badass no-bakes

These no-bakes are dedicated to my good friend from high school, Namira. She thinks that baking at 1am is so so badass. Which it is, of course. :) However, all I can say is...thank God I work at 10am tomorrow, and not 8am like the rest of the working world.

Anyway, once upon a time when we were dorky 7th graders with ginormus glasses, Namira and I would keep each other company on those starry morning bus rides to school. While most of the bus was dead silent with sleepy eyed teens, Namira and I would chat the ride away. Who would think that we would both end up at the University of Michigan and still be in touch 10 years later? Friends like that are hard to find. :)

While Namira was the inspiration for the chocolate part of these delish treats, the random contents of my kitchen cupboards always help baking-ideas to swarm into my head. So what did I discover in the depths of my cupboard tonight? Stale Cookie Crisp! Only the best... :) Not feeling like baking a la oven tonight, I decided to whip up a batch of non-traditional no-bake cookies.

Now my mom really doesn't enjoy my baking experiments. And I promise you that when I wake up in the morning, I will get the same lectures I get time and time again:

Ingredients are expensive, and you're wasting my money!
I know, mom, but it's fun. And don't you want me to explore my creative impulses?

Who's going to eat these things?! I'm on Weight Watchers!!!
Yes, but don't worry, David will gobble them down. (David is my mom's boyfriend, who will eat anything that is edible. I like David, he's a good guy. He eats all of my baking creations. :)

Did you notice the kitchen before you started baking? It was clean!
Yes, it was very clean. But now it is so so happier with cookies in it.

The hilarious part of this, is that my mom reads my blog. Hi mom. Love ya. ;)

So off I went baking into the wee hours of the morning. I have to admit, that I was so excited to make these no-bakes, that I accidentally used a recipe than I hadn't intended to use! No worries, though, it all worked out quite fine in the end. No-bake cookies are actually pretty hard to mess up. Sure, the recipe says that you need to boil the butter/sugar/milk mixture for a minute and a half, but seriously...you really can get away with shortcuts here.

Oh, and say hi to my fish, Lance, in the picture above! He's going to be 2 this September...what a trooper! Lance likes it when I bake late at night, even though he's not quite the talker...hehe. He enjoys the company, though. :)

So these no-bakes came out pretty darn good. I mixed in Cookie Crisp along with the oatmeal to shake things up a bit. And, of course, what is a cookie without some sprinkles sprinkled on top?! Sorry, all you anti-sprinklers out there, they just had to be added. :)


Badass No-Bakes

1 stick butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup peanut butter
3 cups Cookie Crisp
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter in a medium-sized bowl. Mix in sugar and milk, and stir until combined. Let boil for one minute and 30 seconds. Remove from heat, and stir in peanut butter, Cookie Crisp, oatmeal, cocoa, and vanilla.

Line baking sheets with waxed paper. Drop heaping teaspoons of batter onto sheet. Refrigerate until firm.