SCORE! -- Success with the No Bakes At Last!

Yes, it's true. On the SIXTH try I finally succeeded with the No Bake Cookies. Woot!

I'd just like to thank all those who stood by me in these previous difficult weeks. My success is due to you, faithful friends. Without your support I wouldn't be standing here today.

[holds up large silver award and waves it at the audience]

I want to thank the public library system for all the cookbooks that taught me to feed my family edible food, sometimes even really good food.

I also want to thank my family for eating the many a few less than spectacular meals.

But most of all, I want to thank the internet. It was you that provided the final recipe that spelled success in the form of AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS No Bake Cookies.

It is you that I can always count on, to come through with just the recipe I'm looking for.

Internet, you ROCK!

[pumps award high in the air]

[snaps back to reality]

I think ultimately success was due to using really good quality ingredients. Ivan made a trip into Cordoba Friday morning and was kind enough to do a Walmart run for me and he brought home Quaker oats. (Thanks honey!) That, plus replacing the cocoa with a dark chocolate bar cut into chunks, did the trick.

So for all those other No Bake Challenged Interwebbies out there, I bring to you a recipe that is almost sure to succeed. (Hey, if it worked for me after FIVE FAILS, it just may work for you too!) I've altered the name a little to reflect the product more accurately.

No Bake Chocolatey Goodness Cookies

4 oz. butter

1/2 cup milk

2 cups sugar

1 cup chocolate chips

(I used a large dark chocolate bar cut into chunks instead)

3 cups oats

Mix the butter, milk and sugar in a medium size pan over low-to-medium heat and stir frequently until it comes to a boil and boil exactly 1-1/2 minutes. Remove pan from heat, add chocolate chips and stir until melted, then add oatmeal. Mix until all the oatmeal is well incorporated. Use a large spoon to scoop cookie mixture onto wax paper or tin foil. Allow to cool and store in airtight container. Resist the temptation to hide the airtight container in your lingerie drawer so nobody else can have any. That's not kind and God will smite you for it. Of course you'd die happy and in a state of chocolate bliss.

Note: Sugar is in the container with the blue lid, in case you haven't surmised that. And you don't see any milk with the other ingredients because we drank it all while eating cookies last night. I didn't have the bright idea to include photos until this morning :-)

Note #2: I did not use either vanilla nor peanut butter which seems to appear in 99.2% of the recipes for No Bakes. While I do believe chocolate and peanut butter are an excellent flavor combination, I didn't want any peanut butter fighting with the chocolate in this instance. I just wanted that pure, rich deep dark chocolate. *sigh* These are, in my humble opinion, the best No Bakes I've ever had. Seriously.