Loaded with salty-sweet

peanut butter and chewy oats, these no-bak cookies are the perfect desser when you’re craving something sweet but don’t want to bother turning on the oven. These no-bakes are dense, rich, and fudgy . . . can you see why we’re obsessed?

Pick the right peanut butter.

You can never go wrong with peanut butter, right? Well, in this case, you actually can. For best success, you MUST use smooth, processed peanut butter to make these cookies. All-natural peanut butter (the type that separates in the jar) can be inconsistent in texture, and the lack of homogenization can really throw off the texture of the cookie, which will make it tricky to get them to set properly.

Choose right oats. 

Regular, old-fashioned rolled oats are the way to go. Quick-cooking oats have an almost powdery chew, and steel cut might crack a tooth or two. Old fashioned oats, on the other hand, give these cookies a wonderful chewy texture, similar to a soft, freshly baked cookie.

Another note about oats: because these cookies don’t use flour, they’re naturally gluten free. However, some oats are processed in factories that also process whole grains and can be cross-contaminated, so if you’re making these cookies for someone with gluten allergies, be sure to choose oats specifically marked “gluten-free.”