…big sigh!