SMiLes by Meg

Cowboy Cookies

Happy Mother’s Day! Some years I would be spending this whole weekend down in Duxbury, helping my mom get her garden going and baking all the coconut things. This year, though, social distancing is making that unwise, so we’re making do.

I am still making coconut treats, though! Liz Bone messaged me a couple weeks ago asking if I could make some cookies for her clients for Mother’s Day. I thought the best way to do this would be one chunky drop cookie (with coconut) and one pretty spring sugar cookie. For the sugar cookie, you’ve seen my recipe before, way back when I first started this blog! For the chunky drop cookie, I had in my head that coconut chocolate chip cookies would be easy to find a recipe for. They were not, but these Cowboy Cookies seemed to check all the same boxes and then some.

Start by whisking together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

Apologies for all of the shadows in my pictures this week. I ambitiously decided I was going to learn how to edit photos in Adobe Lightroom so I could take all of my pictures as overhead and then edit out the shadows, but then I spent actually 6 straight hours Saturday morning just decorating the sugar cookies. It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday morning and very therapeutic, just not conducive to also learning how to edit photos.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy.

Then add the sugars and beat until thoroughly combined.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Beat in the vanilla extract.

Transfer the dough into a VERY large bowl. This recipe is huge – I was making cookies for at least 50 treat bags (and ended up with lots of extra).

In the large bowl, stir the flour mixture into the dough until just combined.

Add the chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans and stir to distribute.

At this point, I popped the dough, covered, in the fridge because I was making cookies over the course of a couple days (work was busy this week). But once you are ready to bake, use a cookie scoop to scoop dough by the two tablespoon ball onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350°F for about 15 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

These are the perfect chunky cookie. Lots of crunch parts in a chewy base, thanks to generous amounts of coconut.

Store them in an airtight container, and they should keep for awhile!

Enjoy!

Cowboy Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups chocolate chips
  • 3 cups old-fashioned oats
  • 2 cups sweetened flaked coconut, packed
  • 2 cups chopped pecans

Directions:

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
  2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy.
  3. Beat in the sugar and light brown sugar until light and fluffy.
  4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, to incorporate.
  5. Beat in the vanilla extract.
  6. Transfer dough to a large bowl. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined.
  7. Add the chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans and stir to distribute evenly.
  8. Drop dough by the rounded two-tablespoon ball onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  9. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes or until edges are golden. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.