4th grader’s recipe could be Alabama’s official state cookie

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The Alabama House of Representatives this week approved a bill to create a state cookie, the cookie is called the Yellowhammer.

Mary Claire Cooke, a fourth-grade student at Montgomery’s Trinity Presbyterian School, came up with the winning recipe.

“It’s pecans, oats, and peanuts, and it has peanut butter filling in the middle,” said Cooke.

The idea for a state cookie came about when studying Alabama history and our state symbols.

“We figured Alabama doesn’t have a state cookie, but other states do,” says Kathryn Bandy, the college counselor at Trinity.

4th graders submitted recipes while the seniors selected the top cookie. Russel Powell, a Trinity senior said, “We selected the cookie because it has three ingredients that really encapsulate the state of Alabama, with pecans from Mobile and Baldwin counties, and nuts from the Dothan area, and oats from Central Alabama.”

The seniors who are studying government came up with the name for the cookie and presented the idea of a state cookie to Representative Reed Ingram.

Ingram loved it and sponsored the bill to name the Yellowhammer the state cookie.

“This gave us the opportunity to put all the stuff that they read about in books, and we really got to see it come in real life here on the floor today,” said Bandy.

A Senate committee late this afternoon passed the state cookie bill. It now heads to the full Senate for a vote.

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