Since 1992, Family Circle magazine has staged a presidential bake-off – but in print. During each election season, the two potential first women submit their best cookie recipe, and readers vote on their favorite. (And, with a few exceptions, this cookie bake-off exactly predicts the outcome of the actual election!)
Laura Bush submitted her recipe for Texas Governor’s Mansion Cowboy Cookies in 2000, while Tipper Gore posted her Ginger Snaps. Laura’s Cowboy Cookies won by a landslide and have since become the most widely disseminated presidential cookie recipe in Family Circle.
And it’s easy to understand why. These cookies are DELICIOUS. They’re a chocolate chip cookie… but a chocolate chip cookie with a few other ingredients that provide a lot of texture and taste. They’re large (as most things in Texas are), and I guarantee you’ll have several requests for the recipe every time you serve them out.
I’ve been creating these for years and have discovered that they are almost universally adored. I once baked them for my mother-in-law to bring to a party. When she arrived, she put them on the dessert table, and she said that so many people snuck to the back of the room during the speaker’s presentation to get one that there were none left for the reception. (This recipe yields three dozen).
INGREDIENTS
3 cups regular flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon powder
1 tsp salt 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) room temperature butter
granulated sugar 1 1/2 cups
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
3 cups chocolate chips, semisweet
3 cups rolled oats, old-fashioned
2 cups shredded sweetened coconut
2 cups pecans, chopped
PREPARATION
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium mixing basin.
In a separate large mixing bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer until it is creamy. Mix in the sugars gradually until fully mixed. Beat in the eggs one at a time, one at a time. Mix in the vanilla extract.
Mix in the flour mixture on low until barely incorporated. Add the chocolate chips, oats, coconut, and pecans and mix well.
Drop 1/4 cup chunks of dough onto an ungreased baking sheet, 3 inches apart.
Bake for 15-17 minutes, flipping the baking sheets halfway through. The edges of the cookie will be faintly toasted. Place on a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!
