These 3-Ingredient ‘Lazy Cookie’ Recipes Require Zero Work, but They’ll Absolutely Shine at Your Next Holiday Event (2024)

These 3-Ingredient ‘Lazy Cookie’ Recipes Require Zero Work, but They’ll Absolutely Shine at Your Next Holiday Event (1)

Photo: Stocksy/Julie Rideout

‘Tis the season to dust off your oven and sharpen your baking skills to show some love to the least-used appliance in your kitchen.

Seriously: If embarking on an ambitious baking adventure sounds like anything but soothing, and the task of making a bunch of sparkly spritzes or candy cane-coated sugar cookies for an upcoming cookie exchange, potluck, or Christmas-y co*cktail party is hanging over your head, we hear you. Between the gift shopping, card writing, present wrapping, the end-of-year rush at work, and an exhausting social calendar, who has time to bake hundreds of festively-frosted gingerbread cookies?

6 lazy cookies for your next holiday gathering

These 3-Ingredient ‘Lazy Cookie’ Recipes Require Zero Work, but They’ll Absolutely Shine at Your Next Holiday Event (3)

These 3-Ingredient ‘Lazy Cookie’ Recipes Require Zero Work, but They’ll Absolutely Shine at Your Next Holiday Event (4)

1. Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Although these banana oatmeal cookies by The Simple Veganista may look like cookies, upon the first bite, you’ll quickly realize that they taste more like your favorite homemade banana bread recipe. This three-ingredient recipe is made with hearty oats, rich chocolate chips, and is naturally sweetened with ripe mashed bananas. And if you’re feeling up for it, you can jazz up the recipe with add-ons like cinnamon, vanilla extract, shredded coconut, and dried fruit.

Get the recipe: Three-Ingredient Banana Oatmeal Cookies

These 3-Ingredient ‘Lazy Cookie’ Recipes Require Zero Work, but They’ll Absolutely Shine at Your Next Holiday Event (5)

2. Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

It seems like most things in life are better with an extra side of peanut butter (PB&J, fluffernutter, peanut sauce…the list goes on). And this easy vegan peanut butter cookie recipe by The Conscious Plant Kitchen is one more reason to love this nut butter even more. To make it, all you have to do is combine peanut butter, oat flour, and maple syrup until creamy, roll into evenly-sized balls, and bake away. Seriously, it’s that easy.

Get the recipe: 3-Ingredient Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

3. Flourless Chocolate Cookies

One way to instantly put a smile on your face and liven the mood when you’re feeling a bit cranky is to make these three-ingredient flourless chocolate cookies by Kirbie’s Cravings: They truly taste like decadent brownie batter in cookie form. They’re also free of some common allergens (including flour, butter, and oil) but get all of their rich flavors from longevity-boosting, unsweetened cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and egg whites. The key to making these lazy cookies to perfection is to use (and only use) Dutch-processed cocoa powder, which is much richer and less bitter in taste than other varieties.

Get the recipe: 3-Ingredient Flourless Chocolate Cookies

These 3-Ingredient ‘Lazy Cookie’ Recipes Require Zero Work, but They’ll Absolutely Shine at Your Next Holiday Event (7)

4. No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies

One bowl, five minutes, and three ingredients are all you need to make these no-bake peanut butter cookies by Minimalist Baker that come together in the blink of an eye. They’re made with fiber-rich Medjool dates, gluten-free rolled oats, and peanut butter, with the option to add ingredients like sea salt, cacao powder, and maple syrup. Plus, if your oven is currently stuffed with too many pots and pans, you won’t need to rush over to clear it all out the start preheating. That’s because this recipe requires no baking whatsoever. Problem solved.

Get the recipe: 3-Ingredient No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies

These 3-Ingredient ‘Lazy Cookie’ Recipes Require Zero Work, but They’ll Absolutely Shine at Your Next Holiday Event (8)

5. Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Treats

If your furry friend is also drooling at the thought of these delicious cookie recipes, it might be time to make your four-legged bestie a special something, too. These peanut butter pumpkin dog treats by Minimalist Baker feature peanut butter, canned pumpkin purée, and oat flour. Frankly, they’re so good you might be tempted to sneak one or two from their treat jar (don’t worry, we won’t tell!).

Get the recipe: Easy Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Treats

These 3-Ingredient ‘Lazy Cookie’ Recipes Require Zero Work, but They’ll Absolutely Shine at Your Next Holiday Event (9)

6. Oreo Thin Mints

Combine two of your favorite childhood treats, Oreos and Thin Mints, in one delectable dessert. For this no-bake oreo thin mints recipe by The Comfort of Cooking, all you have to do is coat Oreos in peppermint-flavored chocolate for a crunchy, sweet, and refreshing cookie recipe that’s definitely the easiest on this list to make.

