I have a recipe that I have used since I was a teenager for those much beloved No-Bake Chocolate Drops.  For many years now, I have unquestioningly followed the recipe, even though it called for a tooth-breaking two cups of sugar for a small batch.  Now that I am older and more concerned about what I eat, I hardly make them because of that hefty dose of sugar.  The other day, I was craving them so I decided to see how they turned out with less sugar – much less.

The recipe, which turns out about two dozen cookies, calls for two cups, but I experimented with half that and they still tasted delicious.  They needed a little more oats to make up for the loss of bulk, but otherwise they were just as good and half as guilt-inducing.

Here is the time-honored recipe that I have been using for years, but altered slightly to reflect the older and wiser me:

No Bake Chocolate Drops
½ cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa
½ cup milk
3 ½ cups oats
½ cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla