It was Christmas baking time in my house over the weekend. I didn’t quite get everything done that I’d planned on (the butter tarts fell by the wayside when I ran out of oomph before I got the pastry made), but I accomplished impressive numbers of cookies— including some for the dog—so at least I have a few treats on hand for the holidays.
One of the easiest is for unbaked chocolate oat clusters (on the left in the picture below)—somewhat sadly referred to as “unbaked cookies” on the ragged scrap of paper on which I wrote the recipe some three decades (or more) ago, but oh, so scrumptious! By request of a Facebook follower, here’s the recipe. 🙂
Unbaked Chocolate Oat Clusters
½ cup butter
2 cups sugar
½ cup milk
3 cups quick rolled oats
1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt if using unsalted butter
Combine butter, sugar, and milk in large saucepan. Bring to boil, lower heat, and keep at gentle rolling boil for 3 minutes, stirring often. Keep a close eye on this, because it can boil over very quickly and cause a huge mess (voice of experience 😉 ).
Remove from heat and stir in remainder of ingredients. Work quickly, because it can become very stiff very fast. Drop by teaspoonfuls on waxed paper. When set, store in container in a cool, dry place.
Note: these adapt very easily to dairy-free. I make them using Earth Balance spread in place of the butter, and with either almond or soy milk in place of the milk. They’re just as good. 🙂
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