I made a batch of no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies and they didn’t set. I ended up with lumps of gooey mess.
Does this sound familiar?
Although most no bake cookie recipes are fairly easy, it is important to follow the recipe, specifically for the amounts of ingredients and the cooking time. When a recipe says ‘boil’ it means that the mixture should have rolling bubbles for the recommended time. Because we are so used to bringing food to the boil and then simmering it, many no bake cookies fail if you turn the heat to simmer before it has boiled long enough.
Another reason for the failure of no bake recipes occurs when ingredients are left out yet other ingredients are not increased. It’s all about volume. For example, if a recipe calls for 8 ounces of milk, but you only have 4, your mix will be to dry to set and may end up being a crumbled mess. The missing 4 ounces of liquid needs to be made up with another liquid, such as water, or, juice.
It’s perfectly acceptable to reduce, or, avoid, ingredients you don’t like, but unless you also cut down the same proportions with the other ingredients, you may run into problems. So, if you want to reduce the amount of oats by 1/2 cup, try making up the volume with 1/2 cup of cereal and your cookies will turn out just fine.
Not letting your cookies set for the recommended time can also lead to failure. Even though you have made a fabulous batch of cookies, if they don’t get enough time to set firmly, they will fall apart. Some cookies can be ready to eat in as little as 30 minutes while others require an hour or two before they are ready to eat. It’s hard to leave cookies to sit when they look good enough to eat, however, it’s the difference between eating a perfect cookie and having a handful of goo or crumbs.