Chocolate Haystack Cookies

Growing up, haystack cookies (or, as we referred to them... "worm cookies"!) were a common offering at special occasions, any time of year.

Around the holiday season, these no bake cookies were served right alongside other staple favorites, such as Confetti Squares and my beloved Noelles.

Like Noelles, my family’s haystack cookie recipe is another childhood favorite that I saw fit to mess with, I’ve provided a few ways to customize this no bake chocolate haystack cookies recipe, a bit further down in this post.

Spoiler?

While the original was great, the addition of cream liqueur takes it to a whole new level: Boozy chocolate haystack cookies!

Not so much in a *literally* intoxicating way, mind you - but the cream liqueur brings with it a complexity of flavor that the childhood favorite was lacking.

Anyway.

I’ve been updating a bunch of easy recipes for the holidays, and figured it’s time to give a bit of love to this decade-old no bake cookie recipe post.

These chocolate haystack cookies are a super easy no bake dessert, whip together in just minutes, and are OH so addictive. Sure to be a huge hit with anyone you serve them to!

More Holiday Treats

Looking for more inspiration for your holiday goodies tray? Whether Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, or any of the other holidays, here are a few ideas for you!

Candied Orange Slices
Creme de Menthe Nanaimo Bars
Festive Easy Fudge
Fruitcake Cookies
Noelles
Pecan Pie Cookies
Peppermint Patties
Ultimate Cowboy Cookies

What are Chocolate Haystack Cookies?

There are a ton of different haystack recipes, with many different ways to make various types of easy cookies that are somewhat similar in execution, but vary wildly when it comes to ingredients.

You’ll find recipes for butterscotch haystacks, peanut butter haystacks - with creamy peanut butter, crunchy peanut butter, or even cocktail peanuts involved!

Some are more of a haystack candy than anything I’d consider a cookie, using melted chocolate chips to bind the base ingredients together.

On that thought, the base ingredients can also vary wildly, with some versions of haystack cookies containing crunchy chow mein noodles, or mini marshmallows!

The type of chocolate chip can vary between different recipes, too.

Butterscotch haystack cookies are super common - I suppose it is closer to the actual colour of hay, than chocolate is! - but there are plenty of versions that use peanut butter chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, or dark chocolate chips in place of butterscotch chips.

While I’m sure that each of them produce a delicious cookie, this one is the version I grew up on.

The base ingredients are oats and coconut. Rather than melting chocolate chips, they’re held together with a boiling sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa powder sauce.

The oats and coconut absorb some of the liquid, which hardens a bit as it cools.

IMHO, it’s one of the OG comfort foods!

Anyway, enough rambling, let’s get to it.!

Haystack Cookie Ingredients

This is a super simple recipe, with simple ingredients that you can find in any grocery store - if you don’t already have them at home!

A few notes for you, though:

Rolled Oats

For best results, use rolled oats, rather than quick oats or any of the other smaller-grind oat styles.

Coconut

I like the texture best when I use sweetened coconut flakes, but I’ve also made this with unsweetened coconut (medium). Go with whichever you prefer!

Milk

You can use whatever milk or milk substitute you like - including cream liqueur. (More on that in a minute!)

When I first started making this bake treat, I used 2% milk.

These days, we don’t really keep dairy milk on hand, so I’ll usually use unsweetened almond milk, or unsweetened coconut milk - they work perfectly.

Cashew milk, flax milk, and oat milk are other great options.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Granulated sugar
Cocoa powder
Unsalted butter
Pure Vanilla Extract (skip if using liqueur)
Salt

... I just don’t have anything to add, for any of these ingredients!

Gluten-Free Haystack Cookies

Good news, the only thing standing in the way of this cookie being inherently gluten-free is potential for cross contamination of the oats!

If you use gluten-free certified oats, boom - you have gluten-free haystack cookies!

Chocolate Haystack Cookie Variations

While this is a great recipe for no bake oatmeal cookies on its own, part of the reason it’s one of my favorite desserts is the versatility!

There are a bunch of ways that you can customize this recipe to suit your tastes, mood, or occasion.

Here are a few ideas for customizing your batch of chocolate haystacks:

Change the Extract

Pure Vanilla Extract is a fantastic, neutral flavoring to go with the chocolate, coconut, and oats... but you can definitely swap it out for something else.

