Description

Crunchy no bake chocolate cookies are the perfect recipe for when you don’t want to turn on the oven. They are a little chewy, a lot crunchy, and melt-in-your-mouth good.

Ingredients

Scale

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
1/4 cup maple syrup (or sub agave nectar or honey)
1/4 cup milk (I used almond milk)
3/4 cup coconut sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup natural chunky peanut butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Scant 1/2 cup dark chocolate, chopped (I used 72% )
2 cups unsweetened brown rice crispy cereal (make sure it’s gluten free, if needed)
2 cups rolled oats (gluten free, if needed)

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Instructions

Prepare: Line one extra large baking sheet (or two regular large ones) with parchment paper or a silpat mat, set aside. Get all of the ingredients measured out as instructed above and ready to go – these cookies go fast and timing is key so you need to have the ingredients waiting for you.
Melt: Place the butter, milk, and maple syrup in a medium sauce pot. Turn the heat on medium and stir until the butter is melted.
Simmer: Add the coconut sugar, salt, and cocoa powder – whisk until no more lumps remain. Turn the heat up to high until it reaches a boil. Reduce to a simmer and allow it to simmer for exactly 3 minutes. Timing is important here, if you let it boil too long the cookies crumble and if you don’t let it simmer long enough they won’t set up right – so set a timer. Once the timer has gone off immediately remove the pan from the heat.
Stir: Once the pot is off the heat immediately stir in the peanut butter, vanilla extract, chopped chocolate, rolled oats, and rice cereal and stir until everything is well incorporated.
Scoop: once everything is mixed use a small cookie scoop, or two spoons to form (about 1 1/2 tablespoon sized balls) and drop them onto the cookie sheet. Once you have worked through all the dough, if the cookies are kind of falling apart you can use your fingers, once they have cooled enough to touch, but are still warm, to gently pack them into better shaped mounds.
Chill: Place the cookie sheet in the freezer for 20 minutes, or in the fridge for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the cookies are set.
Eat/Store: Once chilled you can either serve the cookies immediately or store them in an air tight container for 3 to 4 days. They do tend to loose their crunch as they sit, so they are best within the first 2 to 3 days.

Notes

Dairy free/vegan: To make these cookies dairy free/vegan stick with almond milk, or other non dairy milk, use vegan chocolate, and swap the butter with coconut oil. I have not tested them using coconut oil, so I can’t say for sure that they will work, but I imagine that they will. Or you can try using vegan butter.

Peanut butter: You can swap any kind of nut butter or seed butter you like here. You don’t taste the peanut butter in the cookies so I think anything would work.