Cocoa Quickies - A Christmas Tradition

Every year for as long as I can remember, my Mom has been making Cocoa Quickies. We received the recipe from a small hand-made booklet that was given out to all our relatives one year with a collection of recipes from everybody. These are delicious, and very simple to make. They require absolutely NO baking, and you can really adjust it to suit your needs.

Ingredients: (I usually double or triple this recipe since for Christmas baking, we're looking for LOTS of dessert)

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup shredded coconut (optional)

Instructions:

Bring milk, butter, sugar, and cocoa powder to a rolling boil in a large sauce pan (I use the stock pot because we always double or triple the recipe) stirring to get it all blended. Boil this for one minute. As soon as you hit that one minute mark of a full rolling boil, remove from heat and add the rolled oats and coconut stirring it all together. Drop small cookie size amounts onto wax paper and let set. Once they have cooled, they should be hardened and you can either indulge then, or put aside in cookie tins for your holiday meals later.

***This recipe can be altered to suit your needs. Milk can be substituted, and coconut can be omitted. You can also add things such as 2/3 cup peanut butter, or half a cup of chopped nuts (i prefer peanuts, but you could try anything you think might work well)

One word of caution for this recipe...they are completely and entirely addictive. When I was growing up, my brother was known to sneak into the freezer at night and snack on these so by the time the Christmas parties started, there were hardly any left. So I suggest either locking your freezer, threatening your kids with their lives, or just baking more for them to indulge in as well. I would choose option three...seems the easiest since this recipe can be doubled or tripled with ease.