What Is A Cow Patty Cookie And Why Is It Called That?

If someone offers you a cow patty cookie, you may be left wondering exactly what it is — or you might even be a little concerned about the cookie's contents. Fortunately for dessert fans, the slightly unusually named cookies have an ultra-sweet taste that people love.

These cookies will always have two defining features. Firstly, the cookie needs to be primarily chocolate in flavor, thanks to cocoa powder or a chocolate substitute. Secondly, the cookies need to appear lumpy in texture. This can be achieved through mixing in oats, chopped nuts, crispy rice cereal, or even a scoop of your favorite brand of chocolate chips.

It's perhaps thanks to the color of the chocolate and the texture of the added ingredients that the dessert got its monikers. The cookies may be called a few different things, depending on who you ask. Cow patty seems to be one of the most common names, while others call them cow pile or preacher cookies. But where did the names come from in the first place?

One name for these cookies was given because of who they were prepared for. The New York Times shared a story where if a homemaker looked out the window and saw a preacher riding up to the homestead, she could rush to the kitchen to prepare the cookies; the easy, no-bake desserts would be ready when the preacher arrived at her home. Hence, the name "preacher cookies" stuck.

The other names — cow pile and cow patty — seem to hint that the lumpy, chocolatey cookies visually resemble something unpleasant left behind by cows out in the field. Despite the somewhat gross connotation, however, the desserts are made up entirely of delicious ingredients — and it's highly unlikely you'd ever catch a cow leaving behind one of the cookies in the field.

Still, the lumpy, uneven appearance certainly doesn't make for the prettiest treats. But what the dessert lacks in looks, it makes up for in taste.

There are two ways to prepare these cookies. The no-bake method still requires a little bit of heat from the stovetop. This is the method seen most often in recipes for cow patty cookies. Alternatively, you can bake the treats in the oven for a little extra structure. Both methods will yield slightly different textures.

You'll want to make sure you have quick-cooking or instant oats on hand for the stovetop method — you'll add these to boiling milk during the process. Once all the ingredients are mixed, the cookies can then be shaped on a baking tray and chilled in the fridge to set for at least an hour. Even after setting, they may be crumbly and soft.

If you instead bake the cookies in the oven, you'll need to alter the recipe slightly. Mix your nuts, oats, or chocolate chips into a more standard chocolate cookie base. After these cookies bake in the oven, they'll be sturdier than their no-bake counterparts, so they might not crumble as much while you're eating them. 

No matter how you choose to prepare the cookie, be sure to keep the most important elements of the dessert. So long as your cookies have a sweet chocolate flavor and a little bit of texture to them, they'll fit the criteria for cow patties — or preacher cookies.