These cookies were one of the first things Jocelyn and I made together after I was diagnosed with celiac back in college.  The recipe’s hers, from time immemorial, though I can at least claim the non-chocolate version as my own.  🙂  They make excellent travel rations, especially if you have time to freeze them the night before; they’re also great snacks (if dangerously addictive).  As the name implies, you don’t need an oven, though you do need a stove.  They’re fast and easy to make, and a good cookie to make together with someone for fun — assembly goes quickly, then you can spoon out cookies to set together, inevitably creating a conflict of elbow space as you work.  🙂

The only catch, of course, is that you need a source of quick oats you trust to be gluten-free, which means I don’t get to make these cookies as often as I’d like.  But here’s the recipe anyhow.  🙂

No-Bake Chocolate (Or Cinnamon!) Cookies

Yield:  12-18 cookies, depending on size

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, OR 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky, depending on whether or not you want nuts in your cookies)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups GF quick oats

Directions:

1.  In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then stir in the sugar, milk, and cocoa (or cinnamon, if you’re making non-chocolate cookies).  Turn the burner up to high and bring the mixture to a boil for 1 1/2 minutes.

2.  Remove from heat.  Stirring after each addition until combined, add the peanut butter, oats, and vanilla.

3.  Lay wax paper out on the counter.  With a large spoon, drop scoops of the cookie mixture onto the wax paper.  How big a scoop depends on how big a cookie you want; just keep in mind the larger the cookie, the longer it’ll take to set.  Once all the mixture is portioned out, leave it to set.  This can take anywhere from half an hour to several hours; every now and again they need to be left out overnight, but that’s unusual.

4.  Once the cookies are solid, collect them off the wax paper and tuck them into a ziploc bag to store in either the fridge or the freezer.  You can eat these frozen without letting them thaw first, which is handy.  🙂  I make sure to put most of them away before I eat any so I don’t eat them all in one sitting.  🙂