Chocolate No Bake Cookies – Mama Guest Blogs!
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Hello, from Christy’s Mama. I thought I would give Christy a chance to enjoy her time left in New York by doing a guest post. I hope that you enjoy my post as much as I enjoyed eating the results! School is finally out again and that means trying to come up with snacks for the children. I know that most of you can use a quick, very easy and relatively cheap cookie recipe. All my kids loved these cookies growing up and it is still counted among their favorites. It was a go to recipe mainly because it was so quick, with little clean up and I usually had all the ingredients on hand. I made these cookies today while looking after four of my grandchildren. That is how easy they are!
Before I show you how to make these cookies, let me give you a little background 
on some of the ways we enjoy these cookies. When we were young, my sister and I made these cookies and ate them with a spoon right out of the pot. We didn’t have a candy thermometer, didn’t know how to use one anyway and didn’t care if they turned out or not. We loved them best hot, before they had time to set up. My son loves them with peanut butter stirred in so that they become a sort of chocolate peanut butter cup.
If you decide to make them, make sure that you taste them after you stir the dry ingredients in just to make sure they are okay for the kids to eat. In fact, you may need to try a couple of spoonfuls. I sure wouldn’t want my grand kids to eat something unfit for their consumption ~grins~. After you spoon them out onto the wax paper, make sure you scrape the remainder out of the pot and take another taste, just to be sure that it is okay for everyone to eat once they cool. After all, we all know that some foods taste different after they cool. Always remember, quality control begins with the cook. 😉
Since I am new to cooking for you, I think I’d better taste another one just to be sure they are still good. After all, they’ve been sitting out most of the day and I want to be sure before I hit the send button. Yep, they’re still okay so here goes! I hope you and your kids enjoy them!
You’ll need: Quick Oats, Cocoa Powder, Vanilla, Sugar, Margarine, and Milk
Place your margarine, milk, and white sugar in a pot.
Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Insert candy thermometer and boil until mixture reaches soft ball stage.
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Mama’s directions for using a candy thermometer:
I never had good luck with candy. My mother had always used a glass of water to test for soft ball stage so it was just a guess. I discovered a candy thermometer while watching Julia Child (that tells you how long ago it was!). To use a candy thermometer, attach it to the side of your saucepan. Push the edge of your spoon underneath it to make sure it is not touching the bottom of the saucepan. Now just cook your mixture until it reaches the correct temperature on the thermometer. Remove the candy thermometer and set it aside on a saucer to cool. Do not put it in your dishwater. It will break! I don’t let it soak in the dishwater either. I have had problems with the water getting into the thermometer. Just use a wet dish cloth (we call it a dishrag) and wipe it until it is clean. Then dry well and store for your next use. You will be an accomplished candy maker!
Remove from heat and stir in the oats, cocoa
and vanilla.
Spoon onto waxed paper and allow to cool.
Here are my taste testers for today: Lane, Austin, and Jake.
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:99]
Optional add ins:
1/2 Cup Peanut butter- We like extra crunchy peanut butter so that we have little nuts in the cookies but you can add any type of peanut butter. Just add the peanut butter immediately after it reaches soft ball stage and stir until it melts into the mixture. Then add the oats, vanilla and cocoa and proceed as directed.
1/2 Coconut-Add cup coconut when you add the oats, vanilla and cocoa.
I’m sure there are other add ins that would be delicious. Experiment and let us know what you come up with. Who knows, we may just invent a new cookie! Thanks for visiting with me today, I sure did enjoy it.
Sincerely, Mama
Being a mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my
field, since the payment is pure love.
~Mildred B. Vermont
These are one of my most favorite cookies! My mom made them a lot when I was growing up and every now and then I get a craving for a little bit of home and these help that out. I especially love I can get something sweet without heating up the kitchen in the summers!
This was a wonderful post, thank you Mama!
Yummy… can you use butter instead of margarine?
Jill, I’ve always used butter with no problems so I think it should be fine.
Great job! What a gift to have a mom support what you do and enjoy it alongside you as well! Thankfully, I’m blessed with a mom like that too! What a gift!
Hi Christy’s mama! I’ll have to try this with my kids. We need a project since they’re out of school!
Hi there, Miss Janice, What a great post! Just as always, you and Christy bring back those sweet memories of childhood. These were one of my very favorite; and I love Sonya in FL’s mention of them being called Preacher Cookies! I just have to tell y’all that I have a friend (a delicious country cook, by the way) that NEVER tastes anything as she makes it. Of course, she doesn’t cook many sweets, so that may be why; but I’ve always felt real sorry for her!
Hello Ms. Patti, I am so glad to hear from you. You made an impression on my kids lives even though you were not their teacher. You were always so nice to all of them. They still remember you as the pretty teacher at Lincoln. I can’t imagine cooking something and not tasting it before serving it. I bet she is real skinny! Ha! That may be why I am not skinny. Have a great weekend!
Thanks to your Mamma for sharing this time tested, quality controlled recipe!! This is one that I have a long memory of eating and making. I clearly remember helping my Mamma make “Instant Cookies”. (We called them that because they were ready in an instant!) We never used (I still don’t) a candy thermometer and she always made sure that I stood right by the stove and stirred it CONSTANTLY! I thought, “If I don’t keep this spoon moving these will be terrible and we won’t get to eat them.” She burned the constant stirring so deeply into my brain that I thought later I don’t have time to stand at the stove stirring these cookies and didn’t make them for a long time. Eventually, I found out she was probably just keeping my hands and brain busy while she got the real work done!! Now that I have figured that out my kids get them more often. Plus, now that my little ones need something to busy their hands I’ve got someone to stir the pot while I get on with the other stuff required in a kitchen!! (You know the stuff not nearly as fun as stirring a pot of Instant Cookies!)
By the way, they are also VERY good reheated in the microwave so they are once again gooey and warm!!
I just read this post and was so excited that I gathered all the ingredients from my cabinet and fridge and went to work on these cookies immediately. They didn’t turn out though. They were too dry and would not ball up. I went back to check the recipe to make sure I didn’t mess something up, but it appears that I followed it exactly. I crumbled it up like granola, and it tastes really good! Just a little dry. Do you have any idea what I may have done wrong?
Maybe you cooked them too long.
Maybe so. I used the candy thermometer, and cooked it to a soft ball stage. I will try again 🙂