Recipes for Cowboy Cookies were numerous across the net. I chose to start with one from Martha Stewart, since “my” cookie recipe is a modification of one I found on her site years ago. I trust her and have never had a total failure from one of her recipes. This is the recipe I started with. Because I wanted to do something a little more tropical, I modified the recipe and am calling this one Caribbean Cowboy Cookies. Here’s my take:
2 oz. macadamia nuts
3/4 cup brown rice flour
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup masa harina
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups oats (not instant)
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chunks (3 oz.)
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup chopped Nothing But Banana, Flattened from Trader Joe’s (I used kitchen scissors for this)
1/4 cup chopped Dried Baby Sweet Pineapple from Trader Joe’s
48 Hershey’s Coconut Creme filled Kisses
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place macadamia nuts on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven for 7 to 9 minutes. They seem to toast much quicker than other nuts. Remove from oven and let cool, then either chop or put them thru a nut grinder. Sift brown rice flour, cornstarch, sorghum flour, masa harina, baking soda, salt, baking powder and xanthan gum together.
2. Using mixer, cream butter and both sugars. On low speed, add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla.
3. Gradually add in flour mixture. Add oats, chocolate, macadamias, coconut, banana and pineapple.
4. Line baking sheets with parchment (or silpats…gosh I want silpats!). Using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto sheets, about 3 inches apart.
5. Baked for 14 to 16 minutes. As soon as cookies come out of the oven, place a Coconut Creme filled Hershey’s Kiss into the top. It will become a pool of melted chocolate quickly, so move fast to put the cookies on a wire cooling rack.
This recipe made about 48 cookies for me. And they are delicious! The toasted macadamia really shine in these cookies and every few bites, there’s a hidden banana or pineapple chunk. Did I say delicious? I meant it! So delicious that I had these for breakfast. I may have them again for lunch…
The Coconut Creme filled Kisses were with the Easter candy. I snagged one last bag on clearance this week. I am guessing these cookies would be just as good with a regular Hershey’s Kiss or perhaps with nothing but the chocolate mixed in the batter. It’s a wonder the coconut kisses made it to the cookies. They are very tasty straight out of the wrapper!
This week’s Sweet Friend is Samara. I chose something with a tropical theme because Samara and I share a love for all things tropical, especially tacky and tropical. Like me, Samara is not afraid to wear a sweater covered with sequined pink flamingos. Or to hang a pink flamingo Christmas stocking on her work station. We’re beach lovers stuck in the Midwest.
Samara does hair for a living, which is how I met her but she wasn’t my hairstylist. She had a station at the salon where I got my hair done for years. I would chat more with Samara than with my own hairstylist, but it would have been awkward to leap out of one stylist’s chair and into Samara’s. I did eventually make that leap, but only after Samara moved to a different salon. Awkwardness averted.
Samara and I chatter about sparkly-in-a-good-way clothes, over-the-top jewelry and the unfortunate Ed Hardy clad folks that cross our paths. She is fearless in her style and apologizes to no one for her big hair, flashy jewelry and love of food and drink. She wants to have a Food TV show–and she should! When she gets that show, I hope I get to do a gluten-free baking segment every once in awhile…at least every six weeks is what I wish for so I could appear on her show and also coerce her into a haircut while I’m there.
One time Samara and I were chatting about our favorite places to eat and somehow the topic of fried pickles came up. We both blurted out our favorite fried pickle place in the whole world–and it was in a tiny little Gulf coast town in Florida. Turns out her parents and my sister lived near each other. Small world indeed. There is always something comforting in talking to Samara when I miss my sister and the Gulf coast, some sort of understanding because she, too, misses the sun, the sand, the water and family time at the beach. But mostly the pickles.
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