Jenn’s Cook Book

These no-bake cookies are made with white chocolate pudding mix and instant espresso, giving it a sweet, subtle mocha-like flavor. Inspired by the Coffee Toffee Cookies.

2 cups sugar 
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 (5 oz) can evaporated milk
1/4 tsp salt
1 small package instant white chocolate pudding mix
2 tsp instant espresso (or 1 tbsp instant coffee)
2 1/2 cups quick oats

Line cookie sheets with waxed paper.

In a large heavy-duty saucepan, combine sugar, butter, evaporated milk, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a full, rolling boil. Remove pan from heat.

Stir in pudding mix, instant espresso, and quick oats. Mix well until all the oats are coated.

Drop mixture by rounded tablespoons onto lined cookies sheets. Allow to cool and become firm, about 30 minutes.

These cookies are truly no-bake! No oven, no stove, and no microwave required. This recipe is the first recipe in Camilla V. Saulsbury’s book “No Bake Cookies.” As she says, “Your only dilemma with these cookies will be deciding with whom to share them.”

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups quick oats
2 cups semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

Line cookie sheets with wax paper.

In a large bowl, stir together the peanut butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla with a wooden spoon, mixing until well blended. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto wax-paper-lined sheets. Allow cookies to set. Store tightly covered in an airtight container between layers of wax paper.

Here is another quick and simple recipe from my no-bake cookbook:

1 1/4 cups maple syrup
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups quick oats

In a large saucepan, combine maple syrup with corn syrup. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Continue boiling for 3 minutes, stirring.

Remove from heat. Stir in butter until melted. Stir in pecans, vanilla, and oats. Press mixture into a greased 9×9 inch pan. Let stand until firm (couple hours).

This recipe was originally suppose to be drop cookies, but the cookies would not hold together so I pressed them into the baking pan (how’s that for salvaging?). One of the tricky things in baking is that recipes are very exact, so you must measure carefully and following the recipe step-by-step, but no-bake recipes typically have a little wiggle room. Next time, I would add a bit more butter to make the “batter” easier to work with, and also a pinch of salt to balance the sticky sweetness. But in whatever form, these still taste great!

From Nestle Toll House, this recipe is great for hot weather because no oven is required! Just a low setting on the stove.

2 cups peanut butter, divided
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
3 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups (12 oz package) Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels, divided

Grease a 13×9 inch baking pan (or spray with cooking spray).

Beat 1 1/4 cups peanut butter and butter in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in 1 cup powdered sugar. With hands or wooden spoon, work in remaining 1 cup powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs and 1/2 cup mini morsels. Press evenly into prepared baking pan. Smooth top with spatula.

Melt remaining 3/4 cup peanut butter and remaining mini morsels in a medium, heavy-duty saucepan over lowest possible heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. Spread over graham cracker crust in pan.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until chocolate is firm; cut into bars. Store in refrigerator.

This is another recipe from my No-Bake Cookies cookbook. This one is a little trickier because the cookie mixture dries and hardens quickly, so once you stir in the oats you need to move fast to get the cookies out. The easiest thing to do is pre-measure the hazelnut spread and oats before you stir them in so you can move fast once you remove the saucepan from heat. Stir the oats in two batches, making sure the first half is coated before you dump in the second half.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
1 3/4 cup sugar
1/3 milk
1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread (such as Nutella)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups quick oats

Line cookie sheets with waxed paper.

In a large saucepan, combine butter, unsweetened chocolate, sugar, and milk, stirring constantly until melted and smooth. Continue stirring and bring to a full, rolling boil. Remove pan from heat.

Stir in hazelnut spread and vanilla, stirring until hazelnut spread is melted. Quickly stir in oats, coating well.

Working quickly, drop the mixture by tablespoonfuls onto lined cookie sheets. Allow to cool about 30 minutes until cookies are firm. Store tightly covered between sheets of waxed paper.

This is a great recipe from the book “No-Bake Cookies” that combines dark brown sugar and real butter, which creates a praline-like taste (similar to the Brown Sugar Cookies from the post on August 11th, 2006). Add in some butterscotch pudding and instant espresso and you get what the author calls a “rich, comforting cookie, reminiscent of flavored espresso drinks from the local coffee shop.” With only 7 ingredients, these cookies are easy to make with little clean up.

2 cups packed dark brown sugar (equal to one 16 oz package)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 (5 oz) can evaporated milk
1/4 tsp salt
1 small package instant butterscotch pudding mix
2 tsp instant espresso (or 1 tbsp instant coffee)
2 1/2 cups quick oats

Line cookie sheets with waxed paper.

In a large heavy-duty saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, evaporated milk, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a full, rolling boil. Remove pan from heat.

Stir in pudding mix, instant espresso, and quick oats. Mix well until all the oats are coated.

Drop mixture by rounded tablespoons onto lined cookies sheets. Allow to cool and become firm, about 30 minutes. Enjoy with a cold glass of milk!

Note about dark brown sugar:
Dark brown sugar is regular brown sugar mixed with molasses, which burns easily. To prevent burning, stir mixture constantly while heating. Mixture is at a full, rolling boil when it bubbles even while you are stirring.

This is another great no-bake recipe, and it only takes 5 ingredients and 1 large saucepan to make.

2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
2/3 cup (5 fl oz) evaporated milk
1 small package butterscotch instant pudding mix
3 1/2 cups quick oats

Combine sugar, butter, and evaporated milk in a large saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a full, rolling boil. Remove from heat.

Stir in instant pudding mix. Add quick oats and stir well to coat. Drop on to wax paper. These can cool on the counter top or in the refrigerator.

This is a quick and easy way to make some tasty cookies right on the stove! I’m not sure where my mom got the original recipes, but we’ve been making them for years.

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups quick oats

Combine sugar, cocoa, butter, and milk in a large saucepan. Mix well and bring to a full, rolling boil. Boil 1 minute and remove from heat.

Add peanut butter and vanilla and stir well. Add quick oats, stirring to coat all of the oats. Drop on to wax paper. These can cool on the counter top or in the refrigerator.

I purchased the book “No-Bake Cookies” because I wanted to find my mom’s old recipes for no-bake cookies. The book, while it had tons of other great recipes, did not include any recipes that came close to the no-bake cookies I love. When I was growing up, I used to make Chocolate Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies because it was one of the only things in my mom’s cookbook that didn’t involve using the oven, just one big pot on the stove top.

Occasionally, my mom would make a different version of the no-bake cookies. These extra special cookies were butterscotch, not chocolate. Again, this recipe was not in my new “No-Bake Cookies” cookbook, and I was quite disappointed. I’ve searched all the cooking websites several times trying to find a recipe that could produce similar cookies, always with no results.

As luck would have it, my mom still has her old hand-written cookbook. I found two recipes that I had thought were gone forever: Chocolate Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies and Butterscotch Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies. Now that I have these recipes, I plan on stashing them securely in between the pages of my own cookbook and here online.