Get the recipe: 3-Ingredient Oreo Thin Mints

Hungry for more? These vegan chocolate chip cookies might hit the spot:

These 3-Ingredient ‘Lazy Cookie’ Recipes Require Zero Work, but They’ll Absolutely Shine at Your Next Holiday Event (2024)

FAQs

What are the 4 basic dry ingredients that are mainly used when baking cookies? ›

While there may be countless variations, each cookie at the core has four ingredients – butter, sugar, flour & eggs. The proportions of ingredients and the methods of mixing are what define our cookies. Dough spreads – Inside the hot oven, the butter starts to melt and the dough gradually starts to spread out.

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What makes cookies light and airy group of answer choices? ›

As the steam gets hotter, it teams up with gases produced by the leaveners, expanding those air pockets. That expansion causes the cookies to puff and rise in the oven, creating an airy, cakey texture.

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What cookie ingredient that will rise and be softer? ›

For soft cookies, use: Brown sugar, as it has a high moisture content and retains moisture better than white sugar. Also, when combined with eggs, brown sugar can prevent spreading (taller cookies tend to be softer and fluffier). Shortening instead of butter or in addition to butter.

What is the key ingredient for adding structure and holding the cookie together? ›

Flour is the main ingredient that provides structure in a cookie – without it, there would be no cookie! The gluten in flour forms a web of sorts – the framework that catches the air bubbles/gasses given off during rising. This helps provide the structure.

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What are the 3 basic mixing methods for cookies? ›

There are three major mixing methods used in baking which consist of:

The Muffin Method.
The Biscuit Method.
The Creaming Method.

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What are the 7 basic ingredients in all cookies? ›

What are the 7 basic baking ingredients?

Flour.
Raising Agent.
Salt.
Fats & Dairy.
Add-Ins.
Water.

What type of chemical reaction is in cookies? ›

The Maillard reaction takes place.

This is the same reaction that occurs in bread and seared steak.

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What makes cookies more airy? ›

That fluffy texture you want in a cake results from beating a lot of air into the room temperature butter and sugar, and it does the same for cookies. So don't overdo it when you're creaming together the butter and sugar. Adding too many eggs. Play with the liquid ratio in your recipe.

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What is the last reaction to take place inside a cookie and what is its result? ›

The final reaction to take place inside your cookie is caramelization and it occurs at 356º F. Caramelization is what happens when sugar molecules break down under high heat, forming the sweet, nutty and slightly bitter flavor compounds that define… caramel!

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What is the secret ingredient to keep cookies soft? ›

Light corn syrup is another ingredient that you can add to cookie dough that will help it stay softer longer. The corn syrup you buy at the grocery store is not the high-fructose corn syrup that soft drinks are made with; it's a sugar that is liquid at room temperature and helps other sugars say liquid at high heat.

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What happens if you use melted butter instead of softened for cookies? ›

Cookies made with melted butter often deflate and become denser when they cool, resulting in a perfectly cooked fudgy center — a similar textural result to brownies that get rapped (aka banged against an oven rack mid-bake to deflate them) or Sarah Kieffer's iconic pan-banging cookies that turn out pleasantly compact.

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Which ingredient is frequently used for moist and chewy texture for cookies? ›

Brown sugar

Brown sugar is also hygroscopic (more so than granulated sugar) and will therefore also attract and absorb the liquid in the dough. The difference is in the molasses that makes brown sugar brown: It adds moisture and slight acidity, resulting in a moist and chewy texture.

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What makes a cookie more crunchy? ›

Using more white sugar in your cookies will result in a crispier end product. To achieve a crispy cookie, skip the rest in the fridge. Baking your cookies right after making the dough will encourage them to spread in the oven, resulting in an extra-crispy cookie.

What are 4 basic fats in a cookie recipe? ›

Your options for fat are butter, margarine, shortening, or oil. Since shortening melts at a higher temperature, it is the best choice if you want to keep spreading to a minimum.

Which ingredients are considered dry ingredients in cookies? ›

Milk, water, eggs, extracts and oils are all wet ingredients; dry ingredients include flour, sugar and salt. While you could to use some of the same measuring tools interchangeably for wet and dry ingredients, your measurements might not always be precise.

Find Out More ›

These 3-Ingredient ‘Lazy Cookie’ Recipes Require Zero Work, but They’ll Absolutely Shine at Your Next Holiday Event (2024)

6 lazy cookies for your next holiday gathering

1. Banana Oatmeal Cookies

2. Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

3. Flourless Chocolate Cookies

4. No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies

5. Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Treats

6. Oreo Thin Mints

FAQs

What are the 4 basic dry ingredients that are mainly used when baking cookies? ›

What happens if you use melted butter instead of softened for cookies? ›

References