These are the classic "no-bakes" of the 1980s, made without peanut butter. With just a few ingredients, and no baking needed, they're a nostalgic taste of the past you can whip up in a snap.
If you were born after about 1990, chances are good that the "No-Bake Oatmeal Cookies" you know and love, contain peanut butter. Almost every recipe for oatmeal no-bakes that you'll find these days, has peanut butter as an integral ingredient, and most people don't know them any other way.
For those of us in Gen X, though, you might remember a different, earlier version of this cookie--one that most of the "younger set" is totally unaware of. Back during my childhood, Chocolate Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies were a favorite treat, and they were not made with peanut butter.
Since peanut butter has such a strong and unmistakable taste, this means these visually similar cookies are really two very different things.
Whether you've got a peanut allergy, or just a case of nostalgia for the flavors of your childhood, I'm here to the rescue. I've got the vintage peanut-free cookie recipe, straight out of my grandmother's recipe box.
I made a batch of these cookies this week, and my kids said they were "the best cookies ever". For them, growing up with a mom who re-creates 19th century recipes and is more likely to bake cookies from the 1880s than the 1980s, these no-bakes were a brand new revelation.
My ten year old made sure to let me know that discovering a couple of these tucked into his lunch box, was one of the very best parts of his school day.
If you're my age, it's a taste that'll take you right back to the days of jelly shoes and cassette players, Teddy Ruxpin commercials and smurf lunchboxes, and phones that kept you leashed to the wall.
Hope you love 'em as much as we all do.
~ A
📖 Recipe
Classic '80s No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (No Peanut Butter)
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup shortening (I've always used butter)
- 6 tablespoon cocoa
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 pinch salt
- 4 cups oatmeal (rolled oats, not quick oats)
Instructions
- Bring sugar, milk, shortening or butter, and cocoa to a rolling boil. (The old recipe doesn't specify, but making this with my grandmother, she used to hold it at the boiling point for one minute before removing from the heat.)
- Take from stove, and add vanilla, salt, and oats.
- stir well, and drop by tablespoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheets.
- Allow to fully cool before serving and storing.
Nutrition
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- Salted Maple Honey Caramels {NO Corn Syrup}
- Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
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Anna Chesley
Anna Chesley is a freelance writer living a homestead lifestyle, with a special love for family travel, old books, vintage skills, and seaside living. In addition to founding Salt In My Coffee, she runs the website, New England Family Life, as well as The 1800's Housewife, a website devoted to re-creating authentic 1800's recipes.
Melanie Brown says
Oh my gosh, my mother has been passed away for many years and I have been trying to find this exact recipe. These were one of our favorites growing up. I kept thinking “ I don’t remember peanut butter being in them” lol and I was right! These taste just like the ones she use to make. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!
Anna Chesley says
Oh I'm so delighted to hear it! This is such a nostalgic cookie for me as well, thank goodness for those well-worn old recipe cards!