Cookies or Candy? Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Recipe

Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Oatmeal

This cookie recipe below is great for summer, since it is best served room temperature or even chilled.  It also travels well because it does not break easily.  So it makes a great gift when placed in a cute tin or box.

It is another one of my mom’s revamps of a school cafeteria recipe into a smaller batch (make 3-4 dozen depending on size of drops from tablespoon).  Mom was the “cook in charge of baked goods,” now they would call her a pastry chef.  Anyway, this recipe is also called “unbaked” or “no-bake” or “drop” oatmeal cookies.  The name implies no cooking.  However they are made in a stop-top pan instead of in the oven.  The cookies are almost like candy and can be made into a small bon-bon for parties by using a teaspoon instead of tablespoon to drop the batter onto waxed paper.

This cookie became the signature dessert of one of my cousins after we became adults.  She tried a batch of Mom’s once when she was visiting me and fell instantly in love with them.  We were in high school, so my Mom thought it was cute that she asked for the recipe - never thinking she might actually make them! For years, my cousin brought either this recipe or her homemade chocolate chip cookies to almost every family gathering.

No-bake Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1 stick margarine
2 cups sugar
3 Tablespoons cocoa
½ cup milk
3 cups Quaker Oats
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup peanut butter
Optional: ½ cup coconut

Directions:

1.    Mix margarine, sugar, cocoa, and milk in pan on top of stove burner.
2.    Bring slowly to boil, stirring constantly.  Boil 1-2 minutes.
3.    Remove from heat.  Immediately add oats, vanilla, peanut butter, and if desired coconut.  Mix well.
4.    Drop by spoonful on waxed paper.  If it does not come off easily, use knife or fork to push off.
5.    Cool completely before eating or storing.