No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Candy With Peanut Butter

I make no bake chocolate oatmeal candy with peanut butter and extra nuts a few times a year. My family loves them but I don’t want to overdo it. Then they get tired of the special stuff.

This time after making the candy, I made three cookie stands to display them. I used candle holders and decorative dinner plates I found at the thrift store. The cookie stands are great pieces to have for holiday parties or any time parties.

Let me show you how I put the cookie stands together using thrift store finds. Some of the candle holders were in my stash, and the others were purchases I made in anticipation of this project. I gathered anything I thought would work as a stand because you never know.

The plates came from the thrift store just up the street from me. I paid $2.59 minus my 30% retired military (spouse) discount. You can’t beat that. The plates are a set and the designs are pretty and stylish.

I selected three candle holders and paired them with plates selecting the colors that went best together. I cleaned the plates and candle holders before putting the pieces together.

Gorilla Glue is my go-to for projects like this one but sometimes I have a problem with the glue. I decided to read the directions before starting this project. I’m glad I did because I learned how to use glue properly.

The directions say to dampen one of the items before gluing the pieces together. Who knew?? I dampened the bottom of each plate with a wet paper towel and applied the glue to the top edge of each candle holder.

After running glue all around the rim of the candlestick, I turned it upside down and set it on the bottom of the plate. I put two more serving stands together and set them up to dry.

The Gorilla Glue directions also say to put something heavy on the project pieces while the glue dries. That’s why the photo above looks funny. I grabbed things from around the house to set on top of the glued pieces. The stands were dry enough to work with after a couple of hours. The directions say to wait 24 hours but who has all that time……and patience.

The cookie stand with the white base is the only thing that’s painted. I painted it for one of my prior projects. When I get tired of a piece I take it apart and put the parts back on the workshop shelves. That’s what happened with this wood candle holder.

The no bake chocolate cookies were my brother’s favorite when we were growing up and are still his favorite. Of course, I like them too. Anything with chocolate works for me. I added my own twist to the original recipe. I use extra crunchy peanut butter and I also add chopped pecans. The nuttier, the better.

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans

Ingredients

1 Stick Unsalted Butter
2 Cups Sugar
3 Tablespoons Cocoa (Hershey’s)
1/2 Cup Evaporated Milk
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Flavoring
1 Cup Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter
2 1/2 Cups Minute Oats
1/2 Cup Chopped Pecans

Combine butter, sugar, cocoa, and evaporated milk in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil on medium heat. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove pan from heat and add vanilla flavoring and peanut butter. Stir well then add oats and chopped pecans. Mix together and drop by spoonful onto parchment paper or wax paper. Let cool. Enjoy!

You can print the recipe here….No Bake Cookies.

These are the ingredients I had in the cabinet. I’m not stuck on any certain brand. I do prefer real butter over margarine though.

Combine the butter, sugar, evaporated milk, and cocoa and bring to a boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes. The no-bake cookies are easy to make, but if you don’t boil the mixture long enough, the cookies will be too soft, and if you boil the mixture too long, the cookies will be a little dry…..cook them way too long, and they will crumble and fall apart. I know this because I’ve been through all three scenarios.

Add the vanilla flavoring and peanut butter to the pan and mix well. Add the oatmeal and pecans last. Stir together and drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper, wax paper, or a buttered cookie sheet.

Let set until firm then enjoy! I may have boiled the mixture just a tad too long because my cookies were dry. They were not too dry because they were yummy.

If you don’t care for nuts, just omit the pecans and use smooth peanut butter in the recipe.

The serving stands can be used to hold just about anything. They would be great for donuts, a small cake, or muffins maybe. You can also display lemons and limes, bananas, jewelry, whatever, on them. Do you have any ideas for me?

I have more family recipes here….Italian Cream Cake……..Sausage Wonton Appetizers. How about you? Do you have any favorite cookie recipes? As always, thanks for being here, and have a great day, Kathy