Dads and their cookies

As I said in my Father's Day ideas post, I wouldn't be making any fun cupcake recipes for my dad. 

I learned this year that cookies are the desserts for dads. It does make sense: eating a fluffy, frosted and sprinkled cupcake looks and sounds a little girly. Stuffing a half dozen cookies in your mouth is maybe more acceptable for a man, (although this girl does it often, with grace). 

Since Tom Chalkey is afraid of change and very much stuck in his ways (I can't wait to see how he handles moving to the suburbs), all he wanted was chocolate chip cookies.

"No M&Ms or pretzel crap. Just plain ol' chocolate chip cookies. Can ya do that for your dad?"

How boring. Delicious, always, but why not try something new.

This year I've been blessed with the gift of baking for a second father, Kyle's dad, John. He also wanted cookies, but luckily I got to mix it up a bit. John has been asking me to make him cowboy cookies since the first time I brought cupcakes to their house.

Every time I show up with a newly inspired cupcake to test on the Barichello's, John greets me with, "When you gonna make me some cowboy cookies, man?" For Father's Day, he deserved to get his cowboy cookies.

I had never made them and I'm not sure I'd even tried one before. Cowboy cookies are thick and chewy. They typically are made with oats, chocolate chips, coconut flakes and pecans. They can be made with several variations, such as peanut butter, walnuts, white chocolate, cranberries, etc. John wanted me to make them how his mother used to make them when he was a kid. Of course, he couldn't tell me how she made them, but he remembered that they were called cowboy cookies.

So I made a recipe I found online, which is about the same as a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. You can add 2c. of oats, 1/2c. shredded coconut, and 1/2c. chopped pecans.

Fresh out of the oven, soooo good!

I could have eaten the dough by itself without ever getting around to baking them. These cookies are so delicious. You get the awesomeness of a chocolate chip cookie, with a crunch of oats and pecans and the sweetness of the coconut. Those of you who don't like coconut (unfortunately there are a lot of you), you should probably just suck it up for this cookie. The coconut isn't overpowering and complements the other ingredients well.

Sharon said these were gone the next day. John must have liked them!

I didn't get to see John's reaction or hear yet if they matched his mother's, but I hoped they at least reminded him of them a little bit. I'm happy to have a new recipe, and awesome dads who like cookies.