Directions
Step 1: Prep the ingredients
First things first, I got the butter out of the fridge so it had enough time to soften. This is a very important step, so don’t skip it! Here’s how to soften butter quickly.
While the butter softened, I prepped all of my ingredients. This is called mise en place, and I highly recommend doing it. It’s more work upfront, but then it’s smooth sailing. I mixed the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Instead of using measuring cups, I measured by weight. This gives a more accurate measure of the ingredients. Here’s a handy conversion chart that I printed out and stuck on my fridge.
Step 2: Cream the butter and sugar
Once the butter was softened, I beat it for one minute. Then, I added the sugars, and beat for another two minutes. Next, I added the eggs, beating after each one, and then the vanilla.
Step 3: Add the dry ingredients and mix-ins
Once the wet ingredients were mixed, I gradually added the flour mixture. Finally, I mixed in the goodies—chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans.
Step 4: Bake
At this point, the upcoming task was a little daunting. There was a mound of dough in the bowl and each batch bakes for 17-20 minutes at 350ºF. That’s a lot longer than the standard 10-12 minutes! Plus, these are oversized cookies (1/4 cup of dough per cookie), so I could only bake 4 cookies on a pan.
How Did These Cookies Turn Out?
Thank you, Mrs. Bush! I give these cookies a 10/10. I thought 10 cups was a lot of mix-ins, but it turned out to be the perfect amount. The cookies were humongous (because everything’s bigger in Texas, right?), and each bite had a little bit of everything. The crisp edges melted in your mouth, and the coconut and chocolate flavors paired well with the crunch of the pecans.
As one of my co-workers who’s a self-proclaimed cookie critic said, “I have high standards for cookies, and I loved these!” The votes are in: Our staff loved Laura Bush’s Texas Governor’s Mansion Cowboy Cookies!
Turns out the love of food and cooking runs in the Bush family. Check out Barbara Bush’s favorite foods.
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