Cowboy Cookies
from https://www.tasteofhome.com/

Cowboy cookies are crispy-edged cookies with a soft, chewy center. They’re a riff on classic oatmeal chocolate chip cookies but contain additional mix-ins like sweetened shredded coconut and buttery pecans. The cookies have been around for a long time, but their popularity is largely credited to former first lady Laura Bush. In a presidential candidate baking contest, her cowboy cookies beat Tipper Gore’s gingersnap cookies, officially shining a spotlight on the hearty cowboy cookies recipe.

Our recipe for cowboy cookies is a little different from Laura Bush’s. For starters, it doesn’t contain any cinnamon. It also includes an untraditional step—toasting the coconut and pecans—that gives the cookies a deeper, richer character. Finally, it uses baking soda by itself. This leavening agent is often mixed with baking powder in cookie recipes, but using it alone helps the cookies spread to create crispy edges and a chewy center.

The recipe for cowboy cookies originated in the western United States, although it’s highly disputed whether the cookies are from Texas or Wyoming. They get their name from all the mix-ins like oats and nuts, which make the cookies something of an energy bar that could be carried in a saddle bag during long trips.

Change the mix-ins: Feel free to use other mix-ins, like white chocolate chips instead of regular chips or walnuts instead of pecans. You can even add dried fruit like cranberries. So long as the total quantity of mix-ins stays roughly the same, the cookies should turn out just fine.

Also see Ranger Cookies, which uses the same cookie dough base made with oats, but adds in puffed rice cereal as well as the coconut. The differences are Ranger Cookies uses 1 cup each sugar, adds 1/2 tsp baking powder. They also suggest using shortening rather than butter: "Cookies made with all shortening are taller and more tender, while cookies made with all butter are flatter and crispier."

Cowboy Cookie Add-ins: 1 cup coconut, 3/4 cup chopped pecans, and 2 cups chocolate chips
Ranger Cookie Add-ins: 2 cups puffed rice cereal and 1 cup coconut

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups old-fashioned oats
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. Place coconut and pecans on a 15x10x1-in. baking pan. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until toasted, stirring every 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture and beat well. Stir in oats, chocolate chips, and toasted coconut and pecans.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Yield 6 dozen