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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
Brought into fame by former First Lady Laura Bush, these unctuous and crunchy cookies are not only sweet and delicious, but they are also surprisingly filling. Perfect for taking with you on a hike or a cattle drive, these cookies will keep you going for way longer than you’d expect!
These Cowboy cookies are like regular chocolate chip cookies, only absolutely stuffed with oats, coconut, and pecans to make every bite have the perfect, satisfying crunch!
For another great cookie recipe, try these Pecan & Coconut Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies or, for something more Cowboy-friendly, try these Slow Cooker Cowboy Beans!
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: These cookies are easy to make and perfect to pack with lunches!
- Total Time: You can have a batch of these cowboy cookies in around 30 minutes!
- Variations: The base concept of a cowboy cookie is to pack your base dough with as many crunchy, flavorful things as you can! Feel free to add dried fruits like cranberries or raisins; switch out some of the semi-sweet chocolate chips for milk or white chocolate ones, or go totally rogue and replace some of the chocolate chips with peanut butter or butterscotch ones, or even toffee bits; or switch the pecans out for walnuts or peanuts—the only limit is your imagination!
- Tools For This Recipe: You will need an electric hand mixer or stand mixer, a large baking sheet, mixing bowls, measuring cups, a silicon spatula, some parchment paper, and a whisk to make these cookies!
What You’ll Need for Ingredients
Flaked Coconut: Flaked coconut comes in a larger shape and size than shredded coconut, so it’ll help give your cookies a great coconutty flavor and a delcious extra crunch.
Flaked Oats: You’ll want to reach for large flaked oats, quick oats, or rolled oats to make these cookies! Large flaked oats will make the cookie chewier, where the other varieties will result in a slightly softer cookie.
Mix Ins: This recipe calls for semi-sweet chocolate chips, flaked coconut, and pecans, but you can feel free to customize your choice of add-ins to come up with a cookie that you and your family will love! Try adding dried fruits like cranberries or raisins; switching out the pecans for peanuts or walnuts; or swapping out a portion of the chocolate chips for butterscotch, peanut butter, or toffee pieces!
How To Make Cowboy Cookies
This is a quick overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients & complete step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well incorporated, then add the vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients, then add to your wet mixture. When incorporated, mix in the oats.
- Stir in the coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips (or other add-ins) by hand.
- Form into large balls and place on a lined baking sheet 3 inches apart. Bake in your preheated oven for 13 minutes until golden brown, then allow to cool completely before serving.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for the Perfect Cowboy Cookies
- Patience Pays: Make sure to give your butter and eggs time to come to room temperature before you get started combining your ingredients! This will make sure your dough will mix together properly.
- Bigger is Better: The original recipe for these cookies uses an entire 1/4 cup of cookie dough per cookie, which makes some seriously large cookies! Seeing as how the recipe is a Texan favorite, it makes sense that they’re bigger than most; however, feel free to make them whatever size you prefer. Just keep in mind that all of the extra ingredients in this recipe make it difficult to make a small cookie that still has a little bit of everything in it!
Storage Instructions
Cooled, baked cookies can be stored in an airtight container or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to four days.
Freezer: Once fully cooled, you can store the baked cookies in an airtight, freezer-safe container or zip-top bag for up to one month. When you’re ready to eat them, you can either let them thaw overnight in the fridge, or leave them out at room temperature until thawed. You can also freeze the unbaked dough so you can have cowboy cookies on demand! Just portion the dough into balls and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet, then place the baking sheet into the freezer for around an hour, until the balls are individually frozen solid. Then you can transfer your cookie dough balls into a zip-top bag. When you’re ready to bake them, just put them on a cookie sheet frozen and bake as directed—you may need to add a few minutes to the cook time to make sure they come out perfect.
More Delicious Cookie Recipes
- Give my Dad’s Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies a try and you’ll see why my family calls them the best oatmeal raisin cookies ever!
- Why wait for the next Girl Scout fundraiser when you can make your own Samoa Cookies at home?
- Give my recipe for Coconut Cookies a try for a delicious, buttery bite with or without chocolate chips!
Cowboy cookies are perfect for when you want a snack that eats like a meal! Hearty and easier to eat than a fistful of granola, I love to have some waiting in the wings for camping, road trips, and quick on-the-go breakfasts!
Give this recipe a try and tell me what your favorite mix-ins are in the comments below!
Happy Baking!
Karlynn
Cowboy Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup salted butter
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups flaked coconut
- 2 ½ cups large flake oats
- 1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 ½ cups pecans
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Cream the butter and sugars together with a mixer until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time until combined. Add in the vanilla, mix in.
- Whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing thoroughly. Add the oats, combine.
- Stir (by hand) in the coconut, pecans and chocolate chips until combined.
- Form into large balls – the original recipes uses 1/4 cup of dough for Texas sized cookies! – and place onto baking sheets 3 inches apart.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 13-15 minutes, or until they are golden brown. The baking time will depend on how large you make the dough balls.
- Remove and let cook on the baking sheets for 10 minutes then place onto wire baking racks to cool completely.
Notes
- Baking times and nutritional values are all going to depend on how large you make these!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Sheila R. Maury says
I just made the cookies and I must say they are great and the coconut was perfect. I just made a few changes because of food / medical problems. I used 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup Xylitol . Plus I needed to hold the salt. I doubt if that interfered with the taste. I doubt if they could be better. Enjoy.
Paddy Bateman says
Sounds like a lovely chewy cookie and “yes” to the addition of coconut! Making them this weekend.
Deborah says
Howdy!! (see what I did there?:) )
Fir the coconut….sweetened or unsweetened?