How to Make No Bake Cookies

Melt'n Mix Easy No Bake Cookies

When the days are long and the sun is warm the last place you want to be is in your kitchen slaving over a hot stove.

The solution? No bake cookies.

Our tips and techniques will have you whipping up these easy cookie recipes in a flash.

No bake cookie recipes are made by melting chocolate, syrup or marshmallows which is then mixed with dry ingredients, spooned into paper patty cases or a shallow cake tin and left to set.

The simplest cookies are made from breakfast cereals or crushed cookies to which dried fruit and nuts can be added.

Below we give you two basic cookie recipes. Use these as a base for creating your own.

However, there are countless variations of these recipes. The simplicity and ease of no bake cookies allows you to use your creative flair and produce your own culinary treats. With no rolling out dough, no baking and testing for doneness, there's very little that can go wrong. The hardest thing you will have to do is melt butter or chocolate.

Chocolate

The most common setting agent of course is chocolate. Always allow the melted chocolate to cool before adding the dry ingredients.

Here is a simple chocolate cookie recipe:

Ingredients

65g / 2 ½ oz unsalted butter
175 g / 6 oz plain chocolate
75 g / 3 oz crushed cookies
½ cup flaked (sliced) almonds
½ cup chopped dried fruit
50 g / 2 oz roughly chopped white chocolate

Method

Place the butter and plain chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water and stir until melted. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool.
Stir in the crushed cookies, flaked almonds, dried fruit and chopped white chocolate. Spoon into a tin and allow to set.

Syrup or Marshmallows

Marshmallows, golden syrup (light corn syrup), maple syrup and butter are also popular.

This basic recipe uses equal quantities of syrup, butter and marshmallows mixed with puffed rice cereal.

Ingredients

115 g / 4 oz butter
115 g / 4 oz marshmallows
115 g / 4 oz golden or maple syrup
115 g / 4 oz puffed rice cereal

Method

Place the butter, marshmallows and syrup into a pan and melt over a medium heat, being careful not to burn the butter. Stir in the puffed rice cereal, spoon into a tin and refrigerate until set.

Layered No Bake Cookies

Although most no bake cookies are comprised of a single layer, some can be two or more layers.
These are richer more complex affairs and usually consist of a crushed cookie base with a creamy topping.

Cook’s Tips

It is recommended that the tin be lined with tin foil, particularly if the cookie is to be refrigerated or frozen.
As with bar cookies, allow the foil to overhang on 2 sides making it easy to remove from the tin.
If your recipe calls for crushed cookies, an easy solution is to process the cookies in a food processor.
Alternatively place cookies in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin.
Cutting and serving your cookies is exactly the same as cutting your bar cookie recipes. Just follow the directions.

Storing

If your no bake cookie contains cream, cream cheese or chocolate it will need to be refrigerated, especially in hot weather.
For information on freezing your cookies go here.