Today is our second recipe in the Summer Dessert Recipe Series.

This recipe is a family and friends’ favorite.  Mimi’s famous cowboy cookies are known far and wide in our county and beyond.

We have no idea why they are called cowboy cookies, there are no actual cowboys in them. And as far as we know, Mimi did not get this recipe from a cowboy.

To make Mimi’s famous cowboy cookies you will need:

1 cup Crisco

1 cup of regular sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of Baking Soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking powder

2 cups of oats

1 tablespoon real vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup chocolate chips

Use an electric mixer, this would be almost impossible by hand. And if you managed to mix it all, you would have a very tired arm by the end.

Cream the Crisco,  the regular sugar, and the brown sugar. It takes a few minutes to cream so have patience.

Add the eggs and again mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.

Add the dry mix to the creamed mix.

Add the oatmeal. Be sure to mix well so that all the ingredients are blended.

Add the nuts. And mix.

You can buy pecans that are already broken up or you can chop them yourself.

It is generally cheaper to buy the whole nuts in bulk and chop your own. We have several choppers that we use. This is a fairly simple process. Just put the nuts in the chopper and go.

The kids love to chop the nuts with any one of the hand choppers. Just be sure there is adult supervision when the kids help out.

Add the chips. Mix well but do not over mix. Depending on the size and amount of chocolate chips you use this will be a firm mix.

It also makes a racket with the chips knocking around in the mixer.

Either grease a cookie tray or place parchment paper on it.

We use several trays at a time so we can swap out. This saves time not having to wait on one tray to cool before we can re-load it.

As usual, you can make these cookies in any size and shape you want. Use cookie cutters to make cute shapes.

We like the standard “flattened by hand” or hand-rolled style.

Just roll a ball of dough in your hand until you have a round ball. Then either leave in a ball or squash flat. The kids are great for this part.

Place the cookies on the tray. Be sure to keep the cookies from touching. And leave some room for the cookies to rise and spread out.

Place the trays in the oven.

Cook at 325 for approx 15 minutes.

When they are done, remove the cookies from the oven.

This is one of those recipes that you can change by cooking longer or shorter time. If you want very crispy cookies cook a few minutes longer. If it is chewy cookies you are after, cook a few minutes less.

This is very important. Let the cookies cool for 2 minutes on the cookie trays. If you try to take the cookies off the tray immediately, they will be too soft and fall apart.

The cookies will harden a bit while they cool.

If you leave the cookies on the tray too long, they will have cooled to the tray and be stuck to it. Then you will tear the cookies apart getting them off the tray.

No one complains about having to clean up the crumbs. But then there are no actual cookies. And the crumbs go very well sprinkled over ice cream.

It is best to lay the cookies on a cooling rack to let them finish cooling. They generally do not stick to the cooling rack.

As usual, keep the cookies in an air-tight container.

It is very simple to tweak this recipe to your own liking. If you do not like chocolate chips, omit them and you have an oatmeal cookie.

The same goes for the pecans. If you do not like pecans do not put them in. Or put in another nut of your choice.

Do not like oatmeal? That is fine, do not add it. In this case, you will need to increase the flour and other dry ingredients a bit. And then you basically have a sugar cookie with chocolate chips.

But we think the original cowboy cookie is the best and that is one recipe we usually go with.

These are chocolaty, sweet, rich cookies worthy of a grandmother’s recipe book.

Cowboy cookies go wonderfully with a cup of coffee or glass of milk.

Remember these are very sweet and rich cookies.  So use good judgment when thinking about grabbing a handful.

We hope you have enjoyed this recipe for Mimi’s famous cowboy cookies. Try out this family favorite and see for yourself how wonderful they are.

Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.