No Bake Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies

Ever had one of those days where you want something sweet, but don’t want to bake / cook anything or worse, you just don’t feel like wasting time and money going to the store to buy any of that overpriced crap they sell? Today being National Peanut Butter Day, we figured we would shine some light on this “spread” of sorts and show you how to turn it into a delicious snack that takes less than 20 minutes to pull together.

Enjoy!

(click read more for the entire recipe)

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups (9 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

2 TBS Crisco® Butter Shortening, divided OR 2 TBS Crisco® Butter Shortening Sticks, divided

2 ½ cups (5 oz. can) Chow Mein noodles, coarsely broken and divided

½ cup oats (quick, uncooked), divided

1 2/3 cups (10 oz. pkg.) peanut butter chips, divided

Dried Apricots (optional), cut into small pieces

Directions:

Cover 2 baking pans with waxed paper.

Place 1 cup of Chocolate Chips and 1 TBS of Shortening in a double boiler over medium heat and stir until smooth.  (A double boiler, also known as a bain Marie, is a stove top apparatus used to cook delicate sauces such as beurre blanc, to melt chocolate without burning or seizing, or cook any other thick liquid that would normally burn if not stirred constantly.

It consists of an upper vessel containing the substance to be cooked that is situated above a lower pot of water. When brought to a boil, the steam produced in the lower pot transfers heat to the upper pot.)

Once smooth & creamy, stir in 1 ¼ cups of the chow mein noodles and ¼ cup of the oats.

Drop heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto the prepared tray.

Flatten slightly.

Press 2/3 cup peanut butter chips into cookies.

Let stand until firm.

Place the remaining 1 cup peanut butter chips and 1 tablespoon shortening back in the double boiler.

Repeat the previous process again until the Peanut Butter Chips are smooth and creamy.

Stir in remaining 1 ¼ cups chow mein noodles and ¼ cup of oats.

Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto prepared tray.

Flatten slightly.

Press remaining 12 cup chocolate chips into cookies.

Garnish with apricots, if desired.

Let stand until firm.