Peanut Butter Snappies AKA Ben's Fave Cookies

Peanut Butter Snappies aka Ben's Favorite Cookies

My brother Ben is not the only person who loves these cookies, they just got nicknamed that because whenever he would come home on leave during his 8 years in the Marine Corp, mom would make them for him.

my kid sister Lenna, who was too young to remember the military leave tradition named them "Peanut Butter Snappies"

The rest of the world knows these as Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal No Bakes (or something along those lines)

Although I make these a few times per year, and every time, I call my mom for the recipe. It amazes me how she has recipes memorized like that... Eventually, I will have this one down, or at least organized to find my notes from last time I called her.

I made them for a cookie exchange I went to yesterday.

Ingredients:
~1/2 cup baking cocoa
~1/2 cup milk
~2 cups granulated sugar
~1/2 cup room temperature butter (pictured is for a quadruple batch) or margarine
~1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
~1 tsp vanilla
~3 cups instant oatmeal (non instant will work if thats what you have) ideally its the instant that cooks in 2 minutes)



Supplies: ~pan, (non-stick is very helpfull)
~wax or parchment paper
~measuring spoons and cups,
~pot holder/trivet
~kitchen timer (your microwave or stove probably has one)
~disher (mine is #40) or 2 eating spoons
~stove safe mixing spoon (not pictured)


directions:
Prep everything:

~roll out wax or parchment paper, onto counter or cookie sheet (about a large cookie sheet size peice for 1 batch)

~measure peanut butter and oats (I love the pampered chef plunger type measurer for peanut butter!)

~into the pan, measure sugar, cocoa and butter (if your butter is cold, warm it on the stove before adding everything else)

~set timer for 2 minutes~I don't pre-measure the vanilla, since its easy to measure out when it is time, I just get the spoon ready.

~you will want the peanut butter and oats ready before starting to cook the rest because its important to be quick when adding them when its time. take too long and the cookies might not set up right, or might be too crumbly.

Start cooking:

~bring butter, sugar, milk and cocoa to a rolling boil. stirring constantly, as soon as you think it could be considered "rolling" press start on the timer

~stir constantly for the 2 minutes
~when the timer goes off, remove from heat, onto trivet or pot holder next to the parchment paper.

~ stir in peanut butter until its mostly melted.

~ stir in vanilla

~ stir in oats to cover them completely

~quickly scoop out cookies onto the paper, I LOVE the disher (mini ice cream scooper) for this, but 2 spoons works well too)
Using the small #40 disher, this recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies

when I make multiple batches (which is like 90% of the time), I dont double the recipe, I actually repeat everything multiple times, because its important to get the dough out of the pan onto the paper quickly so it can set up (if the oats cook too long, they get mushy and dont hold up, or the sugar dries out and is too crumbly) It really doesnt take much time to re-measure everything. If you do this, wash the pan between batches so you dont get burned oats in the 2nd batch)

My mom is good enough at making these she doubles it. I could probably get away with it now that I have been making these awhile, but Id rather mess up 1 batch than 2 or more batches, starting over each time is better success insurance.


Even the 3 batches I made in the same night with same ingredientes, turned out slightly different, the first, the butter was still mostly frozen, and they turned out drier (the sugar and milk cooked too long waiting for the butter to thaw then melt then boil), the 2nd, I melted the butter first, and they were perfectly shiney, the 3rd, not sure why, but they had better flavor


This night, I made 3 batches, yeilding 8 1/2 dozen (+ like 6 the hubby and I ate)


If your cookies turn out crumbly (or if they arent eaten in a few days, yeah, right), serve crumbles warm as an ice cream topper. Or with milk, like cereal.

If they turn out mushy and dont set up hard, smash into a graham cracker pie crust, top with whipped cream, serve as pie and pretend you did it on purpose.


If you have space, plan to cool the cookies away from the heat of the stove. Especially if youre baking other stuff and its hot/humid in the kitchen) Either by scooping onto wax paper on cookie sheets then moving to a cooler area of the house, or on a counter away from the stove. If the cookies dont cool quickly, the oats cook for too long, getting mushy (like oatmeal) they can be put in the fridge, but I always get the best results in a cool kitchen.


I suggest storing under a heavy lid, so you burn a few more calories getting to them.
Try them and you will know why we looked forward to Ben's visits sooo much. (well that and we missed our brother)

Im linking to Momnivore's Dilemma Creative Juice Thursday