According to legend, the cowboy cookie originated as a kind of midcentury breakfast bar: a mash-up so packed with high-calorie, energy-generating goodies like pecans and coconut flakes that it could sustain even the most grizzled of cattle ropers on a long day’s ride. And while the origins of this cookie are difficult to pinpoint, it is perhaps most closely associated with Texas, in large part thanks to Laura Bush.

Bush submitted her recipe to the election-year First Lady Bake-Off contest put on by Family Circle magazine when her husband, George W. Bush, was running for president in 2000. Her competition was a recipe for ginger snaps submitted by Al Gore’s wife, Tipper. Magazine readers baked the recipes and voted; Bush won in a landslide, with Marian Burros at the New York Times calling the recipe “flashy.” Bush’s cookies won again in 2004, against Teresa Kerry’s pumpkin spice cookies. Lesson learned: if you want to win a cookie contest, you have to put some chocolate in the recipe. (The last iteration of the competition occurred in 2016, as the magazine folded in 2019.)

With apologies to the former first lady, I made some tweaks to her classic formula. First, I made the cookies a bit smaller than hers, for faster cooking. Like Mrs. Bush, I enjoy these with chocolate chips, but butterscotch chips (or even M&Ms!) can be a nice variation. I left out the cinnamon, as there’s already quite a bit going on in these cookies and I found it a bit distracting. And I increased the amount of time the dough is refrigerated, which should help the slightly crumbly, overstuffed dough hydrate a bit better, rendering it easier to work with and yielding a better final texture.

This dough can be tightly wrapped and frozen for about two months, in case you anticipate having last-second dessert needs in the near future, like having to move a bunch of cattle halfway across the state at a moment’s notice. (These cookies are pretty good in a lunch box, too.)

Cowboy Cookies.

Cowboy Cookies

Made famous by Laura Bush, these fortifying sweet treats are filled with everything but the kitchen sink.
Servings 38 cookies
Print Recipe

Equipment

  • 1 stand mixer or handheld electric mixer

Ingredients  

  • 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks, softened)
  • 1 cup granulated white sugar
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups old-fashioned oats
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 ten-ounce package chocolate chips or butterscotch chips
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1 cup coconut flakes

Directions 

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment (or in a large mixing bowl, using a handheld electric mixer), beat the butter and the two sugars together on medium high until lighter in color and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  • Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the oats and stir to combine.
  • Add ⅓ of the dry-ingredients mixture, then mix on low speed until completely combined. Add 1 egg and combine again, scraping down the sides as needed.
  • Add the second ⅓ of dry ingredients and mix until combined. Add the vanilla with the second egg. Combine again, then add the final ⅓ of dry ingredients and mix well.
  • Fold in the chocolate or butterscotch chips, pecans, and coconut with a spatula.
  • Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
  • Heat your oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Place 3-tablespoon scoops of dough 2 inches apart on parchment-lined sheet pans.
  • Bake the cookies for 16–20 minutes, turning the sheet pans 10 minutes in. The cookies are done once the edges start to brown and the centers look just about set. Let the cookies cool for five minutes on the sheet pans before moving them to a rack to cool completely.
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