No bake peanut butter cookies with oatmeal are easy and delicious. These old fashioned cookies have a similar taste and texture to peanut butter rice krispies treats, so they are a perfect after school snack. By melting sugar in butter and milk, then adding peanut butter and oatmeal, you can make the best peanut butter cookies that you will ever eat. If you want to learn how to make this recipe, keep reading.
No Bake Peanut Butter Cookies with Oatmeal Recipe
Researching the Recipe
As with all of my kitchen creations, I taught myself how to make these cookies by first researching the recipe. Although I used the recipe on LiveWellBakeOften.com, I also looked at DivasCanCook‘s recipe, as well as PreppyKitchen‘s chocolate version (I later made the chocolate version of this recipe, and it was amazingly delicious, too). By comparing and contrasting multiple recipes, you can get a really good idea of what ingredients and steps of a recipe are absolutely essential and which may be there just to suit the author’s personal tastes. When researching how to make no bake peanut butter cookies with oatmeal, I realized that all the recipes were fairly similar, to I felt reassured that everything would be very easy.
One thing I really liked about Danielle from LiveWellBakeWell’s recipe is that she gave ingredient measurements in terms of both volume and weight (grams). I almost always prefer to use grams, so I really liked that. However, I noticed that some of the gram amounts were a bit different from what I would have used (ie. her measurement in grams of 3 1/4 cups of oats was different from what I would have used), but I decided to go with her amounts. Whenever you are in doubt, it is usually best to do what the author of the recipe suggests.
No Bake Peanut Butter Cookies with Oatmeal Recipe Instructions
The most important part of this no bake peanut butter cookies with oatmeal recipe is the first. After combining the butter, sugar, and milk in a saucepan, bring it to a full boil. Once it reaches a full boil with the surface completely covered with bubbles, you have to let it boil for a full minute. Making sure that the mixture boils for a full minute is very important. Although this is a “cookie” recipe, in reality it is a candy recipe with peanut butter and oatmeal added, so it is important that the butter and sugar reach a certain temperature. If you do not boil the sugar and butter for a full minute, the cookies may not be solid when fully cooled: if that happens, simply put them in the refrigerator to chill.
After the first and most important step, turn off the heat. Add the peanut butter and stir so that the heat will melt it. Peanut butter is very sticky, so lightly spraying a bowl with nonstick cooking spray or greasing it with butter may make it easier to scrape the peanut butter into the melted butter and sugar. Once the peanut butter is melted, add in oatmeal a little bit at a time. Lastly, add the salt and vanilla extract. Since vanilla extract contains alcohol, it can burn off if added to something hot; so, if you want a strong vanilla flavor, add it at the end once the cookie “batter” has had time to cool off.
The last step of this no bake cookie recipe is very simple. After lining a baking sheet with wax paper or parchment paper (aluminum foil would be OK as well: the idea is that you need a nonstick surface), scoop out the batter onto the baking sheet. I used a teaspoon and scooped heaping teaspoonfuls, although I think that each scoop was actually about 1.5 tablespoons. Honestly, I do not think it is critical that your cookies are an exact size, or even that they are all the same size: since these cookies are no bake, you do not have to worry about some cookies being done while others are still raw inside.
After all of the cookies have been scooped out onto the baking sheet, let them sit at room temperature for about an hour. They should be firm at that point, so you will be able to peel them off the wax paper without having to worry about them falling apart. I made 20 cookies with this recipe, so if you used 1 tablespoon of batter instead of 1.5 tablespoons, you should get 2 dozens.
No Bake Cookie Recipe Review
These cookies are absolutely delicious. Although they are sweeter than most cookies due to the copious amounts of sugar and butter, the peanut butter and oatmeal then cutting the sweetness so that the cookies are not too sweet. When you bite into them, you realize that they have more the texture of peanut butter fudge than a cookie, the mouthfeel reminding you that the recipe is more like a recipe for candy than a cookie. The oatmeal adds body, making these very filling and satisfying. If you are looking for a quick and easy no bake cookie recipe that is very delicious, be sure to give this one a try. The flavor and texture remind me of peanut butter rice krispies treats, so if you like those but you want something different, this recipe is for you. I also did a chocolate version of this recipe, so be sure to try that one, too!
More No-Bake Desserts Recipes
If you’re looking for more no-bake desserts, take a look at these:
Cornflake Marshmallow Treats Recipe – This is a great twist on classic rice krispie treats.
No Bake Peanut Butter Cookies with Oatmeal Recipe
No Bake Peanut Butter Cookies with Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter (1/2 cup / 113 grams) *In the video I accidentally said 1/2 stick (I meant to say 1/2 cup)
- 1/2 cup milk (120 grams)
- 1 3/4 cups sugar (350 grams)
- 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (190 grams)
- 3 1/4 cups quick-cooking oats (325 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients: the recipe moves quickly, so have everything ready to go.
- Melt the butter, sugar, and milk over medium heat (gasmark 3 out of 6)
- Once the butter, sugar, and milk reach a full boil (surface covered with bubbles), set a timer for 1 minute (VERY IMPORTANT)
- After boiling for 1 minute, turn off the heat and add the peanut butter. Mix to melt and combine peanut butter.
- When peanut butter is fully combined, add oatmeal a bit at a time.
- Once oatmeal is combined, add the salt and vanilla extract.
- Put a piece of wax or parchment paper on a baking sheet.
- Scoop out the batter onto the cookie sheet (I used a heaping teaspoon that was actually 1.5 tablespoons).
- Let cookies harden for 1 hour.
- Once hard, peel off of the wax paper and serve
YouTube Video:
