Aren't No-Bake Cookies Supposed To Be Easy???

 The Secret to the No-Bake Cookie!!!

I cannot count how many batches of no-bake cookies I have messed up, either having puddles of oats and chocolate or crumbly mound-like cookies.

This was my first time making these, they're peanut butter corn flake no-bakes.

These are Corn Flake Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies

Which taste pretty good, although I think they'd benefit from a lack of corn syrup and maybe brown sugar instead of white. But before I made them I was looking at recipes for no-bakes wondering what I would do to prevent another no-bake fail. The perfect no-bake is chewy, not crumbly, and not sticky. I looked up what temperature I am supposed to get the mixture to, because no-bake cookies are almost candy. You boil a sugar syrup in this case, with other ingredients added for the chocolate kind, and instructions say "boil 1 minute" or endless variations of such. Now, I have searched for this before, but never found an answer. Today I did, and I tested it out with these. They are the perfect texture!

The corn syrup makes them shiny as the photo above shows, but they are just right when you bite into them. You must be dying to know the secret temperature by now, right?!

It's (drumroll please....) 230 degrees Fahrenheit!

If you want to make these peanut butter goodies, here is the recipe:

1/2 c. corn syrup
1/2 c. sugar
9 oz. (which was about 3/4 c) peanut butter, I used creamy
1/2 t. vanilla extract (optional)
3.5 c corn flake cereal

Just mix the sugar and corn syrup in the pan, heat to boiling and start checking the temperature. You could probably do the cold water test here, soft-ball stage is what you're looking for. 230 degrees Fahrenheit. I use an infrared thermometer which works for everything except meat in my experience. If you have a candy thermometer use that or one of those probe thermometers might work too.

Once you reach 230, remove from heat and add peanut butter and vanilla, and then the corn flakes. A lot of mixing is required to coat them all. Then just drop them by the spoonful (or whatever you want) onto waxed paper or parchment paper.

Makes 12 nice sized cookies, the recipe is easily doubled. Store airtight.

I am so happy to finally have a foolproof way to make these, I could never understand what I was doing wrong. When I make the chocolate no-bakes again I'll post a picture of those too.