Save the last batch for me

Cocoa Fudge Cookies — this year’s last batch.

It is time to declare the Great Christmas Cookie Bakeoff of 2012 complete.

Sadly, I have fallen far short of my quota. My eyes and heart were bigger than the allotment of time on the calendar. But we will celebrate with Basil’s family in less than a week and the tree is only half-decorated, there are presents to wrap (and buy. Eek.).

It might also be nice if someone bothered to vacuum or scrub a toilet around here.

(Oh, guess that’s me, too!)

Bottom line: I’ve got to preserve what remaining sanity I have (which isn’t much.).

All I can do at this point is hope that what I managed to make tastes yummy, that I added an extra heaping of love with the other ingredients. Maybe we’ll plan for a few batches of New Year’s Day cookies in honor of Basil’s name day (then I’ll have to figure out how to bake a coin into one of them for luck…).

Today I did a couple batches of Cocoa Fudge Cookies — really delicious ones that require no mixer. They aren’t the prettiest cookie, but they taste like heaven. I found the recipe on the Cooking Light website after we discovered Catherine couldn’t have eggs anymore. They quickly became a staple of the holiday.

In case you’d like to try them, too, here’s the recipe. It calls for cooking spray, but I use parchment paper instead. I dare you to NOT eat one of these right out of the oven!

Cocoa Fudge Cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. salt

5 Tblsp. butter

7 Tblsp. unsweetened cocoa

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cooking spray

• Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, soda and salt; set aside.
• Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat; stir in cocoa powder and sugars (mixture will resemble coarse sand). Add yogurt and vanilla, stirring to combine. Add flour mixture, stirring until moist.
• Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until almost set. Cool on pans 2-3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks. Makes 2 dozen.