Dear Chocolate No Bake Oatmeal Cookie,
I like you. You are tasty and delicious. I have made you hundreds of times since I was a middle schooler and started dating a very cute, tall, maroon dyed hair boy named Josh Kelley who had a Metallica patch sewed onto his backpack. What else is a young girl to do to win a young boys heart? Bake his favorite cookie over and over and over again.
I tried you out and learned quickly you were a tricky little thing. Very temperamental. Why so temperamental? Why couldn’t you be like your cousin the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie…easy? I’ll tell you why, because you are you and you are different and bold and chocolatey. You put that so-called Oatmeal Raisin Cookie to shame. No cookie should ever contain a raisin.
I failed many times making you, but my Mom, well, she owned you. She mastered you. She made you into the perfect lumpy oatmeal peanut butter consistency every time. I’m still attempting you and every time you are like a completely different beast.
I made you last night and you were a gooey mess…a gooey hot mess. Still tasty, but crazy messy to eat.
I made you today and you were a chalky mess…a chalky hot mess. Still tasty, but a crazy crumbly mess to eat.
Ashley called and I complained about you. Instead of taking my side, you lured her in with your temptress ways and I ended up giving her your recipe and directions over the phone and you were perfect…the perfect drop cookie you should be every time. We facetimed and I watched her eat your perfect little cookie self.
Exact same ingredients and a completely different texture each go. I blame your boil time…it couldn’t be you…your consistent deliciousness is your saving grace. Dang you boiling time…just a few seconds off here or there and we get a crap texture. Oh the ups and downs of baking.
I just want you to know that even though you make me want to scream and cuss when I get you wrong, the times when I do get you right completely make up for all the failures. You really are tasty and delicious and take me back to a most magical time in life. Thank you for being you.
Sincerely, Laura Kelley
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Sweet Jesus, I love those cookies. I’m convinced that roads in heaven will be paved with them.
I often wondered why I couldn’t master the cookie either!! My babysitter tried mastering it and all she ended up with the chalky messy you pictured! Glad I’m in good company!!
So funny. My husband wanted me to make them last night. I can’t go it either. He puts his in the fridge and ways them coke. He complains when his sisters make them and do it wrong too. He calls them turd cookies though.
You’ll probably get a ton of comments like mine with advice but these cookies are worth figuring out aren’t they!???? so good. I also have made these my entire life(since i was like 7-8)but my recipe is a tad different. Mine is 2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup of butter. I have found that once the chocolate mixture gets to a really good rolling boil (not just the edges boiling) you time it 1 1/2 minutes and remove it and add the other stuff. Not 1 min 45 secs or 1 min and 15 secs. It is the boiling that is to blame. I hate it when one my kiddos comes in and I get distracted because they are hard as rocks!!
(You can also use a candy thermometer and get it to the soft ball stage!) 😉
Super fun post as always!!
My recipe says once it gets to a rolling boil, keep it going exactly 2 minutes. IT seems to work great. I think how long it takes to get the rolling boil point can throw things off a bit, but I still usually get pretty awesome cookies which happen to also be my husband’s favorite. I made many bad batches before finding my current recipe. I feel your pain. If it werent’ for that timing thing they’d be the easiest cookie ever. I will say you absolutely cannot substitute ingredients like the time I ran out of regular table sugar and used something else like confectioners. Never again! Good luck and happy eating.
I’ve never made these before – love eating them, just never made them. Now I’m super intrigued! Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Wah-Wah. Put me down in the chalky column.
One of my aunts used to make these for us in Louisiana. She made them thin and paper plate sized. I’d never seen them “drop cookie” style till we moved to TN. I’ve always been partial to the plate-sized, thin cookie. I suppose, either way, they’re amazing. )
Oh my goodness…you crack me up! I love that cookie too! It is the boiling time. I have the same problem when I make my moms fudge recipe too. Oh and the weather sometimes…it always tastes yummy though!
Hi my Craft Weekend pal.
My mom made oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies that were amazing. So good, I can remember just how they tasted. I CAN NOT make them and no other recipe comes close to hers. I can whip up a cake, brownies, every other cookie with no issues, but I just can’t duplicate her “Oatmeal Scotchies”. Maybe there is something to be said for that. Or maybe I just stink at baking oatmeal cookies. LOL
Either way, when I think of those cookies, I think of her.
Glad to see I’m not the only one who gets a gooey mess making these. They are my husbands favorite cookie too…….of course his mother can make them perfectly.
Okay, so I totally used to have the exact same problem with these cookies when I was using the recipe my Mom gave me. But then my awesome mother-in-law (you may remember her-Judy Fentress-she was the home ec teacher at GHS for years) gave me this recipe for them that is almost fool proof. I say “almost” because it messed up for ONE time…..but only ONE time in years of making these things. Her recipe has flour in it, and I think that is the key ingredient to making sure they do right. Now, you still have to watch the boil time some, because if you boil too long they do turn out a little more crumbly, but they are definitely better than the old recipe I used. So here is her awesome recipe:
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cocoa
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup quick oats
1/4 cup flour (totally the secret ingredient)
Mix butter, sugars, milk, cocoa, and salt in saucepan. Boil for 1 minute at low heat. Remove from heat. Add peanut butter, vanilla, oats, flour. Stir. Drop onto waxed paper on cookie sheet or tray. Allow to cool in the refrigerator.
I hope they work for you! 🙂 (if you want to try them, that is)