No bake oat/peanut/coconut cookies ~ A work in progress

Third Try
Success is near. I can taste it! Thanks, Mom!

Okay, I messed around with the proportions and added a key ingredient: cocoa. Here's the scoop:

So far, I've been using peanuts. Not peanut butter, but the nuts. Using peanut butter alters the equation, but for the fun of it, I made peanut butter. All I did was put about half a cup of honey roasted peanuts in the Vitamix, then added a bit of safflower oil until I got a nice consistency. Seemed to take about 1.5 tsp. Mixed for consistency and I had peanut butter.

Safflower oil is basically tasteless. If I had peanut oil, I would've used that. But at any rate, now in this recipe I have peanut butter instead of peanuts. And peanut butter is moister than the peanuts alone.

To the peanut butter I added about half a cup of the oat milk and blended until the combo was smooth. The taste at this point was great. In fact, you could just stop right there if you'd like to have a sort of peanut butter cream--maybe a topping for ice cream? Really good stuff. Based on the end result of the cookies, though, I think a bit less milk would work fine. I might go back to about 3/8 cup and keep the rest mostly the same.

To the above mix I added the usual 1/4 tsp of vanilla and blended.

Then I added the coconut and the agave nectar (next time I'll add just a bit more agave), then blended. At this point, the mixture needed more thickening so I added the secret ingredient: about a teaspoon of cocoa (thanks for the tip, Mom!). This changed the color, the taste, and the texture. I wanted it a little bit drier, a little bit clumpier, and I got it. I still needed a tad more body, so I added another quarter cup of oats and another quarter cup of peanuts. The end result? A slightly drier version from last time, with the slightest taste of chocolate added in. However, I don't think you'd know it was cocoa unless you were told in advance. I think I'll make one more attempt with this experiment and then it oughta be done.

And by the way, I think this made about ten cookies.


Second Try
Okay, I found some oat milk and it's really, really good. I used it to make the best oatmeal I've ever tasted this morning. Now I'm using it again on my No-Bake Cookie effort. Using the oat milk is more in line with my dietary plan as I have a "milk of the day" now for each day: rice, oat, and coconut. Moving on to the second try...

I had several issues with the first try I'm trying to resolve:

1.) Quantity was a little small for blender use--the ingredients were below the blades.
2.) The first run was a little too sweet.
3.) I was using rice milk which was not "authorized" for the rest of the day's items.
4.) The cookies were not quite dry enough to eat neatly with your fingers.

Here's today's combination:

1/2 cup oat milk (Pacific Natural Foods Organic)
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp agave nectar
1/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
Approx. 1/2 cup whole grain oats
Approx. 3/8 cup honey roasted peanuts

Results: I really like the flavor. I like it a bit better now that it's not as sweet, but that's easy to adjust--a little more or less sweetener as desired would be fine. I messed around a bit with the amount of oats and peanuts in an effort to make the consistency a little drier. I wanted to be able to make the whole thing in the blender, but think I'll end up mixing most of it in the blender, then mixing the last part by hand. This batch, however, was all done in the blender. I have three small batches now "setting" up: one batch is at room temp, one is in the fridge, and one is in the freezer.

Room temp batch: I can pick it up with my fingers, but it's droops when you lift.
Fridge batch: Firm enough for most folks. A little tacky.
Freezer batch: Good and firm--cool of course--but firm enough that it does not droop. Not super tacky, but you'll want to lick your fingers when you're done. ;-)

Research continues...


First Try
I'm working on my own recipe for some no-bake cookies that use foods on my approved or "non-reactive" list. The first run was pretty good. I found some ideas online, noted that they all contained stuff I couldn't have, and modified them for my own use. This is what I have tried so far:

1/4 cup rice milk
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp agave nectar
1/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes
3/8 cup oats
1/4 cup Planters Honey-roasted peanuts

Mix it all together in a blender (I put in the milk first, then the peanuts, then blended for a while before adding the rest). Once mixed to your satisfaction (add more milk if it's too thick, more oats if it's too thin), then put cookie-sized dollops on wax paper or your plate or whatever. I suspect it might set up even better if you then set the cookies and wax paper in the fridge for a bit.

Pretty good stuff for a first run.

Notes: Other recipes use cow's milk. I am avoiding cow's milk and rice is an "authorized" grain, so I used rice milk. Also, since I can't do cow's milk, I can't use butter. I can't use soy, so I can't use margarine. What to use?

Well, one time I had some great coconut syrup in Hawaii and it was incredibly buttery tasting. I made some coconut syrup here recently and it was very similar to what I had in HI. Would coconut flakes work in this recipe above as a substitute for butter? Turns out the answer is yes.

I'm also trying to find substitutes for processed sugars. They're allowed, but I'm still experimenting. Since I love agave nectar and it has a lower glycemic value, it seemed a good match for this recipe and it also worked.

Research continues.