Cowboy cookies are made with a variety of different flavors to create one amazing cookie. With ingredients like oats, chocolate chips, coconut and pecans, every bite is out of this world.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Table of Contents
Ingredients for Cowboy Cookies
Cowboy cookies are thick and chewy in the center and crispy around the edges.
They start with basic cookie ingredients – butter, eggs, granulated and light brown sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla extract.
What puts Cowboy cookies over the top are cinnamon, chocolate chips, healthy oats, coconut flakes and toasted pecans.
Are you drooling yet?
Steps to Making Cowboy Cookies
Step 1: The first thing that I did was to beat the room temperature butter with my electric mixer until it was creamy. This took about 2 minutes.
Step 2: Next, I added the granulated sugar, light brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and vanilla extract to the butter.
I beat the mixture on high for about 2 minutes until everything was well combined.
I know that adding the baking powder, etc., at this point is a bit unconventional. In fact, convention has it that these dry ingredients should be mixed with the flour.
However, my thinking is that they stand a much better chance of being thoroughly incorporated into the dough. I’ve never had a problem following this line of thought!
Step 3: After that, I added the eggs, one at a time. I beat the mixture on high after each addition.
Step 4: At this point, I added the flour. I beat the mixture on low just until the flour was incorporated. This took about a minute.
Step 5: I added the final ingredients to the dough – chocolate chips, oats, coconut flakes and pecan pieces.
I used a wooden spoon to combine all of the ingredients. Then, I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough overnight.
It’s best to refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes to allow the flour and sugars to hydrate.
Step 6: Some recipes for cowboy cookies call for portioning the dough in ¼-cup mounds. While this works, it produces a quite large cookie. My preference was to use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop.
Therefore, I used a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop to portion the dough onto parchment lined baking sheets. I placed 8 cookies, spaced about 3-inches apart on each baking sheet.
I knew from experience that if I left the cookie dough in a ball, it wouldn’t spread enough and would therefore be too thick, at least for my liking. Therefore, I flattened each dough ball to about ½-inch with my hand.
Step 7: I baked the cookies in a preheated 350°F oven for 10 minutes. 10 minutes was the perfect amount of time to produce cookies that were crisp around the edges and soft in the interior.
After 10 minutes, I removed the cookies from the oven. I let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.
I ended up with 3 ½ dozen of the most delicious cookies you can imagine. You should definitely try this recipe! Yum!
Frequently Asked Questions
You can definitely use salted butter in place of unsalted butter. If you do use salted butter, omit the salt from the recipe.
If you decide that you don’t want to make all of the cookies at one time, go ahead and portion out the dough. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze the dough. Once the dough is frozen, place the frozen dough balls in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Before baking, let the dough come to room temperature.
I’ve found that individuals typically fall into one of two groups when it comes to oatmeal cookies. One group prefers raisins to chocolate chips and the other group prefers chocolate chips to raisins. Therefore, feel free to substitute raisins for the chocolate chips. You could also substitute craisins for the chocolate chips.
Pecans are consistently my nut of choice in cookies. However, walnuts can also be used in place of pecans. If you have a nut allergy or prefer cookies without nuts, you can leave the nuts out altogether.
My cookies were about 3-inches in diameter.
Other Delicious Oatmeal Cookies
If you’re a fan of oatmeal cookies, you should try out these awesome recipes:
- Oatmeal Craisin Cookies
- Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies
- Chocolate Oatmeal Pecan Cookies
- DoubleTree Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Neiman Marcus Cookies
- Oatmeal Spice Shortbread
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Recipe
Cowboy Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups (10-ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (2 sticks, 8-ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature (See Tip 1)
- 1 cup (7-ounces) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (7.5-ounces) light-brown sugar, packed
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons (0.33-ounces) vanilla extract
- 2 cups (12-ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups (7-ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 ⅓ cups (3.5-ounces) sweetened flake coconut (See Tip 2)
- 1 ⅓ cups (5.5-ounces) chopped pecans, toasted (See Tip 3)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line large baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a very large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add granulated sugar, light brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Beat until creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes. (See Tip 4)
- Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla.
- Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans.
- Refrigerate cookie dough for at least 30 minutes up to overnight. (See Tip 5)
- For each cookie, drop 2 tablespoons of dough onto parchment lined baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart.
- Bake for 10 to 11 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Remove cookies from rack to cool.
- Yield: 3 ½ dozen cookies. (See Tip 6)
Chula’s Expert Tips
2. May substitute unsweetened coconut flakes for the sweetened coconut flakes
3. Recipes with pecans always taste significantly better if the pecans are toasted. To toast the pecans, spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for around 8 minutes. Watch carefully to ensure that they don’t burn.
4. While a bit unconventional, I consistently beat in ingredients like baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt to the wet ingredients. The reason is this ensures that all ingredients are well mixed together. I’ve never detected a problem with using this technique.
5. The reason for refrigerating the dough is to allow the flour and sugars to hydrate. This results in crispier edges for the cookies. It wouldn’t, however, be a disaster to skip the refrigeration.
6. If you don’t want to bake all of the cookies, form into balls and freeze in a single layer. When frozen transfer to a Ziploc bag and freeze for up to three months.
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