DO NOT preheat oven—dough must chill before baking

This recipe is from Lisa’s cousin, Betty Harnar. Betty’s cookies are slightly different than the ones we make at The Cookie Jar, so if you don’t like them blame us. If you love them the way the folks in Lake Eden do, please give Betty all the credit.

1 cup melted butter (˝ pound, 2 sticks)

3 eggs

1 ˝ cups white (granulated) sugar

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

˝ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon coconut extract (if you don’t have it, you can use vanilla)

1 ˝ cups flour (no need to sift)

2 cups instant mashed potato flakes

1 cup coconut flakes, firmly packed

ž cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts (measure AFTER chopping)

approximately ˝ cup white sugar in a bowl for later

Melt the butter. Set aside to let it cool a bit. Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl and whip them up for a minute. They don’t have to be fluffy, just thoroughly mixed. Pour in the sugar and stir it up. Add the cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and coconut extract. Mix well. Stir in the melted butter and then add the flour. Mix until the flour is thoroughly incorporated.

Measure out two cups of mashed potato flakes and mix them in. Add the coconut flakes. (If you’re like me and you don’t like stringy coconut, chop it up in a food processor with the steel blade before you add it to your bowl.) Stir in the chopped nuts and mix thoroughly.

Cover the dough tightly and refrigerate it for at least 4 hours. Overnight is even better.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the center position.

Form balls of cookie dough, 1 inch in diameter, with your hands. Roll the balls in granulated sugar and place them on a greased (I used nonstick cooking spray) cookie sheet, 12 to a standard-sized sheet. Flatten them a bit with a metal spatula or the heel of your impeccably clean hand.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes, or until cookies are golden around the edges. Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: Approximately 8 dozen, depending on cookie size

Mother likes these best as sandwich cookies. I spread one cookie bottom with chocolate frosting and sandwich another cookie on top. (The bottoms should be together, making the cookie sandwiches slightly convex.) Bertie’s customers down at the Cut ’n Curl like them best if the sandwich filling is raspberry jam. I think that’s because the chocolate melts if they eat them under the hair dryers.

Hannah’s Note: You’re really supposed to chill this dough, but if you absolutely positively can’t wait to bake them, you can. Just be prepared to wet your hands frequently as you roll the cookie balls so the dough won’t stick to them.

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Twenty-Two