No Bake Cookies

This is a recipe that my Mom gave me when I went to college a long, long time ago. When I was at their place in SC this past weekend I mentioned the recipe and that I found the ingredient list interesting due to the lack of 'fresh' products and was wondering if that meant that it was from WW2 (or maybe even WW1). Mom didn't have a copy of the recipe anymore and couldn't answer. And so I dug out mine once I got home.

As you can see below, the role of fat is played by Crisco not butter, the milk is dry not wet and peanut butter is being used to hold it all together (as well as the Crisco), not eggs.

Wikipedia has a similar recipe though in it milk and butter are used. There's plenty of sites out there that have no-bake versions using fresh ingredients but I couldn't find the exact one I have below.

I really like the way they taste--they're very sweet and have such a strong chocolate taste with just a hint of peanut butter--but I'm also curious about the history of the recipe. Since most old recipes originated from the back of commercial products in the 30s and 40s, I'm assuming that is where this recipe came from also.


==== No Bake Cookies ====

• 2 cups of sugar
• 1/3 cup of Crisco
• 1/4 cup of dry milk
• 1/2 cup of water
• 3 cups of rolled oats
• 1/4 cup of cocoa
• 1/2 cup of peanut butter
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (or almond) extract

Mix sugar, shortning, milk and water in saucepan.
Heat until it boils, remove and add other ingredients.
Mix well, drop onto wax paper to cool. Store in tight
container.