No Bake Cookie Bars are a quick and easy treat made with simple ingredients!! Perfect for a bake sale, potlucks and after-school treats!
Jump to Recipe
One of my first recipes I remember making as a kid is No Bake Cookies. They were easy to make, had just a handful of ingredients and always cured my sweet tooth!
Well I've taken one more step at making No Bake Cookies easy by turning them into bars! No more scooping into cookies or worrying about getting them to all look uniform. Just put them into a square pan, let them cool, cut into little (ehhh or big) squares and enjoy!!
And the best part is that you can eat the "dough" without worrying about raw egg or raw flour! My three siblings and I would always fight over the saucepan and spoon to make sure we all got our fair share! 🙂 Ok now, let me show you how simple these no bake treats are!
Ingredients Needed
- Butter
- Sugar
- Corn Syrup
- Milk - I use 2% milk, but you could also use whole milk, half and half or heavy cream)
- Cocoa Powder
- Peanut Butter - I recommend creamy peanut butter
- Vanilla
- Quick Oats - I do not recommend old-fashioned oats as it makes it a less-appealing texture
- Toppings - I like to use extra peanut butter to drizzle on top of the bars! You could also drizzle melted peanut butter chips on top and/or sprinkle with chopped peanut butter cups or mini M&M's for a fun twist!
How to make these No Bake Cookie Bars
First, you'll want to line a square baking pan with parchment or waxed paper and gather all of your ingredients.
You'll add the butter, sugar, corn syrup, milk and cocoa powder to a saucepan and heat on low until the butter is melted. Then, you can turn the temperature up a bit and stirring occasionally, bring it to a boil.
Once it's at a rolling boil (pay close attention!), you'll let it boil for 1 minute. Be sure to keep a close eye on it, because if you cook it too long, it'll produce more dry and crumbly bars.
Once the minute is up, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla and peanut butter.
Lastly, stir in the oats and dump it into the lined square pan. Use a spoon or spatula to spread it into an even layer.
Add toppings while the mixture is warm, such as a drizzle of melted peanut butter! (I just put some warm peanut butter into a little baggie, cut the tip off and squeeze it out.)
You can either let these cool on the counter (which will take a couple hours to completely set up) OR refrigerate them to speed up the process. Once they're cool and set up, cut them into squares and enjoy!!
I recommend storing these at room temperature in an airtight container.
If you've given them a chance to cool (and even have tried to refrigerate them and had no luck with them setting up), the sugar mixture likely needed to be boiled a little longer!
My guess is that the sugar mixture was boiled too long. Next time, just be sure to start the 1 minute timer as soon as it boils and remove it from the heat as soon as the minute is up.
More No Bake Bar Recipes
No Bake Smores Bars - This great recipe uses milk chocolate chips, mini marshmallows and Golden Graham cereal to bring together all the flavors of campfire smores!
Scotcheroos - These no bake bars are always a delicious treat!! They've got a peanut butter and Rice Krispies base and are topped with melted butterscotch and semisweet chocolate chips!
Loaded Scotcheroos - These "loaded" scotcheroos are different from the original recipe in that they're a little bit caramelly, thanks to a mixture of caramel topping and brown sugar. They've also got a melted chocolate topping and toffee bits which adds a little crunch.
Cereal Treats - This is one of my kids' favorite easy recipes! They're full of cereal, chocolate chips, M&M's and peanut butter!
CONNECT WITH DANCE AROUND THE KITCHEN!
Follow us on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook so you never miss a recipe!! And as always, thank you for following along with my blog, making my recipes, liking and sharing on social media and any other way you support Dance Around the Kitchen! -Kelsey
No Bake Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- 1 ⅓ cup sugar
- ¼ cup corn syrup
- ⅓ cup milk
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- ¾ cup peanut butter (+ additional for drizzling on top, optional)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 ¼ cups quick oats
Instructions
- Line a 9x9 inch square pan with parchment paper; set aside.
- In a saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, corn syrup, milk and cocoa powder.
- Heat on low until the butter is melted, stirring frequently.
- Turn the heat up to medium and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla.
- Stir in the oats and then pour into the prepared pan; smooth out the top.
- Drizzle with additional peanut butter (I like to microwave a couple tablespoons peanut butter for 10-15 seconds so it's runny and easy to drizzle).
- Refrigerate until set then cut into bars and serve!
Aeil says
Cookie bars
There are gooey delicious awesome
In a short time simple recipe that
Really works I made three batches
Gave to neighbors today Kelsey
a awesome recipe thank you
So much
Five stars 10 of 10
kelsey says
Awww thank you!!! So happy you (and your neighbors!) got to enjoy these! ~Kelsey