Are your no bake cookies a gooey mess that’ll end up in the trash unless you do something, anything, to fix them? Been there. Here’s how to save your failed no bake cookies and make them deliciously edible!
They won’t be quite the same (as you can see from the picture) as what you’d initially attempted to do, but you’ll have nice chocolate peanut butter oat cookies by the end and you won’t have to let all those ingredients go to waste.
“My No Bake Cookies Are Too Oily!!”
I usually save the backstory for the end (I like to cut to the chase with recipes!), but this one needs it up front: It’s the holiday season and we’ve been doing a lot of baking. My husband, Frank, attempted to make no bake cookies, but he’d used Natural peanut butter instead of regular and the consistency was off — the cookies were beyond oily and couldn’t set.
As no bake cookies, they’d gone horrifically wrong. But a few additional dry ingredients (to soak up the excess oil) and some time in the oven turned them into special lil cookies that would be a great addition to any holiday table!
The Original Recipe:
This recipe may have worked if the peanut butter had been different? I can’t really say! I’ve never had a no bake cookie (Frank tried last winter too, but ran into a different problem – more on that later!) so I’m only guessing. Perhaps this recipe is just awful and doomed to fail! But, if that’s the case, and you stumbled upon the same recipe during your seasonal (no) baking, then this may look familiar to you:
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups quick oats
From there, the instructions say to combine the sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa powder in a saucepan. Bring the ingredients a boil, while constantly stirring. Cook for at least 3 minutes.
Then, you remove your saucepan from the heat and stir in your peanut butter and vanilla until everything looks blended. Then you stir in your quick oats, drop lil blops of the no bake cookie mixture onto wax paper-lined plates or baking sheets, and pop ’em into your refrigerator for at least an hour… And then viola! They’re cookies!!
Or… they’re a nasty gooey mess that won’t set even after three hours chillin’.
Don’t let those ingredients go to waste!! There may be other fixes for this issue, but here’s what I did:
The Fix:
Your cookies are already a wet mess so the primary fix is going to be soaking up that nasty with some dry ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
Around 1/4 cup brown sugar (optional – Once you add in everything else the sweetness from your original wet cookie mixture can get very diluted and if you want to bring it back you’ll need to add in something. I used brown sugar because I like it but you can also add more white sugar or not add anything if you want a more neutral dessert for dipping in hot cocoa or coffee or something)
Instructions:
In a mixing bowl, mix the ingredients above into your original cookie mess until it looks/feels right. Texture-wise, your new dough will feel similar to chocolate chip cookie dough without the chips (or these chocolate coconut cookies before adding in the coconut shreds). They’ll feel like traditional cookies.
If they still feel too wet, dust in a little more flour. Don’t go overboard! Dust in about a tablespoon and see if that does the trick.
From there, place the mixture on ungreased cookie/baking sheets as you would normal cookies.
Bake at 350F degrees for 10-15 minutes. I baked these for 12, but you know your oven best!
Did It Work??
I hope my quick fix saved your cookies!! There’s enough going on during the holidays (good and bad) without adding the panic of Cookie Disaster to the list.
By the way… If your no bake cookies weren’t runny and your problem was that the oats were hard lil razors that would “cleanse” your colon (by shredding it to ribbons!) if you ate them, well, my husband ran into that problem last year. Turned out he accidently bought steel cut oats instead of quick oats. I wasn’t able to help rescue those cookies, sadly. (Has that ever happened to you?? Were you able to fix them?).
Frank used to successfully make no bake cookies before we were married and I know he will again. When he does, I’ll update this post!
Until then, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! And best of luck with the rest of your seasonal desserts!
I can’t believe 2021 is nearly over.
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