 Plate of cowboy cookies | |
| Type | Cookie |
|---|---|
| Course | Dessert |
| Region or state | United States of America |
| Main ingredients | Oatmeal, chocolate chips, pecans, coconut |
Cowboy cookies are a type of drop cookie made with oatmeal, chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut.
| Plate of cowboy cookies | |
| Type | Cookie |
|---|---|
| Course | Dessert |
| Region or state | United States of America |
| Main ingredients | Oatmeal, chocolate chips, pecans, coconut |
Cowboy cookies are a type of drop cookie made with oatmeal, chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut.
The origins of "cowboy cookies" are unknown although they have been variously attributed to Texas or the Old West. [1] The story that describes them in originating in the Old West claims that they were eaten by cowboys as a high energy snack that could be easily carried. [2] [3] The dessert is also associated with the state of Wyoming. [4] [5]
Cowboy cookies were further popularized when First Lady Laura Bush baked "Texas Governor's Mansion Cowboy Cookies" for the First Lady Bake-Off during her husband George W. Bush's campaign for the 2000 United States presidential election. [6] As part of the competition, the recipe was printed in Family Circle , the publication which held the contest. [7] They ultimately beat Tipper Gore's recipe for ginger snap cookies. [1] An article by Marian Burros in The New York Times noted that Family Circle had increased the cooking time in the recipe from the 10 to 12 minutes suggested by Laura Bush to 17 to 20 minutes, causing them to be burnt. Burros also described Gore's cookies as superior, and stated that they only lost because they lacked chocolate and were not as "flashy". [7] Bush submitted her recipe for cowboy cookies again in the 2004 bakeoff and beat Teresa Kerry's pumpkin spice cookies. [8]
Cowboy cookies typically include a variety of rich ingredients, including oatmeal, chocolate, pecans and shredded coconut. [9] [10] The dough typically includes flour, sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla. [5] [11] [12] Some variations include pieces of hard pretzels. [13] [14]
A cookie or biscuit is a baked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat, and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, or nuts.
A chocolate chip cookie is a drop cookie that features chocolate chips or chocolate morsels as its distinguishing ingredient. Chocolate chip cookies are claimed to have originated in the United States in 1938, when Ruth Graves Wakefield chopped up a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar and added the chopped chocolate to a cookie recipe; however, historical recipes for grated or chopped chocolate cookies exist prior to 1938 by various other authors.
Trail mix is a type of snack mix, typically a combination of granola, dried fruit, nuts, and sometimes candy, developed as a food to be taken along on hikes. Trail mix is a popular snack food for hikes, because it is lightweight, easy to store, and nutritious, providing a quick energy boost from the carbohydrates in the dried fruit or granola, and sustained energy from fat in nuts.
Girl Scout Cookies are cookies sold by Girl Scouts in the United States to raise funds to support Girl Scout councils and individual troops. The cookies are widely popular and are commonly sold by going door-to-door, online, through school or town fundraisers, or at "cookie booths" set up at storefronts. The program is intended to both raise money and improve the financial literacy of girls. During an average selling season, more than one million girls sell over 200 million packages of cookies and raise over $800 million. The first known sale of cookies by Girl Scouts was in 1917. Cookie sales are organized by 112 regional Girl Scout councils who select one of two national bakeries to buy cookies from.
Cheesecake is a dessert made with a soft fresh cheese, eggs, and sugar. It may have a crust or base made from crushed cookies, graham crackers, pastry, or sometimes sponge cake. Cheesecake may be baked or unbaked, and is usually refrigerated.
A macaroon is a small cake or cookie, originally made from ground almonds, egg whites, and sugar, and now often with coconut or other nuts. They may also include jam or chocolate or other flavorings.
Ruth Jones Graves Wakefield was an American chef, best known for her innovations in the baking field. Ruth pioneered the first chocolate chip cookie recipe, an invention many people incorrectly assume was a mistake. Her new dessert, supposedly conceived of as she returned from a vacation in Egypt, is the inspiration behind the massively popular Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie. Throughout her life, Ruth found occupation as a dietitian, educator, business owner, and published author, most notably of the cookbook, Ruth Wakefield’s, Toll House: Tried and True Recipes.
