Cowboy Cookies

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 cowboy cookie recipe makes a lot of cookies, so feel free to halve the batch. However, the cookie dough freezes well and can be baked straight from the freezer, so don’t be afraid to make a large batch of dough. It’s always nice to have ready-to-bake cookies at your fingertips!

Ingredients for Cowboy Cookies

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• Sweetened shredded coconut: We don’t recommend swapping in other types of coconut like flaked coconut. Even unsweetened shredded coconut won’t create the same results. The sugar in sweetened coconut adds moisture to the cookies and contributes to their crisp, caramelized finish. Cookies made with unsweetened coconut will be chewier and dryer.
• Pecans: You could use any type of nut, but we love the distinctly buttery flavor of chopped pecans.
• Old-fashioned oats: Oats give the recipe for cowboy cookies a hearty feel and a chewy texture.
• Chocolate chips: You can use any type of baking chocolate. Milk chocolate creates the sweetest cookies, while dark chocolate adds bitter notes. Semi-sweet chocolate chips are a good option for balance.
• Butter: Butter adds richness to the cowboy cookies recipe and combines with flour to create the cookie’s structure.
• Sugar: We use a combination of sugars here. The white sugar aerates easily when creamed with butter to help the cookies puff up. Meanwhile, the molasses-rich brown sugar adds a caramelized flavor and helps the cookies stay moist and chewy.
• Eggs: Eggs bind the cookie dough ingredients together.
• Vanilla extract: Vanilla adds depth and complexity to the cowboy cookie recipe.
• All-purpose flour: You don’t need a special pastry or cake flour to make a recipe for cowboy cookies. All-purpose flour creates cookies with an ideal chewy texture.
• Baking soda and salt: These ingredients balance out the sweetness in the cowboy cookies recipe, which is especially important if you use milk chocolate chips. Baking soda also helps the cookie dough spread to create thin, crisp cookies with a chewy center.

Directions

Step 1: Toast the coconut and pecans

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Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the coconut and pecans on a 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Bake for six to eight minutes or until toasted, stirring every two minutes. Set aside to cool.

Step 2: Cream the butter and sugars

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In a large bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy, five to seven minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat well.

Step 3: Add the flour

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In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

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Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, and beat well.

Step 4: Fold in the chunky ingredients

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Stir in the oats, chocolate chips, and cooled toasted coconut and pecans.

Editor’s Tip: These cookies are intended to be a little flat and crisp, so we don’t bother chilling the dough. That said, feel free to cover the cookie dough and pop it in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Chilling will prevent the cookies from spreading as much, resulting in softer, puffier cookies.

Step 5: Bake the cookies

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Drop the cookie dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets. Bake for 12 minutes or until browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Editor’s Tip: Avoid overbaking the cookies. The ideal cowboy cookie is crunchy on the outside and a bit chewy on the inside.

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Recipe Variations

• Make them bigger: For hearty cowboy appetites, double the size of each cookie. Just make sure to increase the oven time to bake the cookies until they’re browned and crisp on the edges (but still soft in the middle).
• Add cinnamon: Add a dash of ground cinnamon to add a warming edge to the cowboy cookie recipe.
• 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.

How to Store Cowboy Cookies

Let the cowboy cookies recipe cool completely. Transfer the cookies to an airtight container and store them on the counter for up to one week. If stacking the cookies, add a piece of parchment between the layers to keep them from sticking together. (Psst: Leftover cookies are great for crumbling on top of ice cream!)

Can you freeze cowboy cookies?

You can freeze cookie dough for up to three months. To make the cookies easy to bake, portion the dough onto the baking sheet as if you were going to bake it. Place the baking sheet in the freezer for about an hour or until the dough is fully frozen, then transfer the dough to a freezer-safe container. You can bake the cookies from frozen and adjust the cooking time slightly, or defrost the dough in the fridge.

If you prefer to freeze baked cookies, frozen cookies last up to six months. Freeze the cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet, and transfer them to a freezer-safe container once fully frozen.

Cowboy Cookie Tips

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Where did cowboy cookies originate?

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.

How long do you bake cowboy cookies?

We bake teaspoon-sized cowboy cookies for 12 minutes in a 350° oven. They take a little longer to cook than a traditional chewy chocolate chip cookie because of the mix-ins. You’ll know the cookie is finished cooking when it’s browned on the edges but still slightly soft in the center.