NO BAKE COOKIES | easy chocolate oatmeal cookie recipe

For my last video of 2019, I thought we'd end on a sweet indulgent note, especially since you're gonna get loads of healthy recipes in January. So until then, I thought I would supply you with an easy cookie recipe that's perfect for Christmas and the holidays, and that's no-bake cookies. There's just seven simple ingredients in these cookies, and no flour or eggs are needed. You just boil everything together, scoop it out onto some parchment paper, and let it cool. And taste and texture-wise, these are almost a cross between an oatmeal cookie and fudge. But as simple as these cookies should be, it seems that many still run into issues making them, with them either turning out too soft and gooey or too hard and crumbly. So today, I'm not only sharing my delicious recipe, I'm sharing heaps of tips to make sure that your cookies are no-fail no-bake cookies and turn out perfectly. Let's dive right in. To get started, line two baking trays with parchment paper. And I just recently discovered that you can buy parchment paper pre-cut that fits baking trays perfectly, and you don't have to tear it off rolls, so I'm pretty darn excited. When it comes to these cookies, it's all about which texture you prefer. You can use quick-cooking oats or old-fashioned rolled oats, just don't use steel-cut oats as they're too thick. Quick-cooking oats will produce a finer-textured, chewier cookie, and old-fashioned rolled oats will produce a thicker, heartier cookie, but either one works. Or you can do what I do and use a 50-50 mix of both. For the rest of the ingredients, white cane sugar is typically used in this recipe, but I prefer coconut sugar as it's unprocessed and it has an almost caramel-like taste to it. You'll also need cacao powder or cocoa powder and butter or ghee. If you're dairy-free or vegan, you can also use a vegan butter. And speaking of dairy-free, I'm using my homemade almond milk, but you could use any dairy or dairy-free milk in this recipe. To keep the cookies soft and moist, you'll need nut butter, and I'm using my homemade almond butter, but any nut or seed butter will work. And lastly, you'll need a splash of vanilla extract. Because this recipe comes together really fast and time does have an impact on the success or failure of these cookies, I do recommend measuring and pouring out all of your ingredients into prep bowls ahead of time. Then all you have to do is add what's in each bowl each step of the way, and it's pretty foolproof. All right, so let's get started. Heat a pot over medium heat and add a half a cup of butter, half a cup of milk, two cups of coconut sugar, and a quarter cup of cacao powder. Give that a stir and let it all melt together. After a couple of minutes, you'll notice small bubbles around the outside of the pot, but we wanna wait until we see a full boil of bubbles in the middle before we set our timer. So when you see that, set your timer for two minutes and just keep a close eye on the stove. When your timer goes off, remove the pot from the heat immediately and add a half a cup of almond butter and one teaspoon of vanilla extract and stir that in. Then add three cups of oats, whichever type was your preference, or a mix as I'm doing today, and stir that in until the oats are fully coated. If you're making this recipe with kids, keep in mind that this is an extremely hot sugar mixture, so use caution and little fingers should be extra careful. Grab a cookie scoop and use that to dollop the mixture onto the parchment paper. You could use two spoons, but I love my cookie scoop as it keeps all the cookies about the same size. At this stage, you'll notice the cookies are little mounds, almost like coconut macaroons, and you can certainly keep them this shape, or you can use the back of a spoon to flatten them into more of a cookie-like shape. This single batch of no-bake cookies will make about 24 to 28 cookies, depending on how large you make them, and then all you have to do is wait for them to harden, which should take about 30 minutes on the counter, though you could also speed this up a little by placing them in the fridge. So that was super easy, right? I sure hope so, but if you do run into problems, here's a few extra tips. If your cookies are too hard, reduce the amount of time your sugar mixture boils for on your next batch by 15 to 20 seconds, and if you used rolled oats, try quick-cooking oats next time for a softer texture. If your cookies are too soft, boil the sugar mixture for an extra 15 to 20 seconds next time, and keep in mind that humidity can also make them softer and require a little more boiling time. If they're still too soft, you can add more rolled oats or just let the cookies sit out overnight uncovered. They'll naturally firm up as the moisture inside the cookies evaporates. I hope you guys enjoyed this cookie recipe. I hope you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends, and I will see you back here again in the new year.