Monday, March 8, 2010

In the Kitchen - Aunt Helen's No Bake Cookies


My Great Aunt Helen would come to visit quite often and always brought cookies in an old Hostess Fruit Cake tin. Sometimes they were frosted sugar cookies, others oatmeal raisin (my Dad's favorites) but when my brothers and I were lucky, they were these no bake cookies. Our favorites. I have her old tin, and her handwritten recipe for the cookies. I started making them 24 years or so ago. When my son was old enough for cookies, I made these for him and told him stories about his Great Great Aunt Helen.

2 C sugar
1/4 C cocoa
1/2 C milk
1 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt
1/2 C peanut butter
3 1/2 C quick oatmeal

Mix sugar, cocoa, milk and butter in saucepan. Cook until it boils. Cool for 1 minute. Add vanilla, salt, peanut butter and oatmeal. Stir well. Drop by teaspoonfuls on wax paper and let set.

These are delicious and get eaten in my home before they cool and set. They just somehow are not as good as when Aunt Helen made them herself. Seriously - hers were hard and had a dry crumb, mine are soft and chewy. If anybody knows her secret, please let me know. The only difference in the recipe is that I use butter instead of her margarine.


4 comments:

  1. I remember these cookies from childhood and I loved them. Thanks for the recipe. Do you think they'd be OK with imitation peanut butter (soy nut butter) since I have a wee one with a nut allergy?

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  2. YUM! My kiddos would love the peanut butter in them. :)

    Quick reminder: I hope you'll link up to the "Show Me the Progress" party this week. It goes live Tuesday night and will be up all day Wednesday. :) Just about ANYTHING counts as progress (even a list of ideas!), and it doesn't have to be about a Decorating Dilemma. ;)

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  3. I think imitation peanut butter would work OK. It melts into the sugar cocoa mixture so I would think it would work out fine.

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  4. Cool!! I can add one more non life threatening snack to the list!!

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