chocolate missouri cookies
Recipes, Sweets

Grandma’s Chocolate Missouri Cookies

6 comments

My very favorite cookie, for as long as I can remember, has been the chocolate missouri cookie.  These soft chewy gooey no-bake treats are packed with three of my favorite cookie flavors — chocolate, peanut butter and oatmeal.  They are so simple to prepare, yet taste like pure heaven.

Elsie Charlotte Hayes
My grandmother, Elsie Flanagan

Although this is a recipe that my grandma used to make, and passed down to my mom, I don’t actually associate these cookies with either my grandma or my mom.

When I think of warm gooey chewy chocolate missouri cookies, I think of my Aunt Reen.  Because Aunt Reen is the one who always baked these for all of us kids when our extended family got together.

We kids would stand around the stove watching Aunt Reen make these, and then burn our mouths because we couldn’t stand waiting for the cookies to cool, so we would pick them up and eat them while still hot.

reenclabo3
My Aunt Maureen “Reen”

Mom recently explained to me that it was Grandma who first made them for us, and then my mom.  But, since Aunt Reen loved baking so much — and didn’t do much cooking — Mom turned over the cookie-making duties to Aunt Reen for all of over family functions.  I was surprised to have just found this bit of family culinary history out after 41 years!

Mom doesn’t know who passed the recipe down to Grandma… if it was her mother, an older sister, a friend, or if she simply clipped it from a magazine.  And since Grandma passed away in 1992, I will never know.

For me, it’s just never Christmas without my favorite childhood cookies. So, although I really don’t do much baking at all — even during the holidays — I have always made these cookies at Christmas time. And this year, I passed on the tradition to our 12 year old son Hunter, who made them — along with his Christmas candies — as gifts for his friends and his sister’s friends.

Grandma's Chocolate Missouri Cookies
Hunter has now mastered the art of Grandma’s Chocolate Missouri Cookies.

Oh, and yeah…I still have trouble waiting for the cookies to actually cool before eating them.

Grandma's Chocolate Missouri Cookies
Start with milk, butter, sugar and cocoa.
Grandma's Chocolate Missouri Cookies
Have on hand vanilla, oats and peanut butter.
Grandma's Chocolate Missouri Cookies
Combine sugar, cocoa, milk and butter in a medium sauce pan.
Grandma's Chocolate Missouri Cookies
Cook at a rolling boil for 1 minute, then remove from the heat.
Grandma's Chocolate Missouri Cookies
Add the vanilla.
Grandma's Chocolate Missouri Cookies
Add the peanut butter, and oats.
Grandma's Chocolate Missouri Cookies
Mix well.
Grandma's Chocolate Missouri Cookies
Drop by the spoonful on waxed paper to cool until firm.
Chocolate Missouri Cookies
Can you see why it’s so hard to wait for these to cool? I still burn my mouth every time, out of impatience, because they are so darn good!
Chocolate Missouri Cookies
And there you have it…perfect cookies!
Grandma's Chocolate Missouri Cookies
 
Author:
Recipe type: Sweets
Cuisine: American
Ingredients
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ stick butter or margarine (1/4 cup)
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • ½ cup crunchy peanut butter
  • 3cups quick cooking oats
Instructions
  1. Combine sugar, cocoa, milk and butter in a medium sauce pan. Cook at a rolling boil for 1 minute, then remove from the heat.
  2. Add the vanilla, peanut butter, and oats.
  3. Mix well and drop by the spoonful on waxed paper to cool until firm.
Notes
Make a single batch at a time. These cookies never turn out the right consistency when we have tried doubling the recipe.

6 Comments

  1. THANK YOU COLLEEN FOR PUTTING THIS RECIPE ON THE WEB. WHAT A SHOCK IT WAS TO FIND THIS TODAY AS I WAS TRYING TO TELL MY STUDENTS ABOUT MY FAVORITE COOKIE. i CAN’T WAIT TO SHOW AUNTIE REEN THIS! SHE WILL BE THRILLED TO SEE HER AND HER MOM’S RECIPE ON THE WEB.

  2. As an ad on, Maureen said that you actually left one ingredient out of the recipe! Shredded coconut! add one cup of coconut and I thing you will even like them more.

  3. Our family called them Missouri cookies too. They were the only cookie my mother could make successfully most of the time. And now I make sure to gluten free oats and cocoa – and it’s the perfect cookie for my gluten free friends.

  4. My family always called them Missouri cookies too. I thought it was a family thing until I saw this post. I was grateful for the post because I keep forgetting to put the butter in and wondered why they kept granulating!! Well, they’re still good but just not the same. I use the coconut too.

  5. Pauline Young

    I enjoyed seeing this recipe. My family always makes a double batch, but we do change the time
    to three minutes. (Don’t use the increased time for a
    single batch as it hardens too quickly and too
    much!) Growing up we called them Missouri Mud
    Cookies. My husband’s family made them also, but
    called them No Bake Cookies.

  6. I got this recipe in 1968. It has been known in our family as the Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies. We make them for all occasions.

Leave a Comment, Question, or Suggestion!