Did you ever get in one of those moods where you seriously need a cookie (or two) but have zero energy to bake them? Even I get in those moods. Granted it’s rare but it does happen. And if you recall I shared with you a killer way to make sure you always had access to cookies at any given moment. Flash freezing cookie dough is a life saver for sure! Yeah but if you don’t replenish the freezer stock you’ll eventually run out to which you’re either forced (I know… it’s such torture huh? *wink*) to make more cookie dough or rely on the cookie fairy to visit you.
Well since I didn’t want to bake and living in countrybumpkinville where no fairies exist I was screwed…or was I? <grin> No bake cookies are super easy because well, you don’t have to bake them and you can just eat the bowl of cookie dough as-is (if you’re one of those folks that scoff at the thought of eating raw cookie dough with eggs in it). I mean c’mon… these are the lazy man cookie for sure!
So there I stood in my kitchen… *almost* all of my hair up in a pony tail, pig slippers, princess pajama bottoms, inside out sweatshirt (don’t ask.. it just happens) with a look on my face that meant business. Pretty sexy image you have there of me, huh? LOL
I was in need of a cookie and nothing was going to stop me. Well maybe the whole baking them and having to wait thing would have stopped me. But I was determined. LOL Now when making no bake cookies I try to steer clear of flour. Raw flour doesn’t really taste appealing. So that meant I needed oats. When using oats in a no bake cookies you’re really left with 2 options – old fashioned or quick oats. Never use instant or steel cut. Instant would dissolve rather than keep their shape. And steel cut would be way too hard. I mean you’d have to let the oats soak for a while before they softened.
Out came the oats and chocolate. Yep, pretty much that’s all I had thus far. Heck give me some milk and I would have been happy just to dump that into a bowl and eat that as-is.. if I didn’t want a cookie. Hey when a girl has cravings you can’t stop her and you best get out of her way. Okay so no flour but we need a binder. Now I’m not opposed to eggs in cookie dough. BUT there are those that are squeemish about it so I needed an option to go without the eggs but a way to bind the ingredients to make a dough and keep it moist.
Peanut butter! Yes… no, crap. I only had crunchy peanut butter upstairs and since I was lazy there was no way I was going downstairs to grab one of my 5 jar stock pile of creamy peanut butter. Wha? Don’t judge me. LOL Oh wait!!! COOKIE BUTTER!!! YES YES YES! Please tell me you’ve tried cookie butter! No you haven’t? Dude… yes I dude’d you. You so need to try it! It’s EPIC!!!
Once I had the cookie butter I was set. Pretty much most no bake cookies like these require you to heat up a mixture. My go-to is always milk, sugar, butter, salt and vanilla. Add in the cocoa while it heated up gave the cookie a fudge-like taste. Now the most important thing about these cookies is once the mixture comes to a boil you must stir, stir, stir AND you must boil for exactly 1 minute and 30 seconds. It has to do with some chemical reaction with heat, sugar and… um, well that’s how my Mom always did hers and I’m not straying from her tried and true methods.
The heated mixture gets thick and like I said, fudge-like. You immediately pour that into the oats and stir. You’ll need some muscles for this but it’s not hard. And plus consider it a pre-workout for your cookie. LOL For this recipe I wanted to amp up the chocolate a bit so I added in mini chocolate chips however you can’t add them in right away. The mixture is still way too hot and you’ll end up just melting them. Let the oat mixture chill out for about 5 minutes or so and then gently fold in your chips. Sure some will melt but most won’t. And even if they do melt, it won’t affect the flavor at all.
So at this point you’re staring face to face with a huge bowl of cookie dough just begging to be kidnapped to your bedroom, while you lock the door, put on Magic Mike and dig into this bowl with a spoon however resist doing this. Okay? Sure you can do a quick taste test but keep in mind if you use the old fashioned oats, your oats will be firm at first and your cookie will be more chewy than you probably would like. When using old fashioned oats I actually prefer these better the next day and so forth. However even if you waited an hour, they are still awesome.
Alas I actually made ‘real’ cookies out of these and waited for them to set. They have a sweet, fudge flavor and as I said, depending on the type of oats you use, you’ll either have a more chewy texture or not. I actually prefer the old fashioned oats myself as it lends such amazing texture to a very rich and decadent cookie.
Finally it was time to indulge. Out came bottle for chocolate milk (seriously I hate coffee but love the glass jars those iced coffees come in), a small plate for some cookies and off I went to indulge in some great cookies, terrible reality tv and pajama pants. These cookies are rich and decadent so I could only eat 1 1/2. But then again I did taste the ‘dough’ when it was a done… multiple times so I was a little full going into this splurge-fest. Mr. Fantabulous loved these as he kept saying they tasted exactly like my Christmas fudge.
These cookies honestly got better as the days went on. The oats got more tender and the flavor got more rich and decadent. They melted in your mouth which is odd for a no bake cookie. Now if you didn’t have cookie butter you could easily use peanut butter in its place but I’m telling you folks the cookie butter MADE the cookie! It just gave it such a ‘cookie’ taste.
PrintNo Bake Chocolate Cookie Butter Oat Cookies
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Ingredients
- 8 tablespoon butter, unsalted
- 1 cup creamy cookie butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 cups old fashioned oats or quick oats
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line 2 cookie trays with parchment paper.
- In a large non-stick pan over medium heat, add in the butter, cookie butter, milk, sugar, cocoa and salt.
- Stir to combine.
- Once the mixture comes to a rolling boil, continue stirring and boil for 1 1/2 minutes exactly.
- Immediately remove the pan from the heat and stir in the oats.
- Set aside and cool for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes gently mix in the chocolate chips trying not to smash them.
- Scoop out 2 tablespoon, with dampened hands roll into a ball.
- Place the ball on to the parchment paper and lightly press down to flatten.
- Cool for 25-30 minutes before storing.
- Store in an air tight container
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