Cowboy Cookies – Sporting Road

COWBOY COOKIES

This recipe came to The Times in 2000 during the Bush-Gore presidential campaign when Family Circle magazine ran cookie recipes from each of the candidates’ wives and asked readers to vote. Laura Bush’s cowboy cookies, a classic chocolate chip cookie that’s been beefed up with oats, pecans, coconut and cinnamon, and which beat Tipper Gore’s ginger snaps by a mile. Here is an adaptation of that winning recipe.

Since 1992, Family Circle magazine has held a political bake-off during each presidential election year. It became tradition for presidential candidates to share family recipes, helping voters connect with them on a personal level. Family Circle took this tradition further by publishing cookie recipes from each candidate’s spouse and inviting readers to bake and vote on their favorite. Interestingly, the bake-off results have often predicted the election outcome, with a few exceptions. In the inaugural 1992 bake-off, Hillary Clinton’s chocolate chip cookies won over Barbara Bush’s recipe. In 1996, Hillary’s cookies triumphed again, this time over Elizabeth Dole’s Pecan Roll cookies.

In 2000, Laura Bush introduced her Texas Governor’s House Cowboy Cookies, which beat Tipper Gore’s gingersnap cookies. During her husband’s 2004 campaign, Laura tweaked her recipe to an oatmeal chocolate chunk variation, but it’s her original Cowboy Cookie recipe that has gained lasting fame. True to Texas style, Bush’s Cowboy Cookies are large and generously filled with oats, coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips, making them a crowd favorite.

A cowboy cookie is essentially a deluxe oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips, roasted pecans, and sweetened flake coconut. Laura Bush’s recipe uniquely includes a tablespoon of cinnamon, though some Southern Living reviewers recommend reducing it to one teaspoon. Try the original and adjust to your taste in future batches.

Are Ranger Cookies the Same as Cowboy Cookies? Ranger cookies are similar to cowboy cookies but substitute Rice Krispie cereal for the pecans.

Walmart sells Marketplace Cowboy Cookies in the bakery section and they are as good as, if not slightly better than the homemade ones, which I rarely think mass produced baked goods are; however, they are loaded with sugar.

INGREDIENTS

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 c. (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 1/2 c. packed light-brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups unsweetened flake coconut
2 cups chopped pecans (8 ounces)

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in bowl.
In a very large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth and creamy. Gradually beat in sugars, and combine thoroughly.
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.
For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart.
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through. Remove cookies from rack to cool.

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Sugar Free Cowboy Cookies

The popular sugar substitute xylitol, commonly used by those wanting to lose weight or who are diabetic, is associated with an increased risk of a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack and stroke. So be careful if you use an artificial sweetner

Ingredients

1 cup of almond flour
1 cup of shredded unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup of old fashioned oatmeal ground into flour
1 cup of unsalted room temperature butter (two sticks… if using salted butter do not add additional salt)
3 eggs
if using Truvia use 1/2 a cup, if using Swerve use 1 cup (may be omitted)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp maple flavor
1 cup of pecans chopped
1 cup of sugar free chocolate chips (if you don’t have those use 1 bar of 85% dark chocolate chopped into chunks or you can also use Lily’s Stevia Sweetened chocolate chips)

***NOTE: Here are a couple options for a more fluffy cookie, less butter cookie.
Option 1.
1.5 cups of THM Baking Blend (instead of almond flour)
1/4 cup of Oat flour instead of 1/2
(keep butter and all other ingredients the same but allow to cool 5-10 minutes to harden more)
Option 2.
1.5 cups of almond flour instead of a cup.
1/3 cup of oatmeal flour instead of 1/2 cup
1 stick of butter instead of 2 sticks of butter.
Option 3. for a peanut buttery cookie add 1/2 cup of sugar free peanut butter to the batter
Follow the directions.
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Instructions
Preheat over to 375 degrees.
Mix butter, sweetener, & flavors together.
Add in the eggs.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together well.
Scoop 1 tbsp. of dough onto the cookies sheet.
Bake for 9 minutes till the edges are slightly golden brown.
Allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes.
These cookies firm up the longer they sit.