Food makes so many memories. The smells, the tastes, flooding back happy moments, complete conversations and pure joy! These Wheat Germ Saucer Cookies are a big one for me. I remember being in 7th grade when Mom first made these.
My mother baked a lot. She also made sure I knew how to bake. Pies were my Dad’s favorites and of course as a kid, I LOVED cookies.
Mom made chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin (another of Dad’s favorites), and peanut butter regularly. Her Christmas Cookies were famous throughout the neighborhood and to die for, especially the Pecan Crisps, along with the Hello Dolly Squares (crazy name!), Cut-outs and Date Bars. But when she made these Wheat Germ Saucer Cookies for the very first time, I was over the moon! Because they were BIG, super crunchy and so different with coconut, oatmeal, wheat germ and chocolate chips! Then she told me that wheat germ was very healthy – especially good for pretty skin.
Well, this was MY COOKIE!!
But then of course, she told me I couldn’t eat two, because I would get fat and the cookies were big. (Granted, two is a lot — but they’re so good!!)
Well, Mom is not around anymore…
And lately, I’ve made two batches of these (why I waited so long I’ll never know) to the pure delight of everyone who tastes them! Even people who like soft chewy cookies can get into these, because of the coconut. So you get that chewy aspect combined with the crunchy-ness with the wheat germ and oatmeal – without any nuts – for those folks that are allergic.
Because they are large – they also do not take up too much time to make.
My chocolate chip cookie memories
Large cookies have another special memory for me. My dad’s older, forever single brother Eugene would come for dinner nearly every Sunday night. He didn’t talk much but this was a chance for him to be around family and to get one of my mother’s good healthy meals inside of him. One of his favorite, most memorable sayings was, when Mom would ask him if he wanted seconds on anything, Uncle Euge would say, “No thank you, I’ll do well to clean my plate.” and then chuckle. We always laughed at that and he had a very jolly laugh.
Uncle Eugene’s gifts
When he came, he always brought all of us kids (remember there were 6 of us), a box of one dozen Hersey’s chocolate bars and a big white bakery box of one dozen huge chocolate chip cookies from some bakery in downtown St. Louis near where he lived. I have been searching for that cookie for years. I still have not found it.
When I moved to NYC in the late 70’s, I got all excited as all the delis carried plastic wrapped huge chocolate chip cookies. I tried most of them, but not one matched up.
The Uncle Eugene cookies were large, just like these Wheat Germ Saucer Cookies, crunchy and pure chocolate chips. No nuts, just a great dough and chocolate. It occurs to me right now, that perhaps they used some Crisco or lard in them for that unmistakable tender crunch. That’s not really healthy so I’m not sure I’m gonna go there now, but maybe I should experiment, just a little.
The utmost importance of creaming your butter and sugar extremely well…
At any rate, do try these. My trick with any cookie is to cream the butter and sugar for a super long, long time – so that the mixture is not at all grainy with the sugar, but light colored and fluffy. Go do something else for a little bit of time while your mixer does the work. Then add your room temperature eggs, one at a time, beating very well after each one. Finally, add the dry ingredients, and most importantly, your LOVE!
I’m sure these will be an awesome hit. My friends who have eaten them just recently have begged for this recipe so here it is.
WHEAT GERM SAUCER COOKIES – makes 20 large cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ cups wheat germ
1½ cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 rounded tsp. Kosher salt
½ cup coconut
½ cup quick-cooking oatmeal (uncooked)
1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chunks
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Beat butter with sugars until very light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
Mix wheat germ together with all remaining dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and stir (lowest speed on your mixer) into butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks.
Place dough by ¼ cupfuls onto a silt pad lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 – 17 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 2 – 3 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in a loosely covered container.
