(No Bake) Chocolate Peanut Butter bites

In typical Jenny & Aaron fashion, spur of the moment sweets, aka concoctions, often happen after midnight. I'm a big baker. Not much makes me happier than finding an amazing looking recipe for a cake or cupcakes...or a pie, or bars, or candies, or whatever...and then being able to whip it up into existence. I love the whole process. I'm even a fan of shopping for the ingredients. The baking aisle can hold my attention for 45 minutes easily. Poring over the selection of sprinkles, cupcake wrappers, imported cocoa, baking chocolate. And these days we are so lucky to have all of the incredible online shopping options.  At the tip of your fingers you'll find the cutest cupcake wrappers in any shade or pattern imaginable, sanding sugars in every color of the rainbow, madagascar bourbon vanilla, and if you really want to take homemade ice cream to the next level you'll splurge for the whole bean vanilla that comes contained in a test-tube-esque vessel. When it comes to baking supplies I'm a googling nut, and I have been for as long as I've been using google. So it may seem weird that I actually look forward to seeing what ends up at my local grocery store. I guess I love seeing the trickle down effect. Similar to how runway looks end up at your local mall. It's cool to see the new "norm" of the baking aisle.  That stuff excites me.

I made these simple little treats for the first time a few months ago. It was nearly 1 am, and we had just had some popcorn and needed something sweet to finish us off. Rather than jumping into full-on baking mode, and turning on the oven, and dealing with a bunch of dishes...which is something I have no problem doing...I've been known to bake up Magnolia cupcakes on a whim at 2 am more times than I can count...I hit google and came across a few recipes for "no bake" cookies. 

We opted for something classic, with those old stand-by's chocolate & peanut butter. I have made these a handful of times now and used both cocoa powder as well as squares of baking chocolate. I wing it in the kitchen and I'm a pretty good winger...but if you like to go by the book, here is a recipe:

Ingredients

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa

1 stick butter (cut into pieces)

1/2 cup milk

1 cup peanut butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 cups oatmeal (I used quick cooking oats)

Directions

In a saucepan bring to a boil, the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk. Let boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat.  Then, add peanut butter, vanilla and oatmeal. Stir well to combine. On a sheet of waxed paper, drop mixture by the tablespoonful. Let cool till set.

We found that we liked them chilled in the fridge.

These little guys are super yummy and really don't last more than a day around here. Let me know if you make them, or if you add anything to them! Coconut could be great!

Happy September friends!!
( I used one of my favorite vintage leaf plates...yay Fall!)
xo Jenny