Cowboy Cookies
I think I have a new favorite to add to my cookie repertoire. This is an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kind of cookie and wow is it good. I will offer up the fact that in the beginning of June, I brought a batch of these and a batch of soft oatmeal raisin cookies with me on the plane to Iowa, and my two brothers devoured all of them in about 6 hours flat, dinner and visits with relatives included. So good, indeed, that I didn’t even manage to snap a picture of the finished product. Oops.
Though experiences may vary in other regions of the country (it seems they might be big in the South), I had never even heard of these until a few months ago, when I reached into the refrigerator of my food co-op around picked up a huge, heavy cookie. “Cowboy Cookie,” I read. Huh.
Allow me a minor tangent. If you’re a vegan in Philadelphia, you already know and love Vegan Treats. This awesome vegan bakery has long been supplying scrumptious treats to stores and restaurants in the Philly area. S’mores cheesecake? A rich, fudgy brownie with a pile of peanut butter frosting on top? Coconut cream and cookies ‘n’ cream-filled donuts? They’ve got it all. I visited their storefront about an hour away in Bethlehem, PA last month and now I like them even better.
Anyway, the moment I bit into this cookie, I knew I had a winner. Though it was heavy, it was soft and moist, chewy and fragrant. My second reaction, as always, was: why pay two bucks per cookie when I can make this at home?
Sure enough, a little googling left me with the recipe . . . and the best marketing scheme ever. You know how the presidential nominees’ wives have a bake-off before every election to name the better baker? (Okay, maybe not, but trust me on this one. Aren’t gender roles quaint?) Well, this particular version of this cookie recipe comes from LAURA BUSH. Amazing.
I haven’t perfected this recipe yet. It seems grinding up the coconut, oats, and chocolate chips would produce a more homogenous character more akin to the texture of the original cookie I’d first tasted. But these are definitely no-fail, and the flavor’s all there.
Cowboy Cookies
yield: 3 dozen giant cookies (a ton!)
1½ c soy butter
1½ c granulated sugar
1½ c light brown sugar
¾ c applesauce
1 tbsp vanilla
3 c flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3 c chocolate chips
3 c rolled oats
2 c sweetened flaked coconut
2 c chopped pecans
If using unsweetened flaked coconut, measure it into a small bowl and stir in 1 tbsp warm water and 2 tbsp sugar to sweeten and moisten it. Cover and set aside.
In a large bowl, whip the butter. Add sugars and cream.
Add applesauce and vanilla and beat.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, powder, soda, and spices. Add to wet ingredients and beat until well mixed.
Fold in the coconut, nuts, and chocolate chips . . .
. . . until all ingredients are incorporated. Use an ice-cream scoop to scoop balls of dough for jumbo cookies, and flatten slightly. Bake on ungreased sheets for ~8 minutes at 350°, or until golden.
Mmmmm.
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no photos of the final product because I ate them all. those were amazing.
Wow! I made these tonight as soon as I saw this was posted. The first finished cookies have just come out of the oven and I have to say… the first one was incredible! I’m a chocolate chip cookie fiend too, so this definitely satisfied my urge. Thanks a lot!
Glad you liked them, Aaron
Thanks for posting!
oh gosh those look GREAT! i’ve never had cowboy cookies but i’ve always wanted to try them!
I know that I’m overdue in eating a real cookie when looking at pictures of the ingredients/process gets me excited. These look like a dream come true and I am adding this to the backlist of Things I Must Make When It Is No Longer My Job To Cook For Other People.
WOW, those look amazing! Thanks so much for this one, Claryn….I can’t wait to whip up a batch or two (or ten)!
Thanks for reading, friends! Hope you like ‘em. They remind me of magic cookie bars in cookie form.
These are AMAZING cookies!! I’m making them for about the 5th time now and they get better every time! I’ve been using dark brown sugar the last couple of times to give them a richer, more molasses flavor. Plus, I’ve made them as cookie bars (when I don’t have time to scoop out multiple batches of cookies!), cooking for about 30 mins as bars. Next time, I want to try the same base cookie dough but instead of choc chips, use cranberry and apricots, with maybe a bit more oats. Thanks for such an amazing website with wonderful vegan recipes!!!!