No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
on Jul 29, 2014, Updated Nov 18, 2025
These Old Fashioned No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies are made with soft and chewy oats, rich cocoa, and creamy peanut butter. It’s the BEST no bake cookie recipe that will remind you of your childhood.
I have the recipe for No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies just like mom use to make. It’s a classic cookie that I think most every mother and grandma made. My mom would make a batch and they were devoured before they even had time to cool.
If you are looking for other easy cookie recipes, consider making No Chill Sugar Cookies or 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies.
Quick and easy no bake cookies are great during the Christmas holiday season and all year long. My recipe for No Bake Cookies with Peanut Butter and Chocolate can be made in less than 15 minutes, making them the BEST cookie when you are pressed for time.
Chocolate and Peanut Butter are like a match made in heaven. They taste incredible in just about any dessert. This cookie recipe combines them with old-fashioned quick oats. I have yet to try the recipe with the regular quick oats. If you give it a try, let us know your results.
The butter, chocolate and sugars need to be cooked a certain way to achieve a perfect candy fudge like textured cookie. In order to have a perfect soft and chewy cookie that is not dry or crumbly, I give you a few helpful tips to make these cookies just right.
No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies Ingredients
To make these No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies without baking, you need some staple ingredients from the fridge and pantry. Unbaked Cookies like these tend to not need any flour or eggs to pull them off- so you get to skip the baking step to your usual cookie recipes. Here’s all the ingredients you’ll need:
- White Sugar – Just your usual white granulated sugar here.
- Brown Sugar – Adds a depth of flavor. Light brown sugar will work best for this recipe.
- Cocoa Powder – The stuff that’s 100 percent cacao. Don’t mix this up with hot chocolate mix! You can go with fancy cocoa powder like Guittard or Ghirardelli’s baking cocoa or just stick with basic Hershey’s cocoa powder like we did.
- Butter – Cold butter or warm, softened butter doesn’t really matter too much here since it’s getting cooked right away.
- Milk – Whole milk, skim milk, or fat-free milk should all work fine here. You can probably get away with using non-dairy milks like almond milk or oatmilk too, if you wanted.
- Peanut Butter – Creamy is best. store or name brand will be ok.
- Vanilla Extract
- Quick Oats – We specifically went with quick oats here because the texture probably works the best. Instant oats likely won’t work or bind as well and old fashioned oats might turn out a bit too chewy and grainy.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make No Bake Cookies with Peanut Butter and Chocolate
Like the name says, No Bake Cookies or Boiled Cookies if you are old-school, tend to be really easy cookie recipes because you skip the longest part of the process: baking cookies. Instead you whip up a No Bake Cookie Batter on the stovetop, portion it out into these sort of cookie dough balls, and just let them cool before snacking away. For our No Bake Chocolate Cookies, this is all you have to do:
- Start by adding sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder, butter, and milk to a large pan. Cook over very low heat, stirring frequently until butter melts.
- Once the butter is melted, turn the heat up to medium. Make sure you keep stirring constantly.
- Eventually, this chocolate sauce will come up to a boil. Let boil for exactly one minute before cutting heat and removing from the stovetop. Set a timer as this step is VERY IMPORTANT.
- Add in peanut butter and vanilla. Stir to mix until peanut butter melts and combines with other ingredients.
- Now add quick oats and stir to coat and combine.
- This should help everything form into our No Bake Cookie Batter. From here, you can use a cookie or ice cream scoop to scoop out portions and drop cookies onto parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Allow Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies to cool completely at room temperature before serving.
Storage / Freezing
Storage: No Bake Cookies can vary in how long they last based on what ingredients go into them. With our Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies, you can keep them in an airtight container on the counter at room tempertaure for 5-7 days. Transfer over to the fridge and they’ll keep for 1-2 weeks.
Freezing: Frozen No Bake Cookies can also last quite long. For best results, consider “flash freezing” on a parchment-lined cookie sheet for 30-60 minutes before putting in a freezer bag. Squeeze excess air out and keep in the freezer for up to 3 months for best taste and texture.
Tips for the BEST No Bake Cookies
- Gather all ingredients before you start to cook, it will make the process much smoother. Your attention needs to be focussed on stirring.
- Work quickly, this recipe moves very fast.
- Use Old-Fashioned Quick Oats for the best texture.
- Set a Timer– It’s very important to set a timer for exactly one minute after chocolate mixture comes to a boil. If using a thick pot that retains heat extremely well, set timer for 45 seconds instead of 1 minute.
- Stir constantly. The mixture is like candy, it can be temperamental.
- Choose your favorite sized cookies. I went with a larger 3.5 inch cookie. Feel free to use a 1.5 tbs cookie scoop for smaller cookies.
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No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1 cup Light Brown Sugar
- 1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
- 1/2 cup Butter
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 2/3 cup Peanut Butter
- 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 3 cup Quick Oats
Instructions
- Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large pan, combine sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder, butter and milk over low heat.
- Stir frequently until butter is melted. Then increase heat to medium and stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil.
- Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly, then remove from heat.
- Add peanut butter and vanilla extract and stir to mix.
- Add oats and stir to incorporate.
- Using a cookie scoop, portion mixture into approximately 3 1/2″ cookies on prepared sheets.
- Allow to cool.
Notes
- Gather all ingredients before you start to cook, it will make the process much smoother. Your attention needs to be focussed on stirring.
- Work quickly, this recipe moves very fast.
- Use Old-Fashioned Quick Oats for the best texture.
- Set a Timer– It’s very important to set a timer for exactly one minute after chocolate mixture comes to a boil. If using a thick pot that retains heat extremely well, set timer for 45 seconds instead of 1 minute.
- Stir constantly. The mixture is like candy, it can be temperamental.
- Choose your favorite sized cookies. I went with a larger 3.5 inch cookie. Feel free to use a 1.5 tbs cookie scoop for smaller cookies.
Nutrition
Any way to make this without milk? My family doesn’t drink milk so we have it on hand.