Gluten Free Cowboy Cookies (Dairy Free)

If you love chunky cookies with lots of goodies in them, you’re in for a treat! These gluten free cowboy cookies are filled with yummy mix-ins like coconut and chocolate chips. These cookies are also dairy free, egg free, and peanut free!

Around here, we love a good cookie! And we’re revisiting an American classic, the cowboy cookie. If you love cookies with lots of stuff mixed in (especially chocolate chips), you’ll love these ones!

I decided to add a few notes in here about the history of cowboy cookies and why I had chosen to post this recipe when I originally created it back in 2016. If you don’t want to read much and just get the recipe, just click the jump to recipe button at the top of this post 🙂

If you’re like me and always up for some cookies with a side of history, keep reading!

Food allergy notes:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free/vegan
• Peanut free

Why we love these cookies

These cookies are chewy in the middle and crisp on the edges and they are very easy to customize with your favorite ingredients. Many of the mix-ins can be swapped for other ingredients, and you can even add in more treats to the dough, like Craisins or gluten free pretzel pieces.

Cowboy cookies usually have chopped pecans in them, but since my daughter is allergic to pecans we skipped those. We tried these with and without sunflower seeds, they are good either way.

You can skip the sunflower seeds altogether if you’re not a fan of them, or you can use chopped pecans if you can have them. Make them up however you like! Or you can use rice krispies instead for a cookie that’s closer to a ranger cookie.

What are cowboy cookies?

The origins of cowboy cookies aren’t exactly known, but it’s speculated that they originated in Texas or other parts of the old west where they were carried for nourishment out on the trails like a type of nutrition bar.

The recipe may have been popularized in the 1930s-1950s when America became enamored with silver screen cowboys, like The Lone Ranger. Then during the 2000 presidential election, Laura Bush submitted her version of cowboy cookies to the Family Circle First Lady bake-off competition where it again gained popularity and won the reader vote.

You can’t go wrong with chocolate chips!

Back when I originally posted this recipe in 2016, I had partnered with Bob’s Red Mill as part of their United States of Cookies campaign where they worked with 1 blogger from each state to create a cookie that represented each state.

I was selected as the blogger from Wyoming and I decided to create an allergy friendly cowboy cookie since one of Wyoming’s nicknames is the Cowboy State. Cowboy cookies might be the “official” cookie for Texas, but I decided to adopt it for Wyoming, too, where the recipe is popular as well.

Our state has a rich history of ranching, and cowboys and cowgirls are incredibly hard working people that have helped to establish and shape our state. In fact, the silhouette of the bucking horse Steamboat and rider (cowboy Guy Holt) has become a symbol of our state and the University of Wyoming.

How to make gluten free cowboy cookies

Our revised recipe is based on our chocolate chip cookie recipe with a few tweaks and lots of mix ins! Here are the steps for making these cookies (this is just an overview, the full recipe card is toward the end of the post).

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line 1 or 2 cookie baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or a stand mixer cream together the dairy free butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla.
3. Beat in the all purpose gluten free baking mix.
4. Add the sorghum flour, dairy free milk, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Mix until a thick dough forms.
5. Add the chocolate chips, coconut, oats, and optional sunflower seeds (or chopped nuts if you’re using them) and mix until combined.
6. Roll the dough into balls and place them on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart, and press down to flatten the dough slightly.
7. Bake for 11 minutes.
8. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

These cookies tasted great with the rice milk chocolate chips from Enjoy Life! Semi-sweet chocolate chips are great, too, but the rice milk chips are a nice change of pace if you are craving milk chocolate without the dairy.

UPDATE on the King Arthur all-purpose gluten free baking mix

We have used the King Arthur all-purpose gluten free baking mix for quite a few of our recipes, King Arthur Baking Company recently reformulated their gluten free baking mix to be better for biscuits.

The change in their baking mix results in slight texture changes for our cookies specifically, but our cookie recipes still work with the newly reformulated King Arthur gluten free all-purpose baking mix.

I am testing several of our recipes with the changed flour to make sure that the recipes still work great and if any updates to our recipes will be necessary. So far no changes to the recipes are necessary with what we have been testing, but we’ll update recipe cards if we find changes that need to be made!

I recently updated the recipe and changed a few things, but here is the original recipe below (the original recipe can also be found on the Bob’s Red Mill website).

Our original recipe for gluten free Wyoming cowboy cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ⅓ cup palm oil shortening
• ¼ cup rice milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ⅓ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• ⅓ cup allergy friendly chocolate chips
• ⅓ cup gluten free old fashioned oats
• ¼ cup sunflower seeds optional, OR chopped pecans if you don’t have nut allergies

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda. Set aside
4. In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, palm oil, and vanilla with a hand blender until mixed well
5. Add the flour mixture to the brown sugar mixture along with the rice milk and beat to combine until a dough forms
6. Add the coconut, chocolate chips, oats, and sunflower seeds (if using) to the dough and mix well either with a hand mixer or a spoon by hand
7. Pinch off 1 Tablespoon dough and roll into balls, place on the parchment lined cookies sheets about 2 inches apart and lightly flatten with your hands. The dough should not be sticky but easy to roll
8. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven
9. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.