Day 33: No Bake Cookies

It is impossible to resist Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies!  These are so simple and easy to make up, so I was not prepared for the trouble I had when making these yesterday.  Everything seemed to be going great until I checked them after they had set and they were not hardening like they should. I've made these plenty of times before and that has never happened! I took a plate of them to church last night and they were still pretty soft, but tasted great.   I could not figure out what went wrong until one of the men walking down the hall mentioned that maybe it was the humidity. Ding, ding - exactly!  Why didn't I think of that?!  It rained yesterday, so that was the culprit. 

So, I hope you never have the hankering for a no bake cookie on a rainy day.  It will still taste great, but won't stack up too pretty on a plate.  Another reason that they might not set up is if you don't bring the mixture to a full rolling boil for long enough.  My recipe said for 1 minute, but several other recipes that I googled said for 3 minutes.  You can know for sure by placing a drop of the chocolate mixture (before adding the P.B. and vanilla) into cold water and it should stay in a ball (also known as the soft ball stage).

Below is my recipe for No Bake Cookies.

This makes 40 small cookies using a cookie scoop at 103 calories per cookie. Some other recipes I saw used 1 cup peanut butter instead of the 1/2 cup in this recipe.  I think that is personal preference so if you like more p.b., then go with the 1 cup.  It may help them set up better too.

Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions:

1. Add the first four ingredients to a 3 quart sauce pan.
2. Bring to a rolling boil and let boil for 2 minutes.
3. Remove from heat; stir in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth.
4. Stir in oats.
5. Drop onto wax paper using a cookie scoop.  Let cool until set.