Cowboy Cookies AKA Deacon Delights!

My husband has the honor of serving as the Deacon Chairman for our church.  This is his 2nd time to serve in this capacity.  During his first year of service, I began making homemade cookies for the monthly deacon meetings.  My boys love Cowboy Cookies, so I pulled out my recipe and hoped that the deacons would like them too!  There are several recipes out there for Cowboy Cookies, but I bet you have never seen a recipe for Deacon Delights!  Here it is...

In honor of baseball season...may I present...

The Starting Line-Up!

In case a certain physician is reading this, please note the LARGE container of oatmeal in the background which I do consume on a somewhat regular basis!

Deacon Delights

1 cup of butter

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup  of white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 cups of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 cups of rolled oats (quick cooking or regular, either is fine)

1 small package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cups chopped pecans

Start by creaming the butter with the sugars.  Add the eggs and vanilla, beating until fluffy, scraping down the sides as needed.  

Sift the flour, salt, and baking soda together.  Gradually add to the creamed mixture.  By the way, do you know how hard it is to take a picture with one hand while using your other hand to drop in ingredients?

 

Slowly add oatmeal...

And now the chocolate chips ( you may want to sample a few to make sure they taste okay)...

And finally the nuts.  For an extra treat, roast the nuts before adding them to the mixture!

Find your weapon of choice for attacking the bowl full of yumminess!  Today I selected a small cookie scoop that makes a 2 and 1/2 inch round cookie.  Use a cookie scoop or spoon and drop onto cookie sheets lined with either parchment paper or a Silpat sheet (my favorite!).

Two trays ready for the oven!

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.  For this size cookie, I always set my timer for 10 minutes and they come out perfectly. Don't look too closely at my oven.  It has seen a lot of service over the last week and deserves a nice cleaning.

While the cookies are baking, get your cooling trays ready for the cookies.  These are my favorite wire trays.  They stack one on top of each other and are great space savers when you are making lots of cookies.  Wilton bakeware packages these in a set of three.  I purchased several sets at Michael's Craft Store. 

Ding, ding, ding!  Time to get the first batch out of the oven! Transfer cookies to wire trays to cool.

 Keep attacking the cookie dough until you end of with a mountain or two of goodies. 

Stand guard with your spatula! Cookie Monsters are always about!

This recipe made 86 cookies that were 2 and 1/2 inches in diameter. I have attached a link to Silpat Sheets on Amazon.  Left click on the link and away you go to Amazon!  Silpat Baking Sheets    Silpat sheets allow for even baking and your cookies will never stick to the sheet.  Promise!

When the boys were little, the first batch out of the oven was for them.  Now that the boys are older, the first batch out of the oven is for them!  Some things never change!

Here is my first born, wearing his great-grandmother Mercer's apron, and eating a Cowboy Cookie!  This picture was taken in December of 1988.  He was quite the baker!.  Notice the chocolate around his mouth and the spatula in his hand.  Always cook with your children.  It is a wonderful way to spend quality time together and make lasting memories!

Happy baking!