Today I small batched one of my favourite cookie recipes, Loaded Cowboy Cookies. With there only being two adults in the house these days I don't find as much use for baking as I used to when I was raising five children. Back then my biggest complaint was that I had to bake almost every day as everything got swallowed up. These days if I bake a full recipe of anything, dollars to donuts it gets wasted or given away.
But store bought cakes and cookies are never on par with the ones you make yourself. That's why I prefer to bake my own everything if I can. Home baked goods just taste better and I can actually pronounce and identify everything that is in them.
I remember first baking these cookies when my middle son was in nursery school. He's turning 39 in November so you know I have been baking these cookies for a very long time.
The original recipe came from a church cookbook. The ladies guild of the church I was attending at the time published one and these were a favourite of ours from that book.
And no surprise there, they are delicious. I baked them for my son to take for his turn to bring a snack on snack day and they proved so popular that the teacher asked me for the recipe.
I cannot imagine a parent being asked to bring in homebaked goods anymore. There are too many children with allergies, etc. these days. Things have surely changed since then.
I cut the original recipe down by 2/3 so that it makes only one dozen (LARGE) cookies. They are lovely, crisp edged and chewy middled . . .
Filled with toasted pecans, chocolate chips, sweet flaked coconut, old fashioned oats . . .
Perfect to be enjoyed with a glass of cold milk while you are in the throes of a colouring fest . . .
Or with a nice hot cuppa when you are taking a well deserved mid morning break.
They are actually pretty perfect any time of the day. I think so at any rate.
You could make smaller cookies, in which case you would get perhaps 2 dozen. I would scoop by heaped tablespoons and bake for 10 to 12 minutes in that case.
Loaded Cowboy Cookies
Yield: 12 large cookies
Crisp edged, chewy in the middle, incredibly moreish cookies stuffed with chocolate chips, oats, coconut and toasted pecans.
Ingredients:
- 140g plain flour (1 cup)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
- 120g unsalted butter, at room temperature (1/2 cup)
- 95g granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
- 100g soft light brown sugar (1/2 cup, packed)
- 1 large free range egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 180g chocolate chips (1 cup)
- 80g old fashioned oatmeal (1 cup)
- 60g flaked sweetened coconut (3/4 cup)
- 60g toasted chopped pecans (1/2 cup)
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper. Set aside.
- Sift together the flour, soda and baking powder. Stir in salt.
- Cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour to combine. Stir in the coconut, oats, chocolate chips and toasted nuts.
- Scoop by 1/4 cup fulls, shaping each into a ball and place 3 inches (at least) apart on the baking sheets.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes until the edges are lightly browned. They will be chewy in the middle. Let cool on the baking sheet for several minutes before scooping off to a wire rack to cool with a metal spatula.
- Store in an airtight container.
What was the favourite cookie that you used to bake for your own children when they were growing up? I sure wish I lived close enough to my grandchildren that I could bake for them these days. That would be a real treat for me!
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