No-bake cookies are an incredible indulgence that you don't have to sit around waiting for while they are in the oven. Some Amish also call these beautiful no-bakes "funeral cookies." Usually, for an Amish funeral, food needs to be whipped up fast and for a crowd and these cookies are quick, easy, nourishing, and comforting.
⚰️ About Amish Funerals
We take a deeper dive into Amish funeral traditions in an earlier post. But I'll give you a brief primer here too: The Amish handle funerals in much the same way as other groups. And grief is expressed differently, depending on who is deceased. I mean, death is sad, regardless, but you'll see different manifestations of this grief if the person who passed is 97 years old versus the untimely passing of somebody who's age 25. And for all deaths, but especially the untimely ones, the Amish rally around one another to support the grieving family. And that support comes in many ways: setting up funeral arrangements, taking care of livestock, taking care of crops, paying down bills, and, of course, food. Casseroles will arrive by the dozens along with baked goods and homemade bread.
These no-bake cookies are perfect for a large gathering fast. Now, I don't want you associating these super cookies with sad times. These cookies are just nicknamed "funeral cookies" you can call them "celebration cookies" too and fix them for a fun family feast or get-together!
📋 Step-By-Step Amish No-Bake Cookies
Even if you have tried no-bakes before, this recipe has different wrinkles to it so you might want to try these. These delicious cookies bring out the kid in all of us!
There are variations in ingredients that you can factor in as you gather. For instance, I love to use crunchy peanut butter in these no-bakes, but you can just as easily use creamy peanut butter. Or if you really want to mix it up, use chocolate peanut butter! It's just purely personal preference, there is no right or wrong. You also can ditch the peanuts altogether and replace it with almond butter or sunbutter or some other seed butter.
And, oops, I forgot to get a picture of the boiling of the butter, sugar, milk, and cocoa in a medium saucepan, but that is a pretty straightforward step. I didn't use candy thermometer, just eye-balled it for a one-minute boil. After you have boiled for a minute, pour into a bowl and mix in all the other good stuff to the chocolate mixture.
Because these cookies are so difficult to screw up there is a lot of latitude for tinkering them to your personal preference. You can replace the pecans with walnuts or just leave the nuts out altogether. I can tell you I am not a huge nut fan,but I think the pecans work okay in this recipe. You can use quick oats or old-fashioned oats; I can't really tell much of a difference in these when I have used either kind of oats or oatmeal. Throw anything else into the mixture you want: some chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, pretzel pieces, whatever you want!
Once you get your batter completely mixed, you can take a spoon or a cookie scoop and just plop them onto a parchment paper-covered cookie sheet and just let them sit at room temperature until they firm up, probably about an hour is good.
You can then store these cookies in an airtight container or, if you are weird like me and like all your desserts cold, you can store these in the refrigerator or freezer. But as far as a no bake cookie recipe, these are amazing with super texture and flavor. These cookies are a super dessert but there's also nothing wrong with them as a breakfast cookie.
❓ No-Bake Cookie FAQ
Yes, many people freeze them, thaw, and enjoy! Or you can eat as a frozen treat, forget the thawing part!
We recommend unsweetened because there's enough 'sweet' added from other ingredients, but if you really like them sweet,go ahead!
🍪 More Amish Cookie Recipes
Keturah's Chocolate Chip Cookies: very Amish cookie recipe
Grandma's Graham Cracker Cookies: Amazing!
Iced Buttermilk Cookies: So good!
Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies
🖨️ Full Recipe
Amish Boiled Cookies (Funeral Cookies)
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup milk
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
- ½ cup peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups quick cooking oats not instant
- ½ cup coarsely chopped pecans
Instructions
- n a small saucepan over medium heat bring to a boil and cook butter, milk, sugar, and cocoa for 1 minute.
- Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, salt and vanilla extract.
- Mix in oats and pecans.
Joyce
I have been eating these since I was a kid, the first time my mom made them. since then, I have made them myself. I'm 76, so figure how long I've been eating them. One of my favorites! Thanks. Joyce