Cowboy Cookies for an America 250 Afternoon

With America 250 on the horizon, we have been thinking about the kind of simple, classic American baking that feels right for the celebration, and few things fit the bill like a good Cowboy Cookie. Some afternoons call for nothing more than a warm cookie and a little time in the sun, and this was one of them. We had a clear June sky, a strong overhead sun, and a craving for something sweet, so we fired up My Solar Oven and baked a small batch of our Cowboy Cookies.

The full recipe makes 24 cookies, which is wonderful for a crowd but more than most My Solar Ovens can hold at once. We usually recommend halving it down to 12 cookies, or quartering it down to 6, depending on how much you want to bake. This time we were not feeding a crowd at all. We just wanted a little afternoon treat, so we cut the recipe all the way down to a sixth and made 4 cookies. It turns out My Solar Oven is just as happy with a tiny batch as a full one.

The cookie dough prepped and ready to go!

The Cook

We slid the dough in at 2:25 in the afternoon. The ambient temperature was 83 degrees with a UV index of 9, mostly sunny with a few light clouds drifting through. The oven had settled in around 320 degrees, a touch below the 350 the recipe aimed for, so we planned to give the cookies a little extra time on the timer.

By the time they were ready the clouds had cleared and we were in full, uninterrupted sun. The internal oven temperature held right around 325 degrees. We pulled the cookies at 2:50, about 25 minutes after they went in. My Solar Oven bakes with a gentle, steady heat, which gives cookies a little more room to come out perfectly without rushing. We just watched for golden edges and a center that was still soft.

The Result

The result was exactly what we hoped for: cookies that came out plump and delicious, golden and set at the edges with soft, gooey centers. We finished them with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt while they were still warm, which is hands down our favorite part. Four cookies, baked entirely by the sun, ready just in time for an afternoon coffee.

If you want to bake these yourself, the full recipe with ingredient amounts and step by step instructions is here: Solar Recipe: Cowboy Cookies. You can pick your batch size right on that page and the amounts will update automatically, whether you want a full two dozen or a small batch like ours.

The finished product! Sprinkled with flaky sea salt.