Rickety Uncles are no-bake cookies that only use 5 ingredients and take 15 minutes to make. A fun project for kids to help with. Peanutty toffee and crunchy flakes - they may look rickety but they taste fantastic!
Cooking with Meredith
I know. Another no bake cookies treat. But this one is so simple and delicious, and quite different in flavour from the haystacks recipe I recently shared. These are chewy and crunchy and absolutely irresistible for grown-ups and kids alike.
You know you've got a winner when these treats are always the first thing gobbled up at pot lucks and events. And you know they're a winner because they've stood the test of time. We've been making 'Rickety Uncles' in our household since our kids were little. They were Andreas's favourite thing to make when he was in junior high school - he'd whip himself up a batch after coming in starving off the bus after school, and I'd have to stop him from eating most of the cookies in one sitting.
The recipe comes from an old paperback Canadian Kinette cookbook given me by my mother-in-law when we were first married. It's one of those collections of favourite family recipes by local women - tried and tested - and I think the book may have been published some time in the '80's, though there's no date in the front. The only thing I've done to change it is to increase the cooking time and increase the amount of corn flakes, in the interests of decreasing the amount of sugar per treat - but yeah, they're still a sweet indulgence and you don't want to scarf down the whole batch.
I brought a tray full of these no bake cookies to our recent family reunion gathering and they were devoured pretty quickly to lots of mmm's and yum's between mouthfuls. We had a great weekend connecting with Raymond's side of the family. Swatting mosquitoes and making elaborate two-umbrella rain-deflecting contraptions as we sat around the campfire in the pouring rain were just part of the fun! (There were definitely enough sunny patches to have boat rides on the lake.)
I also served up these treats at a neighbourhood barbecue we hosted at our house in June, and we all had to laugh as one of the kids went running by, a Rickety Uncle gripped tightly in each fist and a mouth full, too, shouting out, "These are awesome!" I think they're definitely kid-approved.
Meredith and I have made them at least twice now in our weekly cooking sessions, so a nine-year old can make them (with a bit of help).
But grown-ups love to eat them as much as children do. You may have to hide some away if you want to have them for yourself!
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'Rickety Uncles' No Bake Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup (100gms) sugar natural evaporated cane sugar if possible
- 1 cup (312gms) corn syrup or brown rice syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup (250gms) smooth peanut butter
- 5 cups (1.2 l) corn flakes gluten-free if necessary
Instructions
- Spread 2 large sheets of wax paper or parchment paper onto the countertop, table, or onto baking sheets.
- Put sugar, syrup, and vanilla in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan. (Hint: Grease the inside of the measuring cup with oil or cooking oil spray before measuring the syrup and it will slide easily out of the cup.)
- Use the syrup measuring cup to measure out the peanut butter and set aside.
- Measure out the corn flakes into a small bowl and set aside.
- Place the saucepan with sugar, syrup, and vanilla onto a stovetop burner and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Allow to boil for 1 minute at a full rolling boil. Add the peanut butter and stir until completely melted. Remove from the heat.
- Add the corn flakes, and fold together with a silicone spatula until most of the corn flakes are coated with the syrup.
- Working quickly, scoop up heaped tablespoons of the cookie mixture and drop onto the wax paper by scraping it off the spoon with a second tablespoon. Tuck in any scraggly flakes.
- Allow to harden at room temperature until cool. Store in a covered container with wax paper or parchment paper between the layers of cookies.
- Makes 28 cookies.
Notes
Guten Appetit!
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For more fun cooking projects to make with kids, see the ‘Cooking With Kids’ series here.
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No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (a.k.a. Haystacks)
Sabine macleod
I love your blog! Keep up the good work.
Hugs
Sabine
Margaret
🙂 🙂 🙂 Thanks so much, Sabine. I'm having a lot of fun doing it!
Richelle
Made these for the first time after a friend made them and shared the recipe. They turned out really hard, almost too hard to bite - what am I doing wrong?
Margaret
I'm guessing you boiled the corn syrup and sugar mixture for too long and it got to the hard crack candy stage. It's important to boil it for no longer than one minute, or it can do that. It should work for you next time, if you try the recipe again, and time the boiling time. Good luck! 😋
Richelle
Thank you! That’s what I thought. I set a timer but must have started it too late. They were delicious when warm but cooled and became hard. Going to try again - love the recipe!