No Bake Cookies without Peanut Butter

Are you looking for no bake cookies recipe without peanut butter? We have the perfect no bake cookie recipe for you right here. 

I have been excited to share this recipe with you. It took me a bit of trial and error with this one. My original struggle with this recipe was that the cookies kept coming out too crumbly and dry. They weren’t sticking together well. I just had to keep adding moisture until I got it right. 

No-bake cookies without peanut butter were sweeter than our traditional recipe. This was a real turn-off for Andi, but I couldn’t stop eating them.  I actually eventually had to put these cookies out of reach because I kept creeping over to the kitchen and stealing one. 

Pro Tip: The secret is getting the sugar mixture just right. You are essentially making your own corn syrup mixture; it’s why these chocolate no-bake cookies are very sweet. And you want to use quick oats, not old-fashioned, because the oatmeal only has five minutes to soak up the wet ingredients and soften so that they are slightly toothsome, not hard to chew.

How to make no-bake cookies without peanut butter

Step 1: Gather your ingredients and the required tools (see the recipe card below for the ingredients list). This recipe requires constant stirring, so it is important that you have everything required close by.

Step 2: Pull a generous sheet of wax paper or parchment paper across a large cookie sheet. Then, spray that paper with nonstick cooking spray.

Step 3: Place a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add in the sugar, salt, butter and milk. Stir often until the mixture just comes to a gentle boil.

Step 4: Allow it to boil gently on medium high (without bubbling over) for 2 additional minutes. Set a timer for this. This timing is very important. Don’t let it overboil.

Step 5: Right at 2 minutes, remove the saucepan from the heat.

 Step 6: Immediately add in the cocoa powder, oats and vanilla. Stir until fully combined.

Step 7: Allow the mixture to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. 

Step 8: As you stir, if you discover the mixture is too dry and crumbly to form into a ball, mix in a tablespoon of hot water at a time and stir. Do this one tablespoon at a time until the mixture is no longer crumbly and you can easily form small balls with the cookie dough.

 Step 9: With the small, roughly round balls on your wax or parchment paper, use the back of your spoon to press down lightly so they flatten a bit. If they are sticking mercilessly to your spoon, spray the spoon with a bit of cooking spray or even a bit of water as you work with each cookie.