Before Lost on Thursday night I tried to make a somewhat-healthy protein no-bake cookie. It didn’t turn out that great but not too bad.

I made 12 and each have something like 120 calories, 8 grams of protein, 4 grams of fiber, and 5 grams of sugar. I can’t remember how much fat or remaining carbohydrates but it’s all from oatmeal, all-natural peanut butter, and Smart Balance butter so it’s at least of a good variety.

Ingredients
3/4 cup protein powder
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup smart balance butter
1/4 all natural peanut butter
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup skim milk
1 tspn vanilla extract
1 tspn cocoa

I found a recipe online for chocolate no bake cookies but I modified it in my unexperienced male way. It called for 1 cup of brown sugar, real butter, and evaporated milk. For protein powder I used a product from EAS called “Premium Protein”. It has equal parts whey, soy, and milk protein with some BCAAs added in for good measure. It’s not great tasting and hard to mix but I bought six pounds so I’m using it.

Step 1

The instructions are basically bring the powder, sugar, butter, cocoa to a boil in a sauce pan. The powder mixed very easy when the butter melted, I was really amazed by it. They got pretty hot in my case but then it just started looking really weird. Maybe they were feeble air bubbles but it looked like chunks were forming when I stirred. And the goop was sticking to the bottom of the sauce pan (Not enough butter? Or lack of the real thing?). I got spooked and went onto step 2.

Step 2

Remove from heat and mix in the rest of the ingredients quickly so that the peanut butter melts. This was very difficult because it wasn’t all that hot any more. Things cooled very quickly and soon I had literally the whole concoction stuck to my spoon.

Step 3

Drop and smash small amounts onto foil or wax paper. Then you wait for them to harden.

The verdict?
You can surprisingly taste very little of the protein powder. They are very chewy and not anywhere as sweet as normal no-bake cookies (AKA drop cookies, oatmeal candy clusters, or Chewy Charlies).

I am going to eat them but what went wrong? Any recommendations? Perhaps protein powder is not meant to boil? Any advice for cooking with Smart Balance butter? It’s a bunch of different healthy oils whipped up to look like butter. Or maybe it was the absence of evaporated milk? Any culinary words of wisdom?