Oatmeal Cookies Go Western

Yesterday I needed to make cookies as reward for the email Survivor Challenge I run. Wait what ?? Survivor the reality TV show about people living in the "wild" with little food ?? What does that have to do with fine cuisine, baking or do it yourself recipes ?? Not much, but it is one of my guilty pleasures and I have been running this fun and crazy Survivor Challenge for over 6 years now.

Each week before the show airs I send out three questions, participants send me their answers. After the show I discuss the episode, post the answers and add comments from my players. It makes watching the show more fun and my players love the camaraderie of sharing with other fans. Every four weeks there is a reward question added, get that one right and you win cookies baked by yours truly.

Back to those cookies, I wanted to do a take on Cowboy Cookies but they didn't need to be vegan.
In looking online the recipes I saw called for vegetable shortening: Crisco, that white awful stuff my mom always had in a huge tub.
I decided to go with my favorite oatmeal cookies and add one cup each of shredded coconut, and chocolate chips, I used walnuts instead of pecans.
They came out great !!

Cowboy Cookies !!

I am still not sure why they are called Cowboy Cookies, looking online one writer suggested it was because they are rather hard and would travel well in a saddlebag...my cookies would not fit that bill.

They are very filling and would be a great snack while riding the range ;-)

Someone else suggested it was because they have nuts, hahaha...

When I served them at our last poker game, there were lots of jokes about them having beans in them, no they do not !

My guess is that the original recipe has been around for a long time. The one here is actually a vegan version from my friend and fellow food blogger, Laurie.

I couldn't believe these were vegan when I first tried them, they were so good.
My poker pals agreed, these are just plain tasty, toothsome cookies.

Cowboy Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats*

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup oil

2/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar 

1/2 cup  vanilla soy milk or almond milk

1 tablespoon ground almond meal 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup coconut, shredded unsweetened

1 cup semisweet vegan chocolate chips (semi-sweet, can also use chopped chocolate)

1 cup pecan pieces, chopped and toasted (can use other nuts, too)

* The recipe called for quick cooking oats, I did not have any nor did I want to buy any. Instead I took my two cups of regular rolled oats and put them in the mini-food processor for  a few pulses.

That did the trick !!

1) In a medium sized bowl combine oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2) In a second bowl beat together oil, sugar, brown sugar, milk, almond meal and vanilla until foamy.

3) Fold in half of the flour mixture to moisten, then fold in second half to just barely mixed.

4) Fold in coconut, chocolate chips and pecans.

5) I chill the dough for an hour or overnight to make it easier to form the cookies.

6) When you are ready to bake the cookies,  preheat your oven to 350 F and prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease them. 

7) Use a big spoon or ice cream scoop to form the cookies, leaving two inches between cookies. 

    Pat them to flatten them slightly.

8) Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, switching the cookie sheets halfway through the baking time. The edges will begin to brown slightly.

9) Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

See how long they last at your house ;-)

Note: There were two issues the other Laurie had with these cookies: 1) the chocolate chips would not stay combined in the dough while mixing. To fix that I made sure to add them while the dough was still moist and the flour not completely mixed in. 2) They were crumbly when she went to form them into balls, this I fixed by chilling the dough.