Pecan pie is a pie of pecan nuts mixed with a filling of eggs, butter and sugar. Variations may include white or brown sugar, cane syrup, sugar syrup, molasses, maple syrup, or honey. It is commonly served at holiday meals in the United States and is considered a specialty of Southern U.S. origin. Most pecan pie recipes include salt and vanilla as flavorings. Pecan pie may be served with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or hard sauce.
Carrot cake is cake that contains carrots mixed into the batter.
Mrs. Fields' Original Cookies Inc. is an American franchisor in the snack food industry, with Mrs. Fields and TCBY as its core brands. Through its franchisees' retail stores, it is one of the largest retailers of freshly-baked-on-premises specialty cookies and brownies in the United States and the largest retailer of soft-serve frozen yogurt in the country. In addition, it operates a gifts and branded retail business, entering into many licensing arrangements. Its franchise systems include over 300 franchised and licensed locations throughout the United States and in 22 other countries. It also offers retail grocery products and a gifting catalog under the name of Mrs. Fields Gifts. It is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado.
Jumbles are simple butter cookies made with a basic recipe of flour, sugar, eggs, and butter. They can be flavored with vanilla, anise, or caraway seed used for flavoring, or other flavoring can be used like almond. They were formerly often made in the form of rings or rolls.
Archway Cookies is an American cookie manufacturer, founded in 1936 in Battle Creek, Michigan. Since December 2008, it has been a subsidiary of Lance Inc., a snack food company, which in turn merged with Snyder's of Hanover to form Snyder's-Lance. Archway is best known for its variations of oatmeal cookies.
Dessert bars or simply bars or squares are a type of American "bar cookie" that has the texture of a firm cake or softer than usual cookie. They are prepared in a pan and then baked in the oven. They are cut into squares or rectangles. They are staples of bake sales and are often made for birthdays. They are especially popular during the holidays, but many people eat them all year. Many coffee shops and bakeries also offer the treats. Popular flavors include peanut butter bars, lemon bars, chocolate coconut bars, pineapple bars, apple bars, almond bars, toffee bars, chocolate cheesecake bars and the "famous" seven-layer bar. In addition to sugar, eggs, butter, flour and milk, common ingredients are chocolate chips, nuts, raspberry jam, coconut, cocoa powder, graham cracker, pudding, mini-marshmallows and peanut butter. More exotic bars can be made with ingredients including sour cream, rhubarb, pretzels, candies, vanilla, raisins, and pumpkin. The Nanaimo bar is a bar dessert that requires no baking and is named after the city of Nanaimo, British Columbia.
Sponge cake is a light cake made with eggs, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain. The sponge cake is thought to be one of the first non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest attested sponge cake recipe in English is found in a book by the English poet Gervase Markham, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615). Still, the cake was much more like a cracker: thin and crispy. Sponge cakes became the cake recognised today when bakers started using beaten eggs as a rising agent in the mid-18th century. The Victorian creation of baking powder by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843 allowed the addition of butter to the traditional sponge recipe, resulting in the creation of the Victoria sponge. Cakes are available in many flavours and have many recipes as well. Sponge cakes have become snack cakes via the Twinkie.
A snack is a small portion of food generally eaten between meals. A snack is often less than 200 calories, but this can vary. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home.
Pie in American cuisine has roots in English cuisine and has evolved over centuries to adapt to American cultural tastes and ingredients. The creation of flaky pie crust shortened with lard is credited to American innovation.
The First Lady Bake-Off, renamed the Presidential Cookie Poll in 2016, was a baking competition held by Family Circle from 1992 until 2016 between the spouses of leading presidential candidates. It originated after Hillary Clinton made a political gaffe which was interpreted by some as disparaging baking or housewives. The competition later became known for frequently mirroring the results of presidential elections. It was canceled after Family Circle went out of business in 2019.