No-bake chocolate cookies are one of my favorite childhood cookies. They are a classic no-bake cookie that everyone loves.
I know there are many versions of no-bake cookies out there. These are my favorite. We made these cookies often when I was a kid. The original recipe came from an old cookbook put together by the school in the small town I grew up in.
It is one of those tried and true recipes that everyone made. These cookies were brought to bake sales, church potlucks, parties, picnics, and more.
I think it was the first cookie recipe I learned to make all by myself and I have made it more times than I can count over the years. All my kids now know how to make these as well. This is a great recipe for kids to try because it does not use the oven, just the stovetop.
This time of year when the weather is hot and I try to avoid turning on the oven. We still enjoy having desserts though and this recipe works great for those times that I need a dessert, but don’t want to turn on my oven.
The reality though is that these cookies are good any time of year. We make these a lot during the summer, but we also make them all year long.
I also love that this recipe is inexpensive to make. It contains simple ingredients that I usually have on hand. This is the classic no-bake cookie recipe with peanut butter. An alternative butter-like Sunbutter or soybutter works as well.
If you are looking for a peanut-free no-bake cookie though be sure to check out my no bake cookies without peanut butter. And you can make no-bake cookies even easier by turning them into bars. Check out my no-bake cookie bars to see how I make no-bake cookies even easier.
No Bake Chocolate Cookies
A quick and easy classic no-bake chocolate cookie recipe.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup butter
- ½ cup milk
- 4 tablespoons cocoa
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups quick-cooking oats ( For gluten-free version use gluten-free quick oats)
- ⅔ cup peanut butter ( Sunbutter or soy butter work as well)
Instructions
- Bring the first four ingredients to a boil and cook for 1 minute.
- Add vanilla, oatmeal, and peanut butter and stir until combined.
- Drop onto wax paper or parchment-lined cookie sheet.
- Refrigerate until firm and enjoy!
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
24Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 220Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 21mgSodium: 99mgCarbohydrates: 26gFiber: 2gSugar: 17gProtein: 3g
Oh, I love these things…but again, like the peanut butter fudge, I have no self control.
I LOOOOOOVE these cookies! My grandmother’s recipe called for sweetened condensed milk instead of regular, but all the recipes are basically the same. They are soooo good, aren’t they!
I use a recipe I got from a friend that also calls for sweetened condensed milk. I have tried the recipe with 2% milk, but the cookies are poor cousins compared to the kind made with canned milk. I worked with Barbara at the Virginia Tech university library. The recipe came from her “Granny” who lived way out in the ‘sticks’ of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Granny called her recipe “Preacher Cookies” because if she saw the Reverend in his old Ford pick-up coming up the dirt road on a hot summer day, she quickly got out her ingredients and had the cookies and lemonade waiting for him as he pulled up to her front porch.
When I first made these delicious cookies, I thought to myself –
“I don’t have any preacher who visits me at my suburban home. However, my brother and sister occasionally brought their rambunctious kids for an unexpected “howdy do.” By the time the ‘darlings’ were tired of running around in the yard, I was ready to refresh them with low-calorie drinks and cookies made using Barbara’s recipe.
Sometimes my nieces and nephews played ‘Monster’ make-believe games at my home. In their honor, I renamed the recipe to “Creature Candy Patty-Cakes.” (or ‘creature candies’ for short).
I think they would reject these treats if I told them that the main ingredient was oatmeal, something they all seemed to hate. Their parents said none of their children would touch hot oatmeal when it was prepared for the adults’ breakfast. However, these kids unknowingly enjoyed the Creature Candies based on wholesome oatmeal and other delicious ingredients. Even as young adults, they still love to eat my ‘famous’ Creature Candies.
I love recipes that have been handed down like that and that have stories behind them. Thanks for taking the time to share that!
3/11/13
Lynn,
Your website and its many delicious recipes are GR8 !!!
Thank you for the kind words about my earlier reply.
Best wishes to you and yours out in “OK-land where I assume you see buggies with fringes on them traveling the dusty roads.” *** 😉 *** LOL –> Your fan in “Hokie-land” (Hokie is Va. Tech’s mascot).
My family loves these cookies. I make them probably 3 times a month. A batch never sits long at our house!
Thanks for this recipe, you guys in the US certainly know how to bake cookies. I am glad I have some cup measuring spoons 🙂 We have a little date night planned tonight so I might just rustle these up for my husband later. Thanks for the inspiration!
I LOVE these cookies…and find it best if I don’t make them very often (for MY sake!). I had forgotten about them actually and haven’t made them for a while. I should have the boys work on some…they’d love it!
These are so good! The first time I made them I was in middle school and used them for a project on Pioneer baking or something silly 🙂
Can you use regular oatmeal (my canister says “old fashioned oatmeal)?
Melanie
Melanie, I use the quick cooking oatmeal for it. I have seen recipes for basically the same thing that use the old fashioned oatmeal. I think the texture will just be a little different. I think I might let the mixture sit a few minutes before dropping them onto baking sheets. This might help the texture by letting it soften the oats. Or you could chop the old fashioned ones in the blender or food processor to have the oats be finer. I think overall it would work. Let me know how it works if you try it.
We call these Preacher Cookies. They are the best. We love these here.
God bless
Renee in VA
I know this is an old post but I wanted to let you know I added this and your No Bake Bars to my Walgreens deal for Oatmeal. I thought what better way to convince people to get free oatmeal than some yummy easy no bake oatmeal goodness! 😉
I just made these for the first time and they came out DELICIOUS! The only thing I changed was the oatmeal. I wanted to make these gluten-free, so I used brown rice cereal instead, which created a nice texture.
I used to make these years ago and they turned out fine the last few times I’ve made them they don’t get hard so you can pick them up – do you have any idea what I’m doing wrong? (they taste ok just not hard)
I am not sure why that would be happening. I would maybe try a few more oats and/or refrigerating them. If they are cold, they should firm up for you so it might be worth giving that a try.
Made them again today and still they will not get hard – put them in the refrigerator and they got firmer but were really chewy and still not where you could pick them up – again they taste good but you can’t really pick them up. I’ve heard humidity might be a factor but I made them in Oklahoma when we lived there and now in Illinois and still same results maybe one of your readers will have a tip.
Just an update – after sitting over night they did become hard (never had them take that long) but glad they finally got hard!! After reading lots on the internet several said do not fix on a rainy day – it was sunny out when I fixed them but it had rained for about 20 minutes earlier in the day (don’t know if that matter or not?)
Humidity makes a difference. If it’s raining or just finished raining you have to increase the boiling time by a few seconds. This will combat the extra moisture in the air allowing the cookies to set.
I make these all the time. My grandmother made these well over 60 years ago, so this is a tried and true recipe.
I love hearing that recipes like this have been made for several generations. Older recipes like this that are tried and true are my favorite type of recipes. Thanks for sharing!