Cookie Dough

I've never understood what it is about eating cookie dough, but we all like it. So much so that we even eat it in our ice cream. Even our little boy, who's only a year old, will eat it. There's just something good about the sweet, soft, gooeyness of unbaked cookies. (Of course, the same can be said for cookies straight out of the oven too.)

The other day was a particularly bad day. I was upset, the car was broken, the internet wasn't working, and the boys were fussy and missed Daddy. I decided that the thing to make us all feel better was to make cookies. I knew that the very special time my son and I spent working together and making cookies would cure all the ills of that day.

So at nine p.m. I put the little one down and started to get out ingredients. I had the bigger one help me pour milk and cocoa into the pan, and he even got to help stir it before it boiled. I'm still kind of surprised that I let a one year old help make cookies; sometimes it seems like he's older than that, and other times I'm struck by how much he can do for so young an age. Like pouring a cup full of baking cocoa into the pan without spilling it or sitting down and eating it, or flinging it all over the house. He did a wonderful job. And the simple act of spending quality time together doing something fun did make everything all better. We made No-Bake Cookies.

1-1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c cocoa
1/2 c butter
2/3 c milk

3 c oatmeal
1/2 c coconut


Boil sugar, cocoa, butter and milk for approximately 3:30. Remove from heat and stir in oatmeal and coconut. Spoon onto pan and let cool.

This is my mothers recipe, I don't know where it came from before that. I've sold these cookies at bake sales and school conferences, I've taken them as refreshments to 4-H meetings and Christmas parties. We always found a way to have these cookies for a not-really-very-special-but-still-important-occasion when I was growing up.

1 stick butter
1/2 c milk
2 c sugar
1/2 c cocoa

3 c oatmeal
1/2 c peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla


Boil butter, milk, sugar and cocoa for approximately 3 1/2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add oatmeal, peanut butter and vanilla. Spoon onto cookie sheet and put in the fridge to set.

I didn't know this recipe existed until my senior year in high school. I was taking a culinary class at the local Vo-Tech school and we made these one day. It was a lesson in recipie conversion, so in my cookbook I've got it written down as a mega-batch yielding MANY cookies.

When I made cookies with my son I mixed recipes. I made my moms recipie and then just threw in a few large spoonfulls of peanut butter. I also ended up using the last of my coconut. Well, long story short 'cause it's getting late, yesterday we ate all of the cookies that my little boy and I made so today I made some more. I didn't measure anything, and I was still out of coconut--but not peanut butter. I put roughly 1 stick of butter, between 1/2 and 2/3 c milk, about 1/2 c cocoa and what was probably 3/4 c brown sugar (we've been out of white sugar for weeks, everything I've made lately has been with brown. It doesn't make much of a difference and you can use less) in a pan and boiled it. Then I added two very large spoonfulls of peanut butter and four handfuls of oatmeal. I didn't get as many cookies this time and I should have boiled the chocolate for another minute (chocolate is very picky if it's not done right), but they turned out good.
Here's to cooking to help fix problems! --Zizi

P.S. No-Bake Cookies are basically an excuse to eat straight cookie dough but pretend that you aren't. -- Nick

Comments

  1. I love the no-bake cookies because they are fast to make and ready to eat! They are also half the carbs and calories of cookies with flour, and as you said, you can cut down on the sugar with little notice in taste or outcome. And, of course, they are chocolate!!!

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