No bake cookies are one of my favorite easy treats. I’m a huge fan of chocolate and peanut butter, and no bake cookies are a great choice when you want to eat some cookies but don’t want to heat up the whole house.
These Kitchen Sink No Bake Cookies are a version of the classic no bake cookies that came about after my husband and I were talking about Goo Goo Cluster Ice Cream. It’s his favorite, but we can’t find it at any of the stores where we live now.
I thought it might be nice to make something with those flavors (chocolate, caramel, marshmallow, and peanuts), but I also wanted to make cookies. So, I combined the flavors of Goo Goo Cluster Ice Cream and chocolate peanut butter no bake cookies and threw in some pretzel pieces to add a little salt and crunch. And they are awesome! I love the extra oomph that the additions give these cookies!
In case you’re wondering, the cookies in the pictures hadn’t set up yet. It’s been so dark and rainy here that I wanted to take some pictures before I lost what little light there was. The cookies will set up like the originals, though.
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Ingredients
- 1 ¾ c. granulated sugar
- 1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 c. butter
- 1/2 c. milk
- 1 c. peanut butter
- 1 T. vanilla extract
- 2 ½ c. rolled oats
- 1 c. pretzel pieces*
- 1/2 c. chopped peanuts
- 1/2 c. caramels, in quarters
- 1 c. mini marshmallows
Instructions
- In a large saucepan or pot, stir together the sugar, cocoa powder, butter, and milk.
- Bring to a boil over medium-low heat.
- Once the mixture is at a boil, let it cook for 1 minute.
- Remove from heat, and stir in peanut butter, vanilla, oats, pretzels, chopped peanuts, and caramels.
- Stir in marshmallows until incorporated. If you want the more obvious marshmallow swirl, like in the picture, you want them to just barely be mixed in.
- Drop by tablespoonful on waxed paper, and let it sit until cool and set.
Notes
*You don't want the pretzel pieces to be completely crushed, but you do want them in really small pieces.
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I made these yesterday and followed the recipe completely. Unfortunately they didn’t come out as moist as the photo shows. They were difficult to make in spoonfuls. Mostly the consistency was dry and crumbly. Will not make again and will be deleting recipe from my Pinterest board. Bummer.
I’m sorry to hear that you weren’t happy with the recipe! The paragraph above the recipe says that the cookies shown in the picture were before the cookies had completely set up, so, no, the cookies won’t be exactly like that once they set up. As that paragraph also says, they should have a texture and consistency like a no bake cookie. If they were as wet as the cookies shown, they would fall apart as soon as you tried to lift them.
There are two things that could cause dry, crumbly cookies. If you over-cook the milk mixture in the first two steps, you will end up with dry, crumbly cookies. The other thing that could potentially cause crumbly cookies is using natural peanut butter. Sounds like you aren’t going to try the recipe again, but hopefully that info will help someone else!
Did you use quick cooking oats or old fashioned?
I used old fashioned oats.
Will this recipe work if you use caramel syrup topping instead of regular caramels
I’m sorry, but I don’t know that it will. I haven’t tried it, but I would guess that the extra liquid in the caramel syrup may keep the cookies from setting up properly.
Do you think these would still work if I wanted to leave out the pretzels? They look amazing and I almost drooled on the screen when I saw them.
Thanks! =) Yes, they should work without the pretzels. They just add a little crunch and salt. You could swap them for nuts or just leave them out.
I am going to try this recipe but I am going to use my homemade peanutbutter and marshmellow creme instead of the marshmellows and store bought peanutbutter…also going to substitute peanuts with Walnuts
Sounds good! You’ll have to share how it turns out! =)