Cowboy Cookies (Laura Bush’s Governor’s Mansion Cowboy Cookies)

“Cowboy Cookies” are cookies that perhaps have gone under different names (such as “ranger cookies”). Roy Rogers (the famous singing cowboy) sold “cowboy cookies” in 1951, well before he began his restaurant chain. Laura Bush “Governor’s Mansion Cowboy Cookies” recipe was published in the magazine Family Circle when her husband, Texas Governor George W. Bush, was running for president. This is the most famous recipe for “cowboy cookies.”
 
“Cowboy cookies” are popular in Texas, but early recipes come from California also.
 
     
Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies (Christmas-cookies.com)
Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies
Makes about 36

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter (at room temperature)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups sweetened flake coconut
2 cups chopped pecans (8 ounce)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in bowl. In 8-quart bowl, beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 1 minute. Gradually beat in sugars; beat to combine, 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla extract. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Add chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans. For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. Bake for 17 to 19 minutes, until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through. Remove cookies from rack to cool. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

NOTE: For 6 dozen smaller cookies, use 2 tablespoons dough for each. Bake at 350 F for 15 to 18 minutes.

Note: As seen on “Good Morning America.” 
   
First Lady Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies (official White House site)
Cowboy Cookies
 
3 sticks butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. cinnamon
3 cups chocolate chips
3 cups oats
2 cups coconut
2 cups pecans

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, Beat. Add dry ingredients until blended. Stir in remaining ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. 
 
Laura Bush Cowboy Cookies (parody)
COWBOY COOKIES (Parody; not authentic and meant in jest—ed.)
INGREDIENTS:
3 C. all-purpose flour
1 T. baking powder
1 T. baking soda (just scoop out from the box in the back of the fridge used to absorb odors - no one will know!)
3 tins Skoal Long Cut Mint chewing tobacco
1 T. artificial hickory smoke flavor
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 C. animal lard (at room temperature)
1 1/2 C. Sweet’N Low sweetener
1 1/2 C. caramelized Equal® sweetener
3 eggs
1 T. vanillin extract
3 C. semisweet chocolate chips
2 C. sawdust
2 T spittle (no phlegm)
PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, chewing tobacco and salt in bowl.
In 8-quart bowl, beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 1 minute. Gradually beat in artificial sweeteners; beat to combine, 2 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Beat in artifical vanilla extract.
Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Add chocolate chips and sawdust.
NOTE: The batter may be a bit dry at this point. Drink some milk and spit into the bowl until the mix is moist, but not runny.
For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto heavily greased baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart.
Bake for 17 to 29 minutes, until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through.
Remove cookies from rack to cool. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
NOTE: For 6 dozen small cookies, use 2 tablespoons dough for each. Bake at 350ºF for 15 to 18 minutes
 
11 March 1951, Chicago Daily Tribune, pg. E10 ad:
What a gift! Roy Rogers “Crackin’ Good” Gun needs no caps…nothing extra…but what a big BANG it makes! And it’s yours with every box of wonderful, new Roy Rogers Cookies.
 
Ask Mom today, right now, to get these “Choice of Cowboys” Cookies! Delicious…nothing compares with ‘em! They’re good-as-candy-tasting! Nutritious, too! They’re chock-full of vitamins and minerals. Made with Quaker Oats and enriched with HONEY, cashew nuts, RAISINS, flour, MILK and creamery BUTTER.
 
“PARDNER! HERE’S THE BEST RANCH-HOUSE COOKIE OF ALL!” (Roy Rogers—ed.)
   
3 May 1952, Syracuse (NY) Post-Standard, pg. 18:
I would like to enter my Cowboy Cookies Recipe in the Tasty Treats. My grandson wouldn’t try them when told they were Oatmeal Cookies but when told they were Cowboy Cookies that was different and he found them delicious.
 
COWBOY COOKIES
Two cups sifted flour, 1 ds. (illegible—ed.) soda; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon baking powder sifted together.
 
Mix 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed; 1 cup shortening, 2 cups rolled oats and 2 eggs; 1 package semi-sweet chocolates. (Sometimes I use raisins or nuts) and 1 tsp. vanilla.
 
Beat until fluffy and add the flour mixture. Drop by teaspoonfuls on a greased pan—and bake 15 minutes at 250 F.
MRS. MARK FOLLETTE,
Boonville.
 
22 December 1957, Chicago Daily Tribune, pg. H14:
COWBOY COOKIES—(6 dozen)
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips or semi-sweet chocolate pieces
 
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat well. Add sifted dry ingredients, oats, and butterscotch chips of chocolate, and mix thoroly. Drop from a teaspoon on ungreased cooky sheets. Bake in a 375 degree oven about 8 or 10 minutes.—Mrs. Alfred Weiss, 2600 Eastwood av., Evanston.
   
Bellaire’s Own Historical Cookbook
edited by Robert N. Gay, Jr. and Mrs. J. W. Hawks
Bellaire Women’s Civic Club
Austin, TX: Steck-Warlick Company
1969
Pg. 189:
COWBOY COOKIES
1 C. flour
1 t. soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1 C. sugar
1 C. shortening
2 eggs
2 C. rolled oats
1 t. vanilla
1 small package semi-sweet chocolate chips
 
Sift together and set aside the flour, soda, salt and baking powder. Blend together shortening and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Add flour mixture, oats, vanilla and chocolate chips. Dough is crumbly. Mix by hand. Drop by teaspoonfuls on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 F. for 15 minutes. Makes 11 dozen cookies. Keeps well. Wonderful for Scout trips.
Submitted by Mrs. Voyd Kuntz
 
7 January 1987, Washington Post, “We Just Keep Chipping Away” by Phyllis C. Richman, pg. E10:
And when I offered to send out copies of the recipes I got thousands of requests—plus a 40-year-old recipe for Cowboy Cookies from a reader in California who pointed out that they were nearly identical.
   
2 July 2000, New York Times, “It’s Ginger vs. Chocolate in the Presidential Cookie Race” by Marian Burros, pg. ST3:
And this electoral season, Tipper Gore’s Ginger Snaps, plain-Jane ginger and molasses cookies, probably won’t hold up against Laura Bush’s flashy Texas Governor’s Mansion Cowboy Cookies. The Bush cookies are expected to win because they contain that magic ingredient—chocolate.
   
29 September 2000, New York Times, pg. B2:
And then there was Family Circle magazine, which said that LAURA BUSH’S recipe for “Texas governor’s mansion cowboy cookies” had defeated TIPPER GORE’S ginger snaps in a poll of its readers.
 
The magazine said that 1,078 readers sent in ballots after the magazine printed the recipes in July and that 77.4 percent favored Mrs. Bush’s cookies, which are made with sweet coconut as well as chocolate chips.
 
(Trademark)
Word Mark COWBOY COOKIES
Goods and Services IC 030. US 046. G & S: cookies. FIRST USE: 19940600. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19940600
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
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Filing Date December 18, 1995
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Published for Opposition October 21, 1997
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Registration Date January 13, 1998
Owner (REGISTRANT) COWBOY COOKIE COMPANY, LLC., THE LTD LIAB CO CALIFORNIA 4470 Sunset Boulevard, #556 Los Angeles CALIFORNIA 90027
Attorney of Record Paul F. Kilmer
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