I have no idea why these cookies are called “Cowboy Cookies”. Coconut, oats and Rice Krispies don’t scream cowboy to me. Well, maybe the oats do. Legend has it that Laura Bush made these cookies popular after she submitted a recipe to Family Circle in 2000, which was running a best presidential candidate’s spouse’s cookie contest, sigh. Laura Bush’s Texas Governor’s Mansion Cowboy Cookies won the contest. So maybe the fact that these cookies originate from/are popular in Texas make them “cowboy”?

I am pretty sure my recipe pre-dates Laura Bush’s published recipe. I think I started making them in the 1980s. I know my daughter Abby was baking them and selling them by the dozen in the early 2000s.

I like these cookies because, although they look like (and bake like) chocolate chip cookies, they are NOT Chocolate Chip Cookies. Cowboy Cookies are slightly crisp and buttery with a slight chew from the coconut and oats, and they are not over-the-top sweet.

Cowboy Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup shortening—do not use the butter flavored, just the plain, regular, old fashioned kind, either the sticks or the tub.
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• 2 cups quick cooking oats (NOT instant)
• 2 cups Rice Krispies cereal
• 1 cup Shredded coconut

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. Beat the butter and shortening together for a minute or so. 
3. Add in the sugars and beat for 5 minutes with an electric mixer. 
4. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Stir in vanilla.
5. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 
6. Add flour mixture to butter-sugar-egg mixture. 
7. Stir in oatmeal, Rice Krispies and coconut. 
8. Drop by tablespoonful onto cookie sheet.  Roll dough into a ball, then flatten slightly with finger or palm of hand. 
9. Bake in preheated 325° oven for 12-14 minutes.  Cookies will have a very light tan tinge when done.  Don’t over bake! Remove cookies from oven and cool on racks. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today!