Your son or daughter may be graduating high school or college, but they'll always be a kid to you! As they head off into the next chapter, consider giving them one last taste of their childhood. The best place to do so? At a graduation party! And the best way to do so? By making The Pioneer Woman's creative graduation cookie recipe, which combines breakfast with dessert. After all, no matter how old you are, no one can refuse a cookie for breakfast. (Or vice versa!)
Of course, you can't have a cookie recipe without Ree Drummond's beloved stand mixer! Ree lets the handy kitchen appliance do the heavy lifting (or rather, baking) for everything from Christmas cookies to, most recently, graduation cookies. So, what exactly is a graduation cookie? In this case, it involves a nostalgic mix-in you wouldn't normally expect: your kid's favorite cereal. "Might as well send 'em into their future happy!" says Ree in a recent baking video. You can say that again!
Ree begins by whipping up her usual chocolate chip cookie dough, adding butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and flour to her mixer. Then comes the fun part: the cereal and candy mix-ins! Ree opts for Cap'n Crunch, pretzels, chocolate chips, mini peanut butter cups, and M&M's for a loaded cookie, but you can customize it to your liking. The stand mixer ensures each and every mix-in is thoroughly incorporated into the dough.
After baking the cookies and letting them cool, "Ice them with chocolate or vanilla frosting (whatever your graduate likes) then sprinkle more of everything on top," says Ree. The end result is a sweet and colorful treat personalized to the guest of honor's liking!
Ree loves this stand mixer recipe because it's fun and "kinda dumb but also delicious," she jokes. Of course, the hands-free capability of her stand mixer, which evenly mixes the cereal and candy into the dough with minimal effort, certainly doesn't hurt. As she reiterated in a comment, "I like any mixer that allows me not to mix by hand. 😂 😅" The more cookies (and less mixing), the merrier!
Nitya Rao is the editorial assistant at The Pioneer Woman, covering stories ranging from food, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, news, and more.
