Yes, Christmas is over, but that doesn't mean that a sweet treat should be off limits--especially little bite-sized cookies. Cocoa Cookies deliver a nice shot of chocolate, are soft and easy to eat, and are great accompaniments to fresh fruit or alone with coffee, tea, or milk. Best of all the cookies can be mixed up quickly and then the dough refrigerated to bake later. I often mix up the dough, put it in the refrigerator for a day or two (or the freezer for 15 minutes, if I'm in a hurry and want to bake soon), and then bake the cookies when I have the oven on to make something else--like dinner. Although I'm not keen on using packaged mixes, in this case, a cake mix comes in quite handy. The cake mix--use the type that's on sale or a generic one--also means that the cookies are economical. That's not a bad thing in January after the holidays and before income tax time. These are simple cookies, but they're quite good, so be prepared to share or otherwise limit your temptation.
Cocoa Cookies -- Makes about 24
1/3 cup of canola oil
2 eggs
1 box of chocolate cake mix
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2-1 cup of confectioners' sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together the oil and eggs well. Stir in the cake mix, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. Put the dough in the refrigerator for at least a few hours or until it is hard enough to scoop. Roll about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough into balls and coat them in confectioners' sugar. Put the dough balls at least an inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets and bake them for about 10 minutes or until just set. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets for a few minutes before removing them to cool completely.
