Christmas cookies are a delight to share with friends and neighbours. For cooks who are in a warm place for Christmas or who simply have no space or time for baking cookies in an oven, there is hope. With Chistmas no-bake cookie recipes, Christmas baking is completely possible, oven-free! These recipes can be created with a stove top range, but none of them require baking.
Tips for the No-Bake Christmas Cookie Kitchen
Generally, cookies need an ingredient that will hold them together. In oven baking, this ingredient is often an egg or an egg substitute. No-bake cookie recipes rely on other ingredients to hold the cookies together. Whether cookies are made with dried fruit, melted chocolate, peanut butter or marshmallows, sticky ingredients help make no-bake cookies a success.
Cathedral Windows
These cookies are sure to be a hit with the kids – just don’t feed them too many before bed time! They’re called cathedral windows because the mini marshmallows look like little pieces of stained glass embedded in a chocolate cookie frame. With only three ingredients, this recipe is excellent for beginners who start with baking.
Recommended reading: 15 Baking Tools and Equipment that Beginners Need to Get Started
Ingredients:
- 1 package pastel mini marshmallows
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup butter
Directions:
Melt the chocolate chips and the butter. Pour them over the marshmallows and mix. Place in the fridge for an hour until the mixture has set, then use wax paper to roll the mixture into a log. Refrigerate it for 4 hours, then cut into slices.
Puffed Rice Christmas Trees and Ornaments
Puffed Rice or Rice Krispie squares are sticky, messy delights. They can turn into all sorts of shapes and can be decorated with Smarties, raisins, and other treats. Turn rice squares into a Christmas tree or a Christmas ornament. Use waxed paper or a buttered cookie cutter to shape the treats.
Ingredients
- Puffed rice cereal
- 2 cups of marshmallows
- A tablespoon of butter
- A teaspoon of vanilla
Directions:
Melt the butter, vanilla, and marshmallows together until they are smooth. Add more butter as required. Stir in cups of puffed rice cereal until the mixture is gooey but malleable. Cool and make into shapes. Store in a greased pan.
Chocolate Peanut-Butter Bars
Chocolate peanut butter bars are the cure for the peanut butter cup blues. They mix chocolate and peanut butter in a delightfully sweet way. Give these away quickly – it’s easy to eat the whole pan of them!
Ingredients:
- ¾ cup butter
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Melt the butter on low. Add brown sugar, icing sugar, and peanut butter. Mix (preferably with a hand mixer). Press the mixture into a greased baking pan. Melt the chocolate chips and spread the mixture over the top. Cool and cut into squares. For those who adore chocolate, add an additional half cup of chocolate chips.
Since no-bake cookies are often quite sticky, it’s best to store them in small, thin containers in a single layer. If they are going to be stacked, place butcher’s paper, wax paper, or some sort of wrap between the cookies or they will stick together. Larger cookies like Christmas trees can be placed in an individual package and given as a gift to a teacher or a neighbor.
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