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A Modern Take on Vintage Butterscotchies

Awe, the ever-popular cornflake - Kellogg’s is a name synonymous with pressed, toasted corn, but there are other brands, including some that are gluten-free.  

Butterscotchies are a delicious treat made by coating cornflakes in a toffee mixture. They are easy to make. I am allergic to soy lecithin, an ingredient in most purchased toffee. I found a soy-free recipe for Fantastic Microwave Oven Toffee so that I can partake in this treat too. 

My vintage recipe for Butterscotchies originally called for 2 boxes of Mackintosh Toffee. Over the years, packaging sizes changed. Some years ago, I determined a weight measure for the toffee required in this recipe. 

Recipe Ingredients:

130 grams of the toffee of your choice. I make microwave oven toffee and love the results. 

1 tablespoon of butter or margarine

1 tablespoon milk or milk alternative

2 cups Kellogg’s Corn Flakes or corn flakes of your choice

Melt the toffee, milk, and butter in a double boiler. No cooking is required. 

If you don’t have a double boiler, try to buy or borrow one, but as an alternative, you can melt ingredients in a heat-proof bowl over a pot containing boiling water. You could also melt the ingredients on medium-low in your microwave oven. A Staybowlizer makes one vessel fit another perfectly.

When the toffee mixture has melted, add the cornflakes to the pot.

Stir gently until the cornflakes are entirely coated, then drop small mounds of the mixture by teaspoon onto waxed paper and place in the fridge to harden. One can use a mini-muffin pan to make portions even. If you are using home-made toffee and gluten-free corn flakes, adding the mixture to mini-muffin cups helps hold these treats together. 

These melt-in-your-mouth treats are easy to make and delicious to eat. I often double this recipe. Put them in a tin and hide them because they disappear faster than you can make them. 

Butterscotch Cornflake Cookies

This recipe has been a favourite at my house for over 40 years. The butterscotch chips create the flavour, and no two brands taste the same. Try various brands of chips to see what you prefer. 

Preheat oven to 350°

Ingredients:

1 cup of shortening or lard

1½ cups of packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of soda

2 cups of flour

1 cup of butterscotch chips

2 cups of Corn Flakes

Method:

Using an electric mixer, cream together the shortening, brown sugar, and eggs. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, soda, and salt. Blend the flour mixture into the creamed mixture, and add chips and cornflakes. 

Drop cookie dough by tablespoonsful, 3 inches apart, onto oiled, or parchment papered cookie sheets. There is no need to flatten them. Bake the cookies at 350° for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Leaving the cookies in a thick pile and cooking for only 12 minutes results in a softer cookie.  

Tip: 

On occasion, I had replaced shortening with butter in this recipe, and the resulting cookies had a different texture and a tendency to burn. Lard and vegetable shortening have a higher burning point and no water content. It’s fun to experiment and discover your preference. 

Plan a cookie party or package a few treats to go. 

Crispy Caramel Oatmeal Cookies

To try one of these cookies is to have another. There are only seven ingredients in the recipe, and your family will rave about them from the first bite. They taste a bit like caramel popcorn and are just as easy to make.  

If there are delicious oatmeal crisps in the oven, the boy, from the  Get a Bigger Wagon stories, identifies them enthusiastically as soon as he opens the door. His mom discovered this recipe in the early fifties and made them regularly. The boy can’t remember life before these cookies, and he believes it takes four to make a serving.

The Boy's Favourite Crispy Caramel Oatmeal Cookies

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees

Combine the following dry ingredients in a large bowl
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups rolled oats
1 cup of granulated sugar

Melt the butter in a pot with the syrup and water
1 tablespoon golden syrup
2 tablespoons water
½ pound butter
Add
½ teaspoon soda to the butter mixture
Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients, all at once. Mix well. Using a one-inch scoop or a spoon, drop dough in small quantities onto a baking sheet or roll the dough into balls. Flatten the mounds of dough using a floured flat-bottomed custard cup or your hand.

Bake until golden, which can take 7 to 11 minutes, depending on the type of bakeware you are using. This batch was baked on heavy non-stick bakeware and took exactly seven minutes to bake. Notice that they do spread. 

Cool the cookies, while still on the baking sheet, for 4 to 6 minutes, then remove them to a cooling rack.

Placing cookies farther apart leads to faster cooking and thinner, crisper cookies. Have fun.