Throughout my childhood, my grandma had a seemingly endless supply of these cookies. Every summer my family made our annual road trip up north to visit, and the moment our car pulled in the driveway after 5½ hours of being trapped in the backseat with my little brother, fighting as kids do (“But Mom, he’s looking at me!”), crossing each other’s invisible line drawn across the backseat, and fighting over who got the pillow (we never thought to pack two), we would scramble out of the car, suddenly best of friends, and make a beeline for that cookie jar.
According to her handwritten recipe for these, they were simply called “Cookies (Rice Krispies),” but years later I learned that they are called Ranger Cookies. No one seems to know what that name means or where it came from, but some theories indicate that they were named for the Texas Rangers or even the Lone Ranger. My grandparents lived on the Iron Range of Minnesota, so in my family, Ranger means home…history…family. —Diane Fluin
See what other Food52ers are saying.