Yessss! The time for minter has come! I’m all about pumpkin recipes in autumn, as evidenced by the abundance of pumpkin themed posts in the last three months, like pumpkin pie spiced granola, pumpkin pie spiced creamer, pumpkin cream cheese pull apart bread and pumpkin spiced caramel corn. However, before autumn has officially ended, I start to get excited about all things peppermint. Did you know the first official day of winter this year is December 22? I can’t wait that long for peppermint folks! By the time Thanksgiving arrives, I’m ready for peppermint bark, candy canes, peppermint coffee creamer and all sorts of peppermint desserts.
This year, I decided to combine my love of peppermint with one of my favorite no bake cookie recipes. There are so many reasons to love no bake cookies: If your oven is already busy baking holiday casseroles or main dishes, you can still easily whip up a batch of these cookies on the stove top, they’re gluten free, and they require just seven ingredients!
Every Christmas season I make no bake chocolate peanut butter oatmeal cookies. They’re incredibly rich and sweet, but oh so good! For this peppermint bark version, I made a few changes to the traditional no bake cookie recipe. First, I omitted the peanut butter, because as much as I love peanut butter, peanut butter and peppermint together just doesn’t sound like a good idea. Next, I decided to take the edge off the almost overwhelming sweetness of no bake cookies. It’s amazing what a difference a pinch of sea salt can make. Even Gary, who usually isn’t the biggest fan of no bake cookies, loved these Peppermint Bark No Bake Oatmeal Cookies!
These cookies also passed a pot luck test at a Christmas party, and they were given two thumbs up at my Wednesday night church small group, who seems to have become my unofficial focus group for new dessert recipes.
Peppermint Bark No Bake Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 stick salted butter
- 2 cups granulated white sugar
- 6 TBS cocoa powder
- ½ cup milk almond milk works great!
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 cups old fashioned gluten free, oats
- 2 candy canes
Instructions
- Line two baking sheets with wax paper, or lay wax paper on the counter.
- Break the candy canes into pieces and pulse in a food processor or blender until they are broken into fine pieces. You can also break the candy canes into small pieces by laying them between two sheets of wax paper and rolling over them several times with a rolling pin.
- Melt the butter in a large sauce pan.
- Add milk, cocoa and sugar and stir to combine.
- Increase heat to high, stirring often.
- Once the mixture comes to a boil, immediately stir in vanilla extract. This will cause the mixture to bubble. Remove from heat. It is important not to let the mixture boil for more than 30 seconds to a minute because the mixture will harden too quickly, resulting in crumbly cookies, if overheated.
- Stir in oats and candy cane bits, mixing vigorously until all pieces are coated in chocolate.
- Drop heaping tablespoons onto the wax paper while mixture is still hot.
- Sprinkle cookies with a pinch of sea salt while still hot.
- Allow to sit until cookies have hardened. This can take a few hours if left at room temperature. Place cookies in the refrigerator or freezer to harden them more quickly.
Picture Instructions:
Break two candy canes into pieces, and toss them into a food processor or blender.
Pulse until fine.
Once butter is melted, add milk, sugar and cocoa, stirring constantly. Things move pretty quickly after this. As soon as this mixture comes to a boil, be ready to add the vanilla, oats and candy cane pieces. Then remove from heat and drop by heaping tablespoons onto wax paper lined cookie sheets. Sprinkle with sea salt and allow to cool until hard.
Lol to your first graphic. Pinning this for the most wonderful time of the year!!!! ????
Can’t help loving Minter, lol. Thanks for pinning it; I hope you love them!!
Wow, those sound delicious! And so simple to make!