NY Cowgirl Choc Chip Cookies

The title of this recipe may have you wondering how it came about.  Apparently there was a woman from NY who liked visiting Texas so much, she relocated to the Hill Country on a ranch.  In turn, she wrote a wonderful cookbook, putting her own twist on the original Milk Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie.  You will find several recipes out on the net for Cowgirl cookies, but this one is unique in the fact that it has cocoa nibs.  The nibs are chopped pieces of shelled cocoa beans.  The nibs give the cookies a nutty deep chocolate flavor that goes well with the other chocolate chips in the batter.  This recipes yields 3 dozen cookies.

NY Cowgirl Cookies
adapted from delicious discourse blog and the actual cookbook
Ingredients
1/2 tsp ground or grated nutmeg
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 sticks or 1 cup butter (room temp)
2 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar (packed)
2 cups flour
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups semi sweet choc chips
1 1/2 cups milk choc chips
1/2 cup cocoa nibs

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.  Add the oats by stirring with a wooden spoon. Set aside.

In another larger bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars together until fluffy and no butter lumps remain.  Add one egg and beat until combined.  Repeat with additional egg.   Then mix in the vanilla extract.

Take a wooden spoon and fold in 1/2 of the dry ingredients to sugar mixture.Add the remaining flour mixture until dough no longer has any dry areas.  Then add in (either by hand or by spoon) all the chocolate chips and cocoa nibs until evenly distributed.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.  The refrigeration time can be extended for several hours, if you want to prepare dough way in advance of baking. During the cooling time, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

After cooling time, remove dough from refrigerator and shape into 36 round balls, about the size of golf balls. Since these cookies are more puffy than most, the dough will not spread much during baking.  Place dough balls on cookie sheet accordingly.

Bake for 12-14 minutes until edges turn a golden color.  My oven took about 13 minutes to bake the cookies. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet.  Then place each cookie on a cooling rack.

These cookies are fairly sturdy, so they are good for transporting in cookie tins as gifts or in a lunchbox.