No Bake Cookies

  

 No bake cookies. Seriously. If you are craving a cookie bad and A. lack the patience to wait for cookies to bake, B. have very little time but would rather have homemade rather than store bought or, C. Run out of important ingredients to actually make baked cookies like baking powder and baking soda ( like I did gasp!) then these are the type of cookie for you. Or cookies for you. Since they seem hard to stay out of. 

Wait. There's one more - D. If you're the type of person that would gladly sit down with the bowl of cookie dough and not even bother to bake it yet feel ever so slightly guilty about doing so then these are the cookies for you. Like slightly cooked cookie dough. mmmmm cooookkkiiieeee dough....

 I can't believe I haven't made these before. So easy. Like too easy. Like now that I know how to make them I can all the time since the ingredients are something I have on hand always. 

 I didn't take any step by step pics because my memory card for my camera was upstairs and they come together so quickly I didn't have time to go get it since I didn't realize it until I had the pan of ingredients already on the stove.

I think I might make my husband take the rest to work with him tomorrow so I don't eat the rest  today. In one sitting. Maybe two

There are a TON of different recipes online for No Bakes. Some with peanut butter ( which I am TOTALLY making next time) some without, most have rolled oats of some kind ( either regular or quick cooking) and some have cocoa some don't. I found so many different recipes my head was spinning ( almost) and I decided to kind of make up my own version. I had seen one that was oatmeal coconut cherry ( Um YUM) but no cocoa. I have some of my super yummy Valhrona dark cocoa powder left and I thought Chocolate coconut oatmeal cherry no bakes sounded to die for. And I am a bona fide coconut-aholic

So this is my recipe I came up with. Feel free to adapt into whatever cookie you fancy. Or eat these. They are so good. Too good.

Chocolate Coconut and Cherry No Bake cookies

my recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 c milk ( any fat content or even rice or almond milk. I used unsweetened almond)

1/2 c butter ( or coconut oil which is what I used)

1 c sugar ( I used organic evaporated cane juice. I think it has better flavor than white sugar)

2 tsp vanilla extract

5 tbsp cocoa powder

3 cups whole oats ( can use regular or quick cooking)

1 cup shredded coconut ( can use sweetened or unsweetened. I used UN since that's all I have)

3/4 c dried cherries

Directions

Prepare a cookie sheet with a piece of wax paper sprayed lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Or two cookie sheets depending on how many you make. I made about 30 cookies

In medium sized heavy saucepan, combine sugar, butter or oil, vanilla extract, milk and cocoa.  Over medium heat, while stirring often, bring mixture to a boil.  Boil for two minutes stirring occasionally.  When time is up, remove mixture from heat and stir in cherries, coconut, and oatmeal.

 Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. You can mold them into rounder cookies if you want or leave more free form. Chill in fridge for an hour. Or 30 min in the freezer if you are impatient like me. Store in the fridge or freezer so they don't become a melty mess on your counter. That is if they even last long enough to get to that point. 

Oatmeal cookies

I am actually glad my old hair salon is no longer in business. It was getting too fattening to get my hair cut. I would go on Saturday mornings to get my hair done and hang out with my friend Jenny that does my hair. And the minute I walked in I would smell these amazing fresh baked cookies. There on the table in the waiting area was a GIANT plate of cookies. I of course couldn't resist. They were too good to pass up. They were always the same base recipe but the "mix-ins" changed on a weekly basis. Sometimes chocolate chips, another time white chocolate chips and dried cranberries, another time toffee chips and dark chocolate chunks. The possibilities are endless. Once they were made with duck eggs instead of chicken and well lets just say I won't ever be making those. EW. One day I asked the guy that made them for the recipe and I have been making my own variations ever since.

So anyways I have a friend that had an upcoming bodybuilding show and I wanted to send some yummy after show treats. Dieting for months and months would make any sweet treat taste extra yummy. So I got out my old stand by recipe and added in M&M's as my "mix-in"

I finally used my silicone bake pad for what its meant for. No more parchment paper or scraping cookies off my old cookie sheets. Silicone is the way to go. Easy cookie removal and cleanup

Don't they look yummy?

They smelled amazing and tasted great. The colors from the M&M's bled a little into the cookie and they always come out a little different each time. Some thicker, some flatter. But always good. My favorite mix in is dark chocolate chips, walnuts and dried cherries. OH MY!!

Recipe - MY OWN

Best Ever Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour (you can sub in 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour for one of the cups of AP flour)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

pinch salt

1 cup aka 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp

1 cup granulated sugar ( can use white or organic)

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

4 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups oats ( quick cooking or whole oats)

*** ADD INS – see my notes after directions

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 Deg F.

Whisk together dry ingredients ( flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt) and set aside. Do this in a bowl of some sort not just on the counter

In mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter for 30 seconds on medium speed then add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Just a few mintues you don’t want to over beat

Add in the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition then add in the vanilla and milk. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until well blended and then mix in the oats on low speed as well. Fold in your ADD IN ingredients

Place rounded tablespoons of dough on ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool for a min on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

This recipe makes like 70 cookies if smaller cookies are made, Probably around 50-60 if you make bigger and 40 if you eat half the dough while making them. Ha ha

ADD INS

Spices – cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, apple pie spice etc…  ( add a tsp or so in with the dry ingredients

Chocolate chips ( milk, white, dark, semi sweet)

Cinnamon chips, butterscotch, peanut butter

Nuts – walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, peanuts, macadamia nuts etc

Candies – caramel bits, M&Ms, toffee bits etc

Dried fruit – raisins, cranberries, cherries, pineapple, coconut, apple

Some of my favorite combos of ADD INS are

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup chopped walnuts, 1 cup raisins and cinnamon

2 cups DARK chocolate chips, 1 cup chopped dried cherries

2 cups white chocolate chips, 1 cup dried pineapple pieces, ½ cup sweetened shredded coconut, ½ cup chopped macadamia nuts

1 cup chopped caramel pieces (or toffee bits), 1 cup dried apple diced up, 1 cup chopped pecans and 1 tsp apple pie spice added in to dry ingredients ( this is for the caramel apple oatmeal cookie)

I bag of peanut butter M&Ms

The possibilities are endless. You can also go for “Kitchen Sink” cookies and throw in any combo of whatever add in ingredients you have on hand. Go crazy put anything in. These cookies are super yummy!!

You can make the cookie dough ahead of time and freeze or refrigerate. Just thaw before baking so you can actually get the dough out of the bowl. Ha ha