Cowboy Cookies — Baking Through the Shift Into Fall

The week after Tyler's birthday and September has announced itself properly: the mornings are cooler and the evenings close in just a little earlier and I can feel the shift the way you feel it in your body before the calendar confirms it.

Gloria has been asking about Tyler more regularly since he became a fixture at Sunday dinners. Not personal intrusive questions, more like she is building a picture of him, the same way she builds pictures of everything: slowly, methodically, through observation and the occasional precise question. She asked last week what his mother is like. I described Debbie. Gloria said: she sounds like someone who feeds people to say things she cannot say any other way. I said yes, exactly. Gloria said: then you have found someone whose family speaks the same language as yours. That sentence landed somewhere important and stayed.

I made a pecan-crusted trout this week, something new. Fresh trout fillets, coated in finely crushed pecans mixed with a little flour and salt and cayenne, pan-fried in butter until the crust is golden and the fish just cooked through. A squeeze of lemon at the end. Simple, elegant in the way that things are elegant when they do not try too hard. I served it with the last of the summer tomatoes and a corn pudding I have been wanting to make for weeks.

Corn pudding, by the way, is one of those dishes that sounds humble and contains multitudes. Creamed corn, eggs, butter, sour cream, a box of Jiffy mix for structure, and baked until it sets into something between corn bread and custard. Debbie makes it for every holiday. I made it from her recipe and it tasted exactly like her kitchen, which means I am getting somewhere.

After making Debbie’s corn pudding and getting it right—really right—I felt that particular satisfaction that comes from earning your place in someone else’s kitchen. So I kept the momentum going and baked a batch of Cowboy Cookies to bring to Sunday dinner, the kind of big, generous, pecan-studded cookie that says the same thing a good meal does: I am glad you are here, and I made this with you in mind.

Cowboy Cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 12 minutes | Total Time: 32 minutes | Servings: 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven. Set your oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugars. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with the granulated and brown sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then mix in the vanilla.
4. Combine wet and dry. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir on low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.
5. Fold in the add-ins. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the oats, chocolate chips, coconut, and pecans until evenly distributed.
6. Scoop and bake. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are golden but the centers still look slightly underdone.
7. Cool. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. They will firm up as they cool.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 195 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 25g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 95mg