Urban Cowboy Cookies
When I think about my home—Houston, Texas—I think about the mythology of the place, specifically the cowboy. On Texas Independence Day in school we wore cowboy boots and danced two step. We were taught to say the Texas Pledge in school. Texas is a different place from a lot of the U.S.A.—but there were no cowboys walking around, much to my dismay. Once a year for the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, cowboys from all over the world descend on Houston streets. Outside of this moment, it's a pretty different story.
The present reality is that Houston is among one of the most diverse cities in the U.S.A., giving it a naturally interesting food culture. You see natural clashes and combinations, long before the term fusion was coined. Indian pizza, Vietnamese crawfish, Tex Mex... My friends in school were the children of immigrants. And food was always our first point of connection.
An after class banh mi from a Vietnamese mall paired with a string of clove cigarettes. Late nights at Mai's, where a motley crew of late-night diners would be inhaling Vietnamese pork chops at 3am. Dim sum in Chinatown. Barbacoa tacos and smoky salsa during a night out. Kolaches, a breakfast pastry that is Czech in origin but only exists in Texas. All night Greek gyros and pastrami joints next to each other in Montrose. And of course, breakfast tacos.
In many ways, the Houston I grew up in still felt like the Wild West, even if there weren't any cowboys. Driving through the urban sprawl before the ubiquity of cell phones made finding a place to eat exciting.
Below is my inspired take on Laura Bush's classic "Cowboy Cookie" that adds a little middle eastern kick by substituting cinnamon with ras al hanout, which is a spice blend that contains cinnamon, cumin, coriander, allspice, black pepper, and ginger. I've also added candied ginger and added golden raisins to make this an extra special treat of a cookie.
PREPARATION
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, ras al hanout, and salt in bowl. You can add a pinch of cayenne for a kick if you like.
In a very large bowl (it must be large—this makes a lot of cookies and the dough is packed with goodies), beat butter with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth and creamy. Gradually beat in sugars, and combine thoroughly.
Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla.
Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips, oats, coconut, raisins, ginger, and pecans. This is where you can adjust the extras to your liking depending on what you like the best. Just keep the oat and coconut the same as this impacts the texture.
For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. These are cookies for cowboys, after all. They’re hefty!
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through. If you like a crispy cookie, you can leave in for longer—remember that they’ll get a bit firmer when they cool.
Remove cookies from rack to cool. You can store these for up to a week in an airtight container.
INGREDIENTS
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 ½ tablespoons ras al hanout
pinch of cayenne
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 ½ cups packed light-brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups unsweetened flake coconut
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup chopped candied ginger (not crystallized)
½ cup golden raisins
1 ½ cups chopped pecans (8 ounces)