Classic Chocolate No Bake Cookies made with chocolate, peanut butter, and oats are done in minutes and are made with ingredients already stocked in your pantry!
When we are craving cookies but don’t feel like turning the oven on we whip up a batch of classic chocolate no bake cookies! They are also perfect for when you need a last minute treat to bring to a friend’s house or to serve to guests who arrive announced.
What Are The Ingredients For No Bake Cookies?
The ingredients for chocolate no bake cookies are butter, sugar, cocoa powder, milk, peanut butter, vanilla extract, and quick-cooking oats.
Step One: Butter
Start by melting a stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat.
Step Two: Chocolate Sauce
The chocolate sauce for these chocolate no bakes starts with adding sugar, cocoa powder, and milk to the melted butter. Bring this mixture to a boil and allow it to boil for one minute.
Step Three: Peanut Butter
After boiling the chocolate mixture, remove it from the heat and stir in creamy peanut butter and vanilla extract.
Step Four: Oats
Once the peanut butter has been combined with the chocolate mixture, stir in the oats.
You can add more or less oats depending on how chocolate-y (less oats) or firm (more oats) you like your no bakes to be.
Can you use old fashioned oats in no bake cookies?
Yes! You can use old fashioned oats (also known as rolled oats) or quick cooking oats in no bake cookies. Quick cooking oats are coarsely chopped old fashioned oats. Using old fashioned oats will give the cookies more texture and make them chewier.
I like to use quick-cooking oats when I make chocolate no bake cookies for my family.
Step Five: Form Cookies
Once the cookie dough comes together, drop it by spoonfuls (or use a dough scoop) onto parchment paper. You’ll want to work quickly to form the cookies before the chocolate hardens.
Or just eat some while they are still warm and gooey!
Can you put no bake cookies in the fridge to harden?
Yes! If you are in a hurry and need them to cool and set/harden quickly, you can put chocolate no bake cookies in the fridge to harden.
Can you use crunchy peanut butter instead of creamy?
Yes, you can crunchy peanut butter to make no bake cookies. We love the added texture the chopped up peanuts provide.
Want more cookies recipes? Try these next:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Cookies: This easy Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Cookies recipe makes delicious cookies that are soft, chewy and crunchy all at the same time!
Four Cookies From One Basic Dough: Kitchen hack for cookie baking: make four kinds of cookies from one basic dough with this recipe. You can even prepare the dough ahead of time, freeze and bake later!
Scotcharoos Pinwheels Recipe: These Scotcharoos Pinwheels are chewy peanut butter bars rolled up with melt-in-your-mouth chocolate and butterscotch frosting. It’s a fun way to enjoy a classic favorite!
Chocolate No Bake Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups quick-cooking oats
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat.
- Stir in sugar, cocoa powder, and milk. Bring to boil, stirring often. Then, boil for one minute.
- Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla extract.
- Stir in the quick-cooking oats.
- Working quickly, drop by tablespoonfuls onto parchment paper and allow to cool. Heaping spoonfuls makes about 18 large cookies. For small cookies use smaller scoops of dough.
Video
Nutrition
Recipe updated from original shared in April 2011.
Radhika says
What if I skip the butter here ?
Tonia says
Hi Radhika,
I don’t think that would work very well in this recipe since it calls for 1/2 cup of butter.
Warmly,
~Tonia
Kelli A. Farrah says
Can I use Hersheys chocolate syrup instead of baking cocoa?
Tonia says
No, it needs to be the powdered baking cocoa. Using Hershey’s chocolate syrup would add too much liquid to the mixture.
Lindsay O. says
My mom used to make these for me growing up, all time classic favorite 🙂
christina C. says
making these with my kids right now as we speak. thanks for the recipe!
Tonia says
Awesome! I hope they turned out!
JamieS says
Looks yummy! I may try this for our next play date!
Princess of Everything (and then some) says
These are some of my favorite cookies. I remember when we used to have them in the lunch room at school!
Tammy @ she wears flowers says
Yum! I make these when I have that huge sugar craving I need to satisfy! And now I am craving! LOL!