Pride of Iowa Cookies Recipe - These Old Cookbooks (2024)

June 11, 2020November 15, 2023

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What’s so special about Grandma’s Pride of Iowa cookies? They’re an old fashioned oatmeal cookie that have nuts, coconut and brown sugar. With a crunchy outside and soft inside, what more can you ask for in an easy oatmeal cookie recipe?

Table of Contents

Pride of Iowa Cookie Recipe:

Here I am again with another of Grandma’s vintage recipes, and this time it’s an old fashioned oatmeal cookie. Grandma was born and raised in Iowa (she pronounced it Ioway). During the Depression, her family lost everything, and her oldest brother came to Indiana for work, and she eventually followed.

As a teen, Grandma worked for a family performing cooking and cleaning duties, and many of those recipes she brought with her and continued to make until the day she died.

She loved to tell the story that she made Homemade Ice Cream for the family several nights a week, and that’s why she was a bit on the fluffy side. Oh, how I miss my Grandma. Making her recipes keeps her memory alive, and I love to honor her.

Old Fashioned Cookie Recipe:

These vintage cookies are addictive. The outsides are crispy, yet the insides are soft. What more could you ask? I love the addition of coconut for added sweetness, and chopped nuts lend to the crunchy texture.

Here’s a little trick that I do when making cookies: only bake up about half the dough, and then keep the rest in the refrigerator or freezer for later. This helps keep the waistline trim, and then you’re a step ahead the next time you need a dessert or are having a sugar craving.

Please note that this recipe is for an oatmeal cookie with quick oats. Do not use rolled oats. If you have a bunch of rolled oats on hand but zero quick oats, I’ve been know to put the rolled oats in the food processor. Give them a few pulses until they are ground up finer. This trick works when you are in a pinch.

Ingredient List for Oatmeal Cookies

White Sugar

How to Make Pride of Iowa Cookies

Step by Step Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream shortening, brown sugar and white sugar; add eggs and vanilla, and mix until smooth.
In a separate bowl, sift flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredients, beating in between until just incorporated.
Combine quick oats, coconut and chopped nuts; add to dough and stir until mixed through batter.
Form into balls or use a small cookie scoop and place onto cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes,

For the full instructions and ingredient amounts for oatmeal cookies with quick oats, scroll to the bottom of this post.

Recipe FAQS

Be sure to use quick oats (not rolled oats) in these Pride of Iowa Cookies.
I prefer to use chopped pecans or walnuts.
For a little change, try adding butterscotch chips to these oatmeal cookies with quick oats.
Feel free to adjust the baking time up or down depending if you want a softer or crispier oatmeal cookie.
Use 2 large eggs or 3 small eggs.
If your cookies do not spread, press down the center of these cookies the last minute of baking.

More Vintage Cookie Recipes

Dainty Logs with Chocolate Chips

Fudge Nut Bars

Chocolate Chip Molasses Bars

Chocolate Nut Cookies

Classic Snickerdoodles

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Granny’s Sugar Cookies

Pride of Iowa Cookies (Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookie)

What's so special about Grandma's Pride of Iowa cookies? They're an old fashioned oatmeal cookie that have nuts, coconut and brown sugar. With a crunchy outside and soft inside, what more can you ask for in an easy oatmeal cookie recipe?

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: easy oatmeal cookies, oatmeal cookies with quick oaks, old fashioned cookie recipe, old fashioned oatmeal cookie, pride of iowa cookies, vintage cookie recipes

Servings: 48 cookies

Calories: 129kcal

Author: Barbara

Ingredients

1 cup white granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups quick oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream white sugar, brown sugar and shortening.
Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until smooth.
Sift flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda; slowly add to creamed mixture just mixing until incorporated.
In a separate bowl, combine quick oats, coconut and nuts. Stir into the dough.
Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Notes

Be sure to use quick oats (not rolled oats) in these Pride of Iowa Cookies.
I prefer to use chopped pecans or walnuts.
Use 2 large eggs or 3 small eggs. This makes a difference in how the cookie spreads.
For a little change, try adding butterscotch chips to these oatmeal cookies with quick oats.
A small cookie scoop works perfectly for these.
Feel free to adjust the baking time up or down depending if you want a softer or crispier oatmeal cookie.
If your cookies do not spread during baking, press down the center of these cookies the last minute of baking. This will result in a flat cookie. (This is a result of the texture of your dough. If it happens, add an extra egg next time).
Grandma had awesome desserts! Try her Fantasy Fudge and Caramel Corn recipes.

Nutrition

Pride of Iowa Cookies Recipe - These Old Cookbooks (2024)

FAQs

When did oatmeal cookies come out? ›

Most researchers agree that Fannie Merritt Farmer wrote the first recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies in 1896. The cookies quickly became popular as they were considered a healthier alternative to other baked goods. Quaker Oats started putting oatmeal raisin cookie recipes on their oatmeal containers as early as 1900.

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What happens if you don't chill cookie dough? ›

Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool. As a result, the cookies will expand more slowly, holding onto their texture. If you skip the chilling step, you're more likely to wind up with flat, sad disks instead of lovely, chewy cookies. Cookies made from chilled dough are also much more flavorful.

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How long should you chill cookie dough before baking? ›

As a general rule of thumb, you should refrigerate cookie dough for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. More than that, and you won't see a noticeable difference in the final product. Once the dough has chilled, let it warm up at room temperature until it's just pliable (about 5 to 10 minutes).

What happens when cookies don't flatten? ›

The most common culprit behind non-spreading cookies is too much flour. This may seem counterintuitive—after all, isn't flour a key ingredient in baking? Yes, but if you add too much flour, your cookies won't spread as they bake.

How do you flatten cookies without sticking them? ›

Place your dough on the bottom sheet of parchment. For recipes that yield more than a dozen cookies, you'll likely have to work in batches of two or more. Cover the dough with the second sheet of parchment. Rock your rolling pin back and forth over the parchment to flatten the dough.