March Madness ACC Tribute -- Clemson Tiger Tails

Cookies with Frosted Flakes!?!?  They're greeeeeaaaaaat! Especially if you're looking for that late afternoon sugar rush.  If you're not a fan of coconut, not to worry, you can't really taste the coconut, but it's what adds the chewy to this crunchy-chewy cookie.  Trust me, Guinea Pig Papa isn't a big fan of coconut and he went back for seconds on these, the taste is well-hidden.

Clemson Tiger Tails

3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 cup veggie oil
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup frosted flakes, crushed
1/2 cup pecans, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup coconut flakes
milk chocolate, for drizzle
white chocolate, for drizzle
red & yellow food coloring

In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

In a mixer, cream together butter, sugars, and vanilla until smooth.

Mix in the egg, then mix in the oil and beat until batter is lump-free.

Add in the oats, frosted flakes, pecans and coconut and stir until everything is well-coated.

Add in flour mixture and stir until all the flour is absorbed into the dough.  The dough is going to be very light and not very dense.

Take a heaping tablespoon of the dough and roll it into a short log.  Place the logs in rows on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 325° for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are firm to the touch.  These cookies don't really brown, well, unless you burn them so if you hit some shade of notable brown, you've overcooked them.

Remove cookies from sheet and allow to cool.  Once cooled, put them back on the cookie sheets.  For easier post-drizzle clean-up, line the cookie sheet with wax paper.  Foil or plastic wrap will also work if you don't have wax paper, but the cookies will be easier to remove once done from wax paper.

For the chocolate drizzle, you can either use melting chocolate or chocolate chips.  The fastest way to melt the chocolate is to put it in a small dish in the microwave and cook on high for 30 seconds, remove and stir.  Then cook on high for an additional 30-35 seconds, remove again and stir until all the chocolate is melted.  This may take more or less time depending on the type of chocolate you use, best to heat it in short increments.

Take a teaspoon full of melted chocolate and drizzle the chocolate back and forth over the cookies on the sheet.  To make the orange stripes, add two drops of red food coloring and three drops of yellow to the white chocolate, then mix until the color is even.

NOTES

The easiest way to crush the frosted flakes without making a huge mess is to put them in a ziplock baggie and then crunch them up.

If you don't want to commit to buying a full box of cereal, check to see if your grocery store sells Kellog's brand in individual containers.  It comes to just under 1 cup when crunched up which still works fine with the recipe.

The Clemson Tigers are really hoping to pull something out for the tourney this week since they're sitting on a bubble to see if they get in the Big Dance.

Did you know that among all the tiger-mascoted universities, Clemson's tiger paw logo is unique?  It's because it's based on the paw print of a real tiger!

Clemson's fight song comes from the well-known jazz classic, the Tiger Rag, which as it turns out was also the base song for "Stop that Pigeon" which was the theme intro to Hanna Barbera's Saturday morning cartoon classic, "Dick Dastardly & Muttley in their Flying Machines" (1969-71).  I knew I'd heard it somewhere before!