Avalanche Cookies {White Chocolate Peanut Butter Krispie Clusters}

Crunchy no bake white chocolate peanut butter rice krispie clusters. These Avalanche Cookies are a quick and easy no-bake dessert recipe to make at the last minute or on a budget. Deliciously addictive, we’ve been making this simple Avalanche cookie recipe for several decades. Just 10 minutes and 5 ingredients!

Incredibly sweet and tasty these traditional chocolate rice crispy cookies with crunchy peanuts are at the top of our holiday cookie list. If I could only make three Christmas cookie recipes for the rest of my life, I’m making Peanut Butter Blossoms, Pecan Snowball Cookies, and this white chocolate no bake cookie recipe AKA Avalanche Cookies.

The base of these drop cookies is molded and held together with melted white chocolate baking chips, although the taste of chocolate is mild due to the peanut butter addition. The combination of these two baking ingredients is a match made in heaven. They don’t overpower or compete with each other flavor-wise. Instead, the combination works to tone down both flavors resulting in a combination that is really delicious and addicting.

What are Avalanche Cookies?

Avalanche cookies get their name from looking similar to snow-covered boulders and rocks. I’ve always known them as white chocolate peanut clusters. Every Christmas, my mom made several batches. She’d box them in Christmas tins with her homemade Caramel Popcorn Moose Munch, and our family favorite Cracker Toffee Candy. Then, they were shipped off to family and friends for the Christmas holiday season.

Rice krispie cereal coated in a mixture of peanut butter and melted white chocolate. Tossed with roasted peanuts and salt, these white chocolate peanut butter krispie clusters are a simple make at home copycat dessert candy recipe using just 5 ingredients!

Avalanche Cookies are a fun bite-size no bake dessert snack to make for any occasion. I like to call them crack candy. Each bite is addictive. I can never stop at just one!

Avalanche Variations and Flavor Swaps:

Classic no bake cookies make for the perfect cookie dough because they can be stuffed with a variety of your favorite ingredients. Below are a few of my favorite substitutions and cookie additions.

Flavor Swaps:

• Swap some of the peanut butter for cookie butter or almond butter.
• Replace half the white chocolate for butterscotch chips. I really like this one.
• Substitute milk or dark chocolate for white chocolate.

No-Bake Cookie Additions:

• Mini marshmallows
• mini chocolate chips
• nuts like pecans, walnuts, almond.
• Freeze a candy bar, chop it up, and add it to the mix for an insanely rich candy bar inspired avalanche cookie cluster.
• Old fashioned quick oats

Avalanche Cookie Tips

• EASY TO PREPARE: Use a cookie scoop or a spoon to scoop equal size balls of the dough mixture onto a prepared work surface. Avoid using hands to form the cookies as the chocolate and peanut butter tends to coat them much like butter.
• STORING: Quick and easy, this no-fail cookie recipe doesn’t need to be made in advance. In fact, when stored correctly in an air-tight container or bag, these cookies will last at least a week or more. However, they may be stored in the freezer if need be.
• FLAVORS: See chocolate and peanut butter variations above. I’ve noted several ingredient swaps and toppings that I’ve tried.

Cookies don’t need to be complicated to taste amazing. In fact, just 5 ingredients and 10 minutes are all it takes to make the BEST no bake peanut butter clusters. In fact, just a mixing bowl and a way to melt the chocolate (microwave or stovetop) is all that the candy clusters need. A fun recipe to get the kids involved in making.