When I was visiting my friend in Arizona we wound up in Flagstaff for lunch. The place that we went had a big assortment of yummy, vegan sweets and K stocked up. Her favorite of the assortment was a no-bake, vegan, peanut butter cookie. She found a recipe online for a three-ingredient version that we decided that we had to try out.
Three Ingredient, No-Bake, Vegan Cookies
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter (recipe calls for natural, unsalted)
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 2 cups rolled oats
Combine the peanut butter and maple syrup in a bowl. Microwave in 20 second increments, whisk in-between until it is well combined. Continue to microwave in 20 second increments until the mixture begins to dry out (4-7 times). Add the oats, form into cookies, freeze to harden.
For an added peanut butter cookie touch, we used a fork to flatten the cookies (cute right?).
I love how simple these cookies were to make. I love that you didn’t even need the stove, you just use the microwave to do your “cooking.” They were pretty yummy, but I do think the “dough” tasted better when it was warm. If you are vegan and you are looking for something for your sweet tooth, this might be a good option for you.
I was interested to know what other no-bake vegan cookie recipes might entail, so I did a little googling and found this!
Peanut Butter-Chocolate No Bake Cookies
This is a chocolate/peanut butter cookie (click header for link). It has coco powder, so you still get the gluten free thing, but you get a little bit of the body that you would get from a cookie that has flour in it. You also use a little bit of coconut oil and some solid chocolate, which both add a bit of fat and I would think create a creamier texture.
I found about four variations on this same recipe, some used sugar instead of maple syrup, and one used coconut milk instead of almond (or other non-dairy milk). I can see myself trying this out in some form.
No-Bake, Not-Vegan Cookies?
So, then I started to wonder (as one would) what a non-vegan no-bake cookie would entail. Spoilers: the recipes that I found were pretty much the same as the vegan cookies but included some form of milk and/or butter. So whatever kind of milk you decide to use (or skip) and whatever kind of fat would be the variables between a vegan and a non-vegan cookie. But all the no-bake cookie recipes that I looked at omitted eggs and flour (no surprise there!).
Since it’s starting to warm up, this may be a fun area of sweets-making to explore without having to turn on the oven (when it isn’t an ice cream experiment day at least).
Has anyone else tried any no-bake vegan baking? Do you have a favorite recipe or trick?