This is a marvelous cookie! Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies are loaded with pecans, coconut, chocolate chips, oatmeal, and flavored with cinnamon. We have made this tasty cookie several times for our Christmas baking extravaganza when we bake 2,500 to 5,000 cookies (usually over a 3-day period) for friends, family, co-workers, church members, seminary staff, neighbors, and doctors and others we want to bless with a batch of Christmas cookies. And, yes, we are usually exhausted when it is all over!

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This recipe was given to me by a co-worker, Bettie Raye, when we worked together in the Financial Aid office at Dallas Baptist University. Mrs. Bush submitted these cookies to Family Circle magazine back in 2000 during the presidential campaign for a presidential bake-off with Tipper Gore.

The Fort Worth Star-Tribune carried this recipe in 2001. The Washington Post carried this recipe in 2005. We love these cookies. I think they are supposed to be baked in really large sizes so I used a large cookie scoop for mine.

Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies is a great recipe to include for your holiday baking, but it is also one that can be made all year round since the ingredients are always available. You may want to try this delicious cookie recipe soon! I am grateful for the former first lady sharing this marvelous cookie recipe.

Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies is a featured recipe at Recipe Lion. You can find the recipe here.

When I initially posted this recipe in November 2012, I was still using an iPhone 3 for a camera since it was the first year of my food blog. After the first year I began using a Canon so the pictures became decidedly better.

As a result, I’ve been going back through all those first year recipes and remaking them so I can retake the pictures. I made these cookies (June 2015) for a youth swim party at our house last month. They were eaten like hot cakes!

Here’s a look at Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies. This is one terrific cookie!

These amazing cookies are filled with chocolate chips, pecans, oatmeal and coconut.

The taste and texture of Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies is wonderful.

Here’s what I did.

I used these ingredients.

Put softened butter in a mixing bowl. Add sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer.

Add UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour. Bleached flour toughens baked goods. Add oatmeal, chocolate chips, coconut and chopped pecans.

Stir all ingredients together.

Scoop dough with a cookie scoop. 

Set balls on cookie sheets that have been sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake in 350 oven 17-20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies are always a crowd pleaser!

Here’s a heap of these fantastic cookies.

Here’s the recipe.

LAURA BUSH’S COWBOY COOKIES

(Recipe adapted from Bettie Raye, a co-worker when we worked at Dallas Baptist University. Source: Family Circle.)

Laura Bush's Cowboy Cookies

Teresa Ambra

Laura Bush's lovely oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips, coconut and pecans. This terrific recipe is wonderful for potlucks, tailgating parties, backyard barbecues or even holiday baking. Every bite will have you drooling.

3.90 from 39 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 40 minutes mins

Course Cookies, Brownies and Bars, Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 36

Calories 357 kcal

Equipment

• 2 large sheet pans
• 1 electric mixer
• 1 large mixing bowl
• 1 wooden spoon
• measuring cups
• measuring spoons
• 1 nut chopper if nuts are not previously chopped
• 1 spatula

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 3 cups UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour bleached flour toughens baked goods
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tbsp. baking soda
• 1 tbsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar packed
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips 1 ½ bags
• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats preferred over quick oats
• 2 cups sweetened flake coconut
• 2 cups chopped pecans 8-oz.

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Mix sugars, butter, eggs, vanilla, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon with an electric mixer until well combined.
• Stir in flour, chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans with a wooden spoon until very thoroughly mixed; this may take 4-5 minutes.
• For each cookie, drop ¼ cup of dough onto cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray, spacing 3 inches apart.
• Bake 17-20 minutes, until edges are lightly browned.
• Rotate cookie sheets on oven racks every six minutes of baking time.
• Remove to rack to cool.

Notes

NOTE: You will need a very large bowl to mix the ingredients.

 

NOTE: You can also use a large cookie scoop portion out the cookie dough.

 

NOTE: If you don't prefer a strong cinnamon taste, cut the amount from one tablespoon to one teaspoon.

 

NOTE: If you make the cookies smaller, they may tend to become too hard after baking. They need to be made large so they don't toughen.

 

NOTE: If your oven runs hot, you may want to dial back the temperature so these cookies raise properly while baking. Otherwise, they will cook too quickly before the cookies have had a chance to rise, resulting in tougher cookies.

 

Recipe adapted from Family Circle Presidential Bake-Off Recipes.

 

^© Can’t Stay Out of the Kitchen

Nutrition

Calories: 357kcalCarbohydrates: 41gProtein: 4gFat: 20gSaturated Fat: 10gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 37mgSodium: 234mgPotassium: 185mgFiber: 3gSugar: 25gVitamin A: 270IUVitamin C: 0.1mgCalcium: 60mgIron: 2mg

Keyword chocolate, chocolate chip cookie, chocolate chips, chocolate dessert, coconut, cookie, dessert

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Chocolate chips, oatmeal, coconut and pecans work so well together in this cookie.

Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies are scrumptious treats that are great for holiday baking, office parties, or anytime you want a tasty dessert.

These cookies have great crunch with the oatmeal, pecans and coconut, and then add the taste of softened chocolate chips and you have one marvelous cookie. 

You may also enjoy these delicious recipes!

Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Cookies

Oatmeal Peach Cookies

Blueberry Vanilla Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies

Teresa Ambra

Laura Bush’s lovely oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips, coconut and pecans. This terrific recipe is wonderful for potlucks, tailgating parties, backyard barbecues or even holiday baking. Every bite will have you drooling.

3.90 from 39 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 40 minutes mins

Course Cookies, Brownies and Bars, Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 36

Calories 357 kcal

Equipment

• 2 large sheet pans
• 1 electric mixer
• 1 large mixing bowl
• 1 wooden spoon
• measuring cups
• measuring spoons
• 1 nut chopper if nuts are not previously chopped
• 1 spatula

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 3 cups UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour bleached flour toughens baked goods
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tbsp. baking soda
• 1 tbsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar packed
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips 1 ½ bags
• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats preferred over quick oats
• 2 cups sweetened flake coconut
• 2 cups chopped pecans 8-oz.

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Mix sugars, butter, eggs, vanilla, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon with an electric mixer until well combined.
• Stir in flour, chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans with a wooden spoon until very thoroughly mixed; this may take 4-5 minutes.
• For each cookie, drop ¼ cup of dough onto cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray, spacing 3 inches apart.
• Bake 17-20 minutes, until edges are lightly browned.
• Rotate cookie sheets on oven racks every six minutes of baking time.
• Remove to rack to cool.

Notes

NOTE: You will need a very large bowl to mix the ingredients.

 

NOTE: You can also use a large cookie scoop portion out the cookie dough.

 

NOTE: If you don’t prefer a strong cinnamon taste, cut the amount from one tablespoon to one teaspoon.

 

NOTE: If you make the cookies smaller, they may tend to become too hard after baking. They need to be made large so they don’t toughen.

 

NOTE: If your oven runs hot, you may want to dial back the temperature so these cookies raise properly while baking. Otherwise, they will cook too quickly before the cookies have had a chance to rise, resulting in tougher cookies.

 

Recipe adapted from Family Circle Presidential Bake-Off Recipes.

 

^© Can’t Stay Out of the Kitchen

Nutrition

Calories: 357kcalCarbohydrates: 41gProtein: 4gFat: 20gSaturated Fat: 10gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 37mgSodium: 234mgPotassium: 185mgFiber: 3gSugar: 25gVitamin A: 270IUVitamin C: 0.1mgCalcium: 60mgIron: 2mg

Keyword chocolate, chocolate chip cookie, chocolate chips, chocolate dessert, coconut, cookie, dessert

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!