Crazy Cowboy Cookies - Vegan MoFo #4

I am a fucking vegan Martha Stewart. I think I made her cookies better than she ever could. You should know my ego is ridiculously large when it comes to my baked goods. And with good reason, there are never, ever leftovers when I take them to non-vegan functions. Folks chow my goodies and beg for more. This is not an exaggeration. And, while I shouldn't take all the credit for this recipe, I am anyway. Martha is fantastically rich, she'll live. Or, maybe, she'll send her goon squad after me. Whatever. I'll die with a tummy full of cookies.

The back story: I looked in my cupboards last night and found that I had coconut, chocolate chips and pecans, but I couldn't decide what to do with them, so I went to the trusted internetz and found Martha's Cowboy Cookies here. They sounded sinful and perfect, so this morning I set about veganizing her recipe. I shall warn you in advance, if you are counting calories, these are not the cookies for you. They use a lot of butter and sugar. And this is exactly what makes them wickedly perfect. They're nice and crispy around the edge and nice and soft/chewy in the center. Basically, they are the perfect cookie.

When I was first reading the recipe, I shuddered at the amount of butter called for. Then I got over it and made them anyway. I made a half batch that resulted in about 20 3-inch diameter cookies. My veganized version below is for the same sized batch.

What you need:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 TB vegan butter, softened but not melted
• 1/3 cup plus 1 TB sugar
• 1/3 cup plus 1 TB brown sugar
• 1 flax egg (1 TB ground flax plus 2 1/2 TB hot water mixed, then let set 3 minutes)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup old-fashion oats (also called rolled oats)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I only use Ghirardelli semi-sweet chips. They're accidentally vegan.)
• 1/3 cup plus 1 TB chopped pecans. I forgot to toast them first, but they were lovely anyway.
• 1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut

What you do with it:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment (if using parchment, give it a quick spritz of cooking spray.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars till it looks smooth and such. Then add in the vanilla and flax egg and beat until perfectly combined.
4. Using a hand mixer, blend in the flour in several batches. I used mine on the low setting. If you over-beat the dough, the cookie texture will suck. So, only beat until you see no dry spots.
5. All at once, pour in the coconut, oats, pecan and chocolate chips. Run your hand mixer around about 3-4 times. Then stop. Remember, no overmixing.
   
   
   
6. I used a 1 1/2-inch dough scooper to plop them onto the cookie sheets. Be sure to put the dough balls 2 inches apart because they will spread. You can thank the butter for that. No, really, thank the butter! It makes them delectable.
   
   
   
7. Put the cookies on the 2 racks of your oven. After 6 minutes, switch them around so the bottom goes on top, etc. It helps them cook evenly this way. Cook another 5 minutes, or until the edges are just golden. Remove from the oven and let sit on the pan for 5 minutes. Then transfer to a cooling rack.

Mwaaahaaahaaaaaaaaaa! I dare you not to start munching them while they're still steaming hot. Enjoy. They go perfectly with an ice-cold glass of almond milk.