The Best Cowboy Cookies Recipe, No Coconut
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This easy cowboy cookie recipe is made without coconut and packed full of nutrition. The delicious cookie combines sweet, dried apricots, tangy cranberries, crunchy pecans, sunflower seeds, and oats to create the perfect balance of chewy but firm cookie. Other delicious dessert recipes are jumbo old fashioned chocolate chip cookies; fluffy, tangy, cream cheese sugar cookies; and the best chocolate cupcakes with freshly milled flour.
There are tons of different cowboy cookie recipes, but this one has more flavor and nutrition thanks to a few extra ingredients!
While some members of my family love shredded coconut, others do not. That’s why I make cowboy cookies without coconut.
If you have tried other cowboy cookie recipes but didn’t like them, I want to encourage you to try this one. It’s full of delicious flavor and nutrition!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Increased nutrition – Organic sugar is darker colored than white sugar because it’s not as highly processed and retains more vitamins and minerals. Also, nuts and seeds to this cookie recipe adds a nutrition boost. And if you use an electric grain mill to mill fresh flour, it has all the natural bran and germ that it’s supposed to have. That means it has more vitamins and minerals than flour bought months ago from the grocery store. Store-bought flour is often highly processed, sometimes bleached, and lower in nutrition because it oxidizes the longer it sits on store and pantry shelves.
Deeper flavor – Freshly milled flour has more flavor because it’s ground fresh and keeps all the oils. Depending on which grain you use, you can also add nuanced notes of sweet nuttiness and even get hints of extra butter! But don’t worry if you don’t mill your own flour. All purpose flour works, too.
Customizable – This recipe is very forgiving. When it comes to the dried fruits, nuts, and seeds, simply use what you have and what you enjoy snacking on.
Easier digestion – Flour milled at home keeps all the bran and germ intact, along with all the nutrients and enzymes that aid in digestion. Plus flax seeds and chia seeds are nutritional powerhouses that are full of fiber.
Ingredients
Fresh milled flour – Use your favorite wheat berry. I’ve made these cookies with freshly milled einkorn, soft white wheat, and hard white wheat. The wheat berry you choose will add a slightly different flavor and possibly texture, but all are delicious. Just a note, if you use only soft wheat or ancient grains, which have lower amounts of gluten, your cookies will be flatter and spread more when baking. If that bothers you or it’s not the look you love, just use hard wheat instead.
Oats – Use your favorite oats in the recipe. They pretty much all work the same and all are delicious. I’ve used quick oats, rolled oats, steel cut oats, and old fashioned oats in this recipe with great results. Use organic oats if you have them.
Butter – Real butter gives these cookies a delicious flavor. I haven’t found any substitutions that work or taste quite the same.
Dried fruit – The dried fruit that you choose is flexible. I like adding chopped, dried apricots and apple juice sweetened dried cranberries. I’ve also used dried sweet cherries and raisins with great results. One time I added them all and it was very delightful!
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Tools You May Need
- Electric grain mill
- Electric stand mixer
- Cutting board
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Cookie sheet
- Parchment paper (optional)
How to Make Cowboy Cookies Recipe, No Coconut
This recipe is enough to make about 20 cookies, depending on the size of the scoop you use.
First, preheat your oven to 375°F. Then cream together the butter, lightly packed brown sugar, and white sugar together in the bowl of your electric mixer.
A 4.5 quart electric mixer will work, but you’ll have to finish up by stirring in the nuts and dried fruits by hand using a strong wooden spoon. If you have a larger capacity mixer, the motor can handle the tough dough better, and the bowl will be large enough to mix in the dried fruits and nuts for you.
Once the butter and sugars are mixed together well, add in the eggs one at a time. Then add good vanilla extract and scrape down the bowl to be sure the dough is well mixed.
Add the flour one heaping cupful at a time. Don’t be stingy on the flour. It’s exactly two heaping cups of all purpose flour. Then add a heaping cup full of oats to the mixture along with the baking soda and salt. Thoroughly mix it together.
When using freshly milled flour, you’ll need to add even more flour. Freshly milled flour is more light and airy. If the dough is still kind-of wet, add flour 1/2 cup at a time until it becomes stiff and not as sticky. I don’t use a digital scale for these cookies. Just eyeball it.
Once your dough comes together, add your dried fruits and nuts. The dough will be very stiff. A strong wooden spoon goes a long way if your electric mixer can’t handle the job.
Scoop out the cookie dough and spread it far apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. The parchment paper is optional, but makes cleanup a breeze!
Bake at 375°F for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and the centers are thoroughly cooked.
Cowboy Cookies Recipe, No Coconut; Recipe Variations
Flour
If you don’t have an electric grain mill, don’t worry! Just use all purpose flour instead. If your family doesn’t handle wheat very well, you can substitute with oat flour, almond flour, or coconut flour in this recipe.
Dried Fruits
You can add any dried fruits that you enjoy. Add between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup of each dried fruit. Apricots, cranberries, cherries, and raisins are all good options. You can also add dates, goji berries, figs, or prunes! I use at least two different dried fruits each time I make these cowboy cookies.
Tips
- If you’re using a 4.5 quart electric mixer, you’ll need to stir in the nuts and dried fruits by hand using a strong wooden spoon. The cookie dough is too tough and too voluminous for most 4.5 quart mixers. However, if you have a larger capacity mixer, the motor can handle the tough dough better, and the bowl will be large enough to mix in the dried fruits and nuts for you.
- Let the cookies cool down for about 3 minutes to harden after baking before you handle them. Otherwise, they’ll fall apart.
- I love unbleached parchment paper for baking cookies. Once the cookies have cooled about 3 minutes after baking, I slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheet and onto my counter top. Then I add a new piece of parchment paper to the cookie sheet and add more cookie dough, and repeat!
Recipe FAQs
If your cookies are turning out to be thin and flat, your butter might have been too warm or you might not have added enough flour. If the dough is too wet, simply add more flour 1/2 cup at a time to your mixing bowl. Also, you can refrigerate your dough for about 10 minutes to firm up the butter.
Store cookies in an airtight container once they cool completely. I like to keep these in the refrigerator since they are still so moist after baking. But they’ll be fine at room temperature for a couple days.
More Dessert Recipes from the Farm
- Simple Strawberry Cobbler Recipe with Freshly Milled Flour
- Best Recipe for Chocolate Lava Cake
- Easy Blueberry Peach Crisp in a Skillet
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars! Also, tag me on Instagram @rivers.family.farm.
Delicious Cowboy Cookies Without Coconut
Equipment
- electric mixer (or large bowl and spoon)
- cutting board
- measuring cups and spoons
- cookie sheet
- parchment paper
Ingredients
- 12 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups flour (2 heaping cups)
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 cup oats (1 heaping cup)
- ¼ cup chia seeds
- ¼ cup flax seeds
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds
- ½ cup dried apricots, chopped (or cherries)
- ½ cup craisins (or raisins)
- ½ cup pecans, chopped (or walnuts)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375℉. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Then add good vanilla extract and eggs one at a time until well combined.
- Slowly add the flower, baking soda, salt, and oats. Then add chia seeds, flax seeds, and sunflower seeds. Mix together well.
- Using a strong wooden spoon, add dried fruits and nuts. The mixture will be very stiff.
- Use a large spoon to scoop batter onto cookie sheet. Bake at 375℉ for 10 to 12 minutes until the edges are lightly browned and the centers are cooked through.
- Let cookies rest on cookie sheet about 3 minutes to harden after baking. Once cooled, store in an airtight container and refrigerate.
