Food Network Magazine (September 2014)
Think of this as "The Curious Case of the No-Bake Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookies."
But first, let's back up: No-Bake Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookies have a soft spot in our hearts. It's partly due to our love for all things chocolate/peanut butter. The cookies also remind us each of fond memories of childhood. And more recently, it's our association of this kind of cookie with trips to the beach.
Every Labor Day, we spend that final, blissful weekend of summer in North Carolina, at our friend Drew's family's beach house. We make a long weekend of it (today's actually our last day at the beach). The days are long and lazy. Books are read. Magazines are passed around. The nights are most often filled with home-cooked meals. And, frankly, we eat a lot of stuff that we don't allow ourselves to eat during regular life (see: the multiple bags of spicy Cheetos that have been downed over the past few days).
For a number of years, it's been a sort of tradition to make No-Bake Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookies at the beach. Typically, we make any old version of these cookies -- whatever first shows up in Google. This year, when the latest issue of Food Network Magazine had a recipe for these cookies, we rushed to make them. Thanks to a few surprise ingredients -- golden raisins, coconut, flaxseeds -- we were eager to give them a shot.
So here's what happened.
We made the cookies as directed by the magazine. Flaxseeds were listed as an optional ingredient and we omitted them.
The cookies were delicious (we loved the golden raisins), but there was one big problem: They were a melty mess. As soon as they were out of the fridge for two minutes, the cookies became an ooey gooey puddle. They just weren't stable at all, disintegrating almost before you could eat them.
We were all set to report this back to you. But then, when we re-checked the recipe online in preparation for writing this post, we saw the following note:
From Food Network Kitchen: After further testing and to ensure the best results, this recipe has been altered from what was originally published.
The biggest change from the magazine to the website is that the optional 1 to 2 tablespoons of flaxseeds have now become "2 tablespoons flaxseeds, wheat germ or chia seeds" and are essential. We assume this helps bind the ingredients together, making these cookies more stable. However, the updated recipe now says: "These cookies are best served very chilled." So maybe they're not so stable after all?
Good for Food Network Mag for catching this problem and addressing it in the online version. It's our experience that not all magazines are so responsive.
We hope that at least a few readers will make the new version of this recipe and report back. How's the addition of the seeds/wheat germ? Can these cookies withstand a trip from the refrigerator to the next room?
Meanwhile, we'll be over here soaking up our final bit of summer.
No-Bake Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookies
Food Network Magazine (September 2014)
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(This photo: Food Network Magazine)
Active Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 50 mintues
Makes 20 cookies
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tablespoons flaxseeds, wheat germ or chia seeds
METHOD
Combine the honey, coconut oil, cocoa powder and salt in a medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the coconut oil is completely melted and the mixture is smooth and warm, 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the peanut butter and stir until completely melted, another 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the oats. Cover with a lid for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and stir in the raisins, 1/3 cup of the coconut and the flaxseeds, wheat germ or chia seeds.
Use a round tablespoon to scoop, then level, the mixture. Sprinkle with some of the remaining coconut and press lightly onto the cookie. Use a small offset spatula to gently coax the cookie onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, coconut-side down. The mixture will be a little delicate and sticky at this point. Lightly flatten the cookie with the spatula or your fingers. Repeat this process with the remaining cookie mixture, to make about 20 cookies total.
Refrigerate the cookies on the baking sheet until they are completely chilled, at least 30 minutes. These cookies are best served very chilled.
