As I mentioned before, I’m taking a little vacation from blogging – don’t worry, I’ll be back! – but in the meantime, some of my favorite bloggers are stepping in to take the reins while I’m away. Today Michelle from Brown Eyed Baker is here, another fabulous baking blogger (though she cooks as well!) who I also have a lot in common with outside of blogging, as she mentions below. To me, her site is like a well-worn cookbook; a collection of delicious tried-and-true recipes from her kitchen to yours. Thank you Michelle for guest posting today!

Last March when I went on vacation Tracy was one of my wonderful food blogging friends who contributed a guest post to the site while I was away (remember her awesome Baked Doughnuts with Cinnamon Sugar?), so I of course jumped at the opportunity to do the same for her while she’s enjoying some time away from Internet land. Aside from us both having rambunctious Golden Retriever children and loving football so much that we coordinated an all-girl food blogger fantasy football league this past season, I also feel a kinship with Tracy in that she has to deal with peanut and nut allergies. As someone who had to worry about that for five years, I know that it’s definitely not any fun. As a result, I wanted to modify one of my favorite peanut butter recipes (No-Bake Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Cookies) so that Tracy could enjoy them too. I came up with No-Bake Biscoff Cookies using Biscoff spread – a new favorite of mine!

I seem to be a little late to the Biscoff party and was just introduced to it last month while touring the grand opening of a new local grocery store. They were offering it (as well as Nutella) along with Magic Pop, which they were making fresh in the store, and which were also new to me. They are a combination of a rice cake and a popcorn flavor, they are 15 calories and totally addictive, especially when slathered with Biscoff spread, as I soon found out. I’ve had a jar in the pantry ever since and was excited to use it in a new recipe, one that was free of any nuts and that I hope Tracy enjoys!

Yield: About 2 dozen cookies
Prep Time: 15 minutes

• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• ½ cup whole milk
• ½ cup unsalted butter
• Pinch of salt
• ¾ cup Biscoff spread
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats

Add the sugar, milk, butter and salt to a 4-quart saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil and let boil, without stirring, for 1 full minute. Remove from heat. Stir in the Biscoff spread and vanilla until smooth, then fold in the oats. Drop by heaping tablespoons (or use a medium cookie scoop) onto wax paper-lined baking sheets. Let cool until set.