No Bake Cookies

This is a recipe that I could practically execute in my sleep because I have made them so many times. My father, stepfather, stepbrothers, and now my son all love these cookies and they are a staple at family gatherings. While the “no bake” feature of this recipe is ideal for summer, the real reason that I chose to share this recipe now is because my father and stepfather's birthdays fall within a few days of each other this week and I would like to dedicate this post to them.

Speaking of birthdays and my stepbrothers, as children we were allowed to choose what kind of cake we wanted on our birthdays. Sometimes they would choose a No Bake Cookie “cake” wherein my mother, instead of making small cookies, would make one giant cookie by spreading it onto a rimmed pizza pan to set up and then she would write “Happy Birthday” in frosting. Another option (shown below) is to put cupcake liners in a muffin tin and let the cookies set up that way.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup peanut butter

3 cups oats

2 cups sugar

¼ cup cocoa

pinch of salt*

½ cup milk

½ cup butter, cut into pieces

* A pinch of salt to me is a heaping 1/8 teaspoon. Your pinch could be more or less, but keep in mind that salt is generally not added to make something taste salty, rather the purpose of salt is to bring out and enhance the flavor of whatever dish to which it is added. Salt is a naturally occurring flavor booster and that's why it is in practically everything. I will not buy conventional bleached table salt; instead, I invest in good quality sea salt.

I have often heard people say that they have had difficulty in getting No Bake Cookies to set up correctly. If you follow this recipe, you should not have that problem. The real secret is measuring everything out and having everything ready before you begin because this recipe is time sensitive. Also keep in mind that once you start this recipe, you cannot stop for anything so turn off the ringer on your phone, put the baby down for a nap, and do NOT answer the door for anyone** until you have all of the cookies spooned out and setting up.

First, tear off a 6 foot long sheet of parchment or wax paper, fold it in half, and lay it on your counter or other work surface where the cookies will set up at the end. Measure out the vanilla, peanut butter, and oats individually; set each aside to be added at the end of the recipe.

Put a medium saucepan on the burner of your stove but do not turn it on yet. Measure the sugar, cocoa, and salt directly into the pan and stir together. Add the milk, stir, turn the burner on to medium low, then add the butter and continue stirring. Once the butter melts, keep stirring for several minutes until you reach a rolling boil. You will have reached a rolling boil when bubbles cover the surface, all the way to the edge of the pan and stirring does not subdue the bubbles. Set a timer for 1 minute and stir vigorously to keep the ingredients in contact with the bottom of the pan from scorching. As soon as the minute is up, remove the pan from the burner and turn off the stove. Add the vanilla, stir, then add the peanut butter and stir until completely melted and blended into the chocolate mixture. Quickly stir in the oats. Place a trivet or pot holder near the parchment/wax paper and set the pan on top of it. Working quickly, drop large spoonfuls of cookie onto the paper and smooth it out a bit to form a circle. (Alternatively, as discussed above, you could either spread the mixture into a larger, rimmed baking sheet of any shape or drop spoonfuls into lined muffin tins.) Now you simply wait for the cookies to firm up and then you can peel them off of the paper and eat them or store them for later (who does that?). The set up time will depend on the humidity of your kitchen but generally they will be ready in approximately 30 minutes to an hour.

**Personal story for optional reading. As background, my husband worked from home the day before I made these cookies. A door-to-door saleswoman/foreign exchange student from Estonia stopped by selling educational materials for children...or something like that. Apparently she was a bit hazy on the details of her product but she went into great detail about our neighbors that she had already spoken with. Had I been home and answered the door, she would have been off my porch in under a minute because I have no problem saying no to salespeople. My writer husband, on the other hand, will tell you that he is always hoping to glean a story from encounters such as this but the truth is, he can't say no to salespeople. Instead, he told her that he would have to speak with me first and she was welcome to come back the next day. I was personally hoping that she would write our house off but of course this was wishful thinking and she showed up to ring our doorbell just as my cookies came to a rolling boil. Although I would have gladly answered the door to politely decline...whatever she was selling, under normal circumstances, I was not going to ruin my cookies by stepping away from the stove at such a critical juncture of the process. So, my dear husband had to open the door and turn her down without me – for real this time.