These chocolate cookies are delicious, and they couldn’t be easier or more kid-friendly since you don’t even have to turn on the oven–music to my ears here in the South during the hot summer months!  (This northern girl melts down here this time of year!)  My oldest daughter, in particular, absolutely loves these “no-bakes”, and she requests them often.  These would be fun to make together with your kids on a rainy summer day when you’re stuck inside (or an absurdly hot and humid day, for that matter… hypothetically speaking, of course…)

With the summer months also comes “wedding season” and graduations.  If someone special to you is starting a new chapter in life, perhaps you can take some of your favorite recipes and compile them to make a cookbook made online.  My sister-in-law and I worked together to create a cookbook for my brother and his new wife when they got married a few years back.  We collected favorite recipes from our extended family (some going back for generations), and we created a book with various pictures interspersed throughout the cookbook.  (View a glimpse of the cookbook we made below, and read more about it near the bottom of this post filled with 100+ ideas to help you organize your home and your life.)

They were touched by our efforts to make them such a special gift, but what I didn’t think about was how other family members could also order a copy.  Almost everyone has a copy of the cookbook now–such a perfect way to be sure that treasured family recipes are never lost across generations!  We even uploaded some pictures of actual recipe cards written out by grandparents and great-grandparents.  A precious keepsake for all of us… I will most certainly be creating cookbooks like this for my four girls someday!  :)

Blurb is a great place to start if you’re looking for an online company where you can make your own cookbook!

Step-By-Step for Easy No-Bake Chocolate Cookies:

Bring sugar, cocoa, butter, milk, and salt to a rapid boil in a saucepan.  Boil for 1 minute.

* Tip:  DO NOT OVERBOIL!  I boiled mine for too long one time, and the cookies never set up properly.  They still tasted good, but they were sticky and gooey.

You will then add the peanut butter.

Tip:  When baking with sticky substances (such as peanut butter or shortening), you can follow these three steps to make for easier clean-up and more accurate measuring.  (I shared this tip here in my Friday Fast Tip series.)

1.  Fill your measuring cup with hot water.  Let it sit for at least 30 seconds and then pour the water out.

2.  Measure your peanut butter.

3.  The peanut butter will pop right out when nudged with a spoon.  Easy clean-up and just the right amount goes into the recipe!

Add quick cooking oats and vanilla.  Mix well.

Working quickly, spoon out the mixture onto waxed paper and let cool.

Tip:  I like to use a spring-loaded ice-cream scooper for this.  The cookies will then be uniform in size and the “scraper” will force the batter out easily for less mess.