As far as extracts go, Orange Extract, Banana Extract, Strawberry Extract, Maple Extract , Rum Extract, Almond Extract, or even Peppermint Extract are some fun ways to flavor this sweet treat.

Note: If using peppermint extract, you might want to use only 1 teaspoon - it can be aggressively flavoured!

Flavor oil Is another option - Lorann Oil is the gold standard.

This is a bit harder to come by than grocery store extracts, but can usually be found at your local cake or candy making supply store.

It comes in a LOT more flavours than grocery store extracts do, so you can really have fun with it!

Note: Flavour oils are MUCH more concentrated than extracts. Try ¾ tsp, 1 teaspoon at most!.

Use a Flavour Syrup

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If you’d like a bit of the flavour complexity that the Boozy Chocolate Haystacks has, without the alcohol, you can add some flavour syrup, such as Torani Syrup

Just use about ¼ cup syrup and ¼ cup milk, in place of the milk.

Note: This will make a cookie that can be a little sweeter than the original Boozy Haystack Cookies recipe, depending on the liqueur / syrup used.

Pro tip: you do not want to reduce the sugar amount, though - doing so can prevent the cookie from setting up properly!

Make them Christmas Cookies!

If you’re looking to customize these bake haystack cookies for Christmas time, add some festive sprinkles!

Have a small bowl or shaker of holiday sprinkles on hand when scooping the cookies. As SOON as you’ve scooped them, scatter sprinkles over them.

You’ll want to work quickly, before the chocolate starts to set up.

Boozy Chocolate Haystack Cookies

When I first posted this recipe, it was as my liqueur flavored chocolate haystack cookies as a default.

These are FANTASTIC when you swap the milk out, in favour of an equal amount of your favourite cream liqueur. It makes for a really decadent treat!

Back in the day, my liqueurs of choice for this boozy chocolate haystack cookies recipe were the Baja line of cream tequila liqueurs.

Baja Rosa (strawberry) was my #1 go-to when making these, but it was also fabulous with Baja Luna (black raspberry) when I could find it.

Castries peanut rum cream liqueur was also fabulous with it.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any of those options in years, so I guess availability can be spotty. If you don’t have access to any of those options, no worries - there are other, more widely available options that are just as fabulous!

Bailey’s Irish Cream is a classic, and works really well with the chocolate, coconut, and oat flavours of haystack cookies. The Godiva Chocolate Cream Liqueurs are also fantastic.

If you can get your hands on maple cream liqueur (which is a *fabulous* option here in Ontario) - YES.

Basically, if it’s a cream liqueur that you like to drink, and has a flavour that works with chocolate.. Go for it!

How to Make Chocolate Haystack Cookies

The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is a pictorial walk through.

Line baking sheets – or a counter / work surface – with parchment paper or waxed paper.

In a large bowl, combine oats and coconut, set aside.

Combine sugar, milk (or liqueur), butter, cocoa powder, and salt together in a medium saucepan.

Heat to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly.

Once boiling, turn stove down to low heat, allow to boil for 2 minutes.

Once the two minutes are up, remove the pot from the heat.

If you're not using liqueur, stir the vanilla extract in to the melted chocolate mixture.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto prepared baking sheet or wax paper lined counter top.

Note: I like to use an ice cream scoop / cookie scoop to spoon the mixture into little haystacks.

Allow cookies to cool at room temperature - they will harden and “set up” as they cool.

Store in an airtight container – these will keep a long time, assuming they go uneaten that long!

More Cookie Recipes!

This recipe is great on its own, but also shines as part of a larger cookie spread. Looking for more ideas? I've got you...

Apple Pie Cookies
Black Forest Cookies
Chai Shortbread
Chewy Chocolate White Chip Cookies
Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies
Cookie Decorating
Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
Fruitcake Cookies
Hoppy Citrus Macarons
Malted Milk Meringue Cookies
Nightmare Before Christmas Cookies
Noelles
Pecan Pie Cookies
Peppermint Swirl Meringues
Pistachio Macarons
Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Tropical Fruit & Rum Cookies
Ultimate Cowboy Cookies

Also, be sure to check our Cookies & Bars section, for more options!

Looking for my Gluten-Free Cookie Recipes? They're now over on my gluten-free blog, Beyond Flour!

Need gluten-free, AND sugar free? Check out my Keto Cookie Recipes over on my low carb blog, Low Carb Hoser!