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.
How To Make
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!
Recipe Tips
- What Are The Ingredients For No Bake Cookies? The ingredients are butter, sugar, cocoa powder, milk, peanut butter, vanilla extract, and quick-cooking oats.
- 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.
More Cookies Recipes
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Cookies
- Four Cookies From One Basic Dough
- Scotcharoos Pinwheels Recipe
- Puff Pastry Cookies
Chocolate No Bake Cookies
Video
Equipment
- Vanilla Extract
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- 2 cups sugar
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ cup milk
- ½ 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.
Notes
One: Storage
Store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, in the fridge for up to two weeks, or in the freezer for up to four weeks.Two: Crunchy
Use crunchy peanut butter or stir in chopped nuts.Three: Coconut
Use 2 1/2 cups of quick-cooking oats and 1/2 cup of shredded coconut. Add 1 teaspoon of coconut extract.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!
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!
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!