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Cowboy cookies are loaded with butterscotch, chocolate chips, coconut, pecans, and oatmeal – a simple and delicious from-scratch cookie that are hearty and delicious for even your hungriest little partners!
This is the best recipe for cowboy cookies ever – loaded with pecans, coconut, butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, and oatmeal – they taste fresh for up to a week, are great to take in lunch boxes, and are rich and hearty for hungry tummies!
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At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe – my goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
I want each reader to walk away with a solid knowledge of each recipe, with all of the tips I’ve gathered from extensive testing of each recipe. I also answer questions my friends and family have asked about my recipes, to help everyone better understand the processes we use – and why!
Table of contents
There is nothing better than the taste of warm homemade cookies right from the oven. These cowboy cookies have the ideal combination of ingredients to make them your go-to cookie recipe from now on.
Whether you’re looking for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe, the best oatmeal cookie recipe, or anything in between – try these cookies once and they’ll be your new standard.
Cowboy cookies are especially delicious and forgiving cookies that have something for every taste in them. Are you a chocolate lover? Butterscotch? Coconut? Nuts? No matter what these cookies are for you!
How to Make Cowboy Cookies
These cookies require only a few ingredients, that you probably already have on hand:
- Flour – Flour is the base for many cookie recipes and baked goods. All-purpose flour is just as the name suggests, a really good all-around flour for all kinds of recipes. Because these hearty cookies keep well and travel, all-purpose flour works well.
- Oats – Rolled oats are oats that are soaked and rolled through two metal rollers to flatten them to make them easier to cook and eat. They are then kiln dried to get that yummy toasty flavor. Rolled oats are generally considered the best for baking. If you want the flavor of oats but with a bit of a finer texture, coarse grind the oats in a blender or food processor using the “pulse” funtion.
- Baking soda and powder – Baking soda and powder are leavening agents – which means they help your cookes to get light and fluffy rather than dense.
- Salt – A but of salt is the secret ingredient to most good baking, just a little saltiness creates a contrast with the sweet flavors and sets them off more effectively.
- Butter, room temperature – A good butter is the base of may good cookies. Use room temperature butter so it “creams” (gets fluffy) better. Butter that’s too hot or too cold won’t react the same way.
- White and Brown sugar – This recipe calls for two kinds of sugar. Granulated sugar is a kitchen baking standard, while brown sugar has a bit more of a molasses flavor to it.
- Eggs, room temperature – Eggs that are allowed to come to room temperature retain air better in the baking process and keep your cookies nice and fluffy.
- Vanilla extract – Vanilla extract is an extract of the vanilla bean. I love to keep a high-quality extract on hand as it’s an ingredient in baking that makes almost everything better.
- Butterscotch and chocolate chips – The combination of both kinds of chips in this recipe gives these cookies an extra special flavor. The two set eachother off really well.
- Pecans – Pecans are native to the southern United States and northern Mexico, they have a distinctive flavor that brings a little bit of “Texas” to this recipe. Pecans are a source of healthy fat.
- Coconut – Shredded coconut, like pecans, is a source of healthy fat. The distinctive flavor of coconut perfectly rounds out the combination for these delicious and distinctive cookies.
- Optional sea salt – Like the salt added to the cookie dough (above) a sprinkling of corse sea salt over these cookies can better set off the delicious flavors.
Once you gather all the ingredients use the following method to make our cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Combine dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt) in a medium bowl. Mix and distribute well. Reserve.
- Cream the butter and sugar together.
Tips and Tricks For Perfect Cowboy Cookies
Hit the road! Make these cookies for picnics or outdoors events – they are easy to whip up and travel well, so they are great to take for picnics and parties.
Sprinkle salt on top just as cookies are warm. The salt helps bring out the sweetness of the cookies. Just make sure you sprinkle it on the cookies when they are still warm so it will stick to the cookies.
Substitute galore! These cookies are super simple – they are easy to swap different ingredients if you’d prefer something else. Don’t like butterscotch? Try peanut butter chips! Don’t like pecans? Try walnuts or macadamia nuts!
FAQs
Depending on who you ask, these are either called “cowboy cookies” because they were first developed in Texas, a state with many cowboys, or because they stay fresh in a saddlebag out on a trail. No matter the background, these cookies are totally delicious!
No, you can’t use them in this recipe. They just well not hold up well in this recipe.
If you are not a fan of butterscotch chips, you can double up on the chocolate chips.
You will want to keep them at room temperature in an airtight container for a week.
Other Cookies You’ll Love
Check out our lemon cake mix cookies, Cheesecake Pudding cookies, Red Velvet Cake Cookies, White Chocolate Chip Raspberry cookies, or some of our recent favorites below:
Easy Cowboy Cookies Recipe
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Cowboy Cookies Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 cup rolled oats
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar, packed
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup butterscotch chips
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 cup pecans
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 1 teaspoon sea salt, optional
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°F and line a sheet pan with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
- Whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl, and set it aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until creamy and light. Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture just until combined.
- Mix in the butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut.
- Scoop about 2 tablespoons of the dough onto the sheet pan, leaving about two inches between each cookie.
- Bake for 13-14 minutes.
- Sprinkle the cookies with the sea salt.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the sheet pan.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
We are not coconut fans. What could we use to substitute? Or completely omit?
Hi Dawn!
Yes, you can absolutely omit the coconut if it isn’t for you. You can just leave it out or add more of the other add ins chocolate and butterscotch chips or pecans). Hope you enjoy the cookies!