No Bake Cereal Cookies

I don't know about the rest of you but summertime leaves me uninspired (or maybe just unwilling) to do any serious cooking or baking. A few days ago I was thinking about a sweet snack I made for Son1 and Son2 when they were young. Though the old recipe calls it a cereal cookie, it is more like cereal nuggets held together with a sweet peanut butter syrup cooked to a soft caramel consistency.  Since it is cooked on the stove top it meets my no oven preference.  I dug out the old cookbook " More with Less" and searched for the old often used recipe.

 I remembered it was simple, but I guess I had forgotten exactly how easy it really is. The equipment you need for the recipe consists of a cookie sheet lined with parchment or waxed paper, a medium sized pot, a wooden spoon,  a 1cup and 1/4 cup measure, and a pot holder.  See I told you it is simple.

                                               No Bake Cereal Cookies/Candy

1 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 cup light corn syrup

1 1/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract ( don't measure, just use a capful)

6 cups cornflakes or whatever your favorite cereal is, but flaky stuff looks best

Measure the cereal and set aside

 Put the brown sugar and corn syrup in a pot and stir to blend.   Turn heat on medium and continue stirring until the mixture comes to a full boil.  Remove from heat and add the peanut butter and vanilla.  Stir it quickly then add the cereal stirring gently to keep the flakes as unbroken as possible.  Drop by spoonfuls onto the parchment paper.  Let set until cool, then enjoy.

I have to admit I cut the recipe in half because I did not want too many of these treats hanging around the next day.  No problem there!  They were scarfed down with drooling people even trying to get the pieces I had plated for a quick picture.  This is one of the easiest goodies I have ever made.  There was about a 5 minute cook time, another 3 minutes to drop them on the parchment and 5 minutes cooling time.  Then, one by one, they disappeared.

They tasted better than I remembered and seem to have unaminous family approval. If you want something quick and easy and relatively inexpensive* try these.  You just might really like them.

*Relatively inexpensive requires store brand peanut butter and no name cornflakes.