I grew up in a camping family. Every summer Mom and Dad would pack up the family, canoes, tents, bedding and sustenance and haul everything out to the middle of nowhere to spend some quality time together. Sometimes it was just for a few days and sometimes for as long as two weeks. For a young teenage girl, such as myself, camping meant just two very important things: Books and Boys. Boys could often be found camping with their families, and the books were the one thing I could spend all day doing while camping. Every year I took a stack of books and spent most of the week lazing on the beach reading a book- unless of course I was walking the dog looking for that cute guy I saw earlier…
Anyway. While I was content to laze about the beach and read or boy watch, and my brothers were content to be mountain men for the week, my sisters, on the other hand, needed some kind of activity to pass the time away. At that time they just weren’t content to sit and read, and while there was plenty of beach time for them as well, a whole week was a whole lot of time to fill with stuff to do. You could only send a seven year old on so many scavenger hunts before they brought back the vibrant green leaves of poison ivy or something. So one year, these cookies came out to play. They are the perfect cookie to make camping, mostly because they don’t require an oven. You can use a campfire or a propane stove to cook the ingredients together, although for children I kind of recommend using a camp stove, and standing by just in case.
I’m not entirely sure if this is the exact recipe that Mom uses. Sometimes it’s simply called a No Bake Cookie, and in this case, the recipe I found was in an old Amish cookbook and is called Amish Boiled Cookies. Sounds tempting, no? When my kids asked what kind of cookies I was making, I thought a moment before telling them I was making Camping Cookies. I think the name sticks, and it is also a reminder that we may very well be making these cookies come camping time this year.
These cookies are just as tasty as I remember. As I stirred the ingredients together, and grabbed the dark cocoa instead of plain, it occurred to me that these are actually pretty good for you as well. There are antioxidants from the cocoa and raisins if you use them- or healthy fats from the peanut butter and the nuts if you use those. The oats themselves are a nutritional powerhouse, and the milk supplies a dash of protein. The sugar and the butter may carry these over into the land of the sweets instead of a good-for-you snack, but if you don’t tell the health police, I promise I won’t either.
Camping Cookies
1 stick butter 1/2 cup milk 2 cups sugar 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 1/2 cup regular (not low-fat) peanut butter 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 cups quick cooking oats- not instant and not old-fashioned 1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts or raisins (I used raisins today)Directions:
Line a baking sheet with wax paper and set aside.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Once melted, add the milk, sugar and cocoa and turn up the heat a little bit. Stir while cooking, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cook and stir for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter, vanilla and salt. Stir until smooth.
Add the oats, and nuts or raisins if using and fold them in until everything is well coated.
Using a cookie scoop or two tablespoons, dollop out tablespoon sized portions of the mixture onto the baking sheet. Work kind of quickly as the mixture begins to set up while you are scooping. Set the baking sheets aside for 1 hour to set and firm up.
Store in an airtight container- makes between 35-48 cookies, depending on the size of your scoop.