Oh, Linda! How dumb am I???? It never occurred to me to measure & weigh a "test batch" of the cocoa! Wonderful help! Thanks so much!!! Yes, I always roll, cut & bake on parchment. I just tried using two cookie sheets under the chocolate cookies & it seems to be helping. Are you thinking I should put a silpat under the parchment? Martha's recipe makes such a dark chocolate cookie that you can't tell doneness by looking as with sugar cookies or gingerbread. I'm trying touching the center to test for firmness but what an OWWEEEE burn when I touched a "medium rare" cookie by accident and the hot dough stuck to my finger! Michelle, I wish I were baking in a convection oven! I've heard that you don't need to rotate the cookie sheets in a convection oven and that you can bake 3 or 4 sheets at a time. I hope this is true...can anyone confirm? I did add 1 tsp of expresso powder but will try 1 T. I was afraid I'd taste coffee in the background with more than 1 tsp...can you? Since I am shooting for a bit crisper than you, I'll shoot for "firmer" resistence to touch and see if that does it. Thanks for saying chocolate cookies aren't easy to bake. Now I don't feel so bad. OK..I just conducted the experiment...lightly sprinkling cocoa directly from the can into a one cup SS measure weighed 2.75 oz.(using a digital scale accurate to 1/2 oz). The cocoa can says 1 TBS weighs 5 grams. If 16 TBS equals one cup, then one cup weighs 80 grams which converts to 2.705 oz! WOW is that ever different from the 3.75 to 4 ounces the charts claim. No wonder the batch made with weighed ingredients were "inedible". It really breaks your heart to use all of that cocoa, butter and confectioner's sugar and the time rolling and baking to have it all wind up in the trash! If you'd like to see and/or try this awesome chocolate cookie recipe, I've linked it for you. I think they are worth the risk! I can also vouch for Martha's gingerbread cookies. They are full of flavor and have ground black pepper added to the usual spices. The dough cuts and imprints well...it will take any kind of cutters you have http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.fc77a0dbc44dd1611e3bf410b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=87f01a55b890f010Vgn Thank you for helping to solve my two problems! Here is a link that might be useful: Martha Stewart Chocolate Cookies

lizbeth-gardener- --Perfectly softened butter should still look solid, but "give" a little when you press it lightly with your finger and leave a slight indent, but shouldn't be soft in feel or appearance. You don't want partially-melted butter. Using butter that is too soft can cause cookie spread. --Instead of the touch test for butter, try taking the temperature (place the thermometer into the stick from the narrow end into the center of the length of the stick) . Optimal temperature for fat/butter is 65-67-degrees F when you measure it with an instant-read thermometer. Since butter warms quickly when it's beat, starting at this cooler temperature prevents it from getting too soft during mixing. --Cold-from-the-refrigerator butter will be soft in 30-40-minutes at room temperature. You can speed that up by grating the butter on a large hole box grater, and grating it is a better method than in the microwave. --Don't use butter that has been sitting out on the counter for hours/days because it will probably be too soft (aka "slack" butter) due to ambient kitchen temperatures. --Thoroughly chilled dough will help assure the fat is solid once again - although if the dough got overly-warm at any point, the texture can change because the moisture and the fat in butter can separate. There are all kinds of tests for the "perfect" amount of refrigerator time, but there are too many variables from recipe-to-recipe to make that determination without testing each one. I have recipes that work best mixed and baked immediately (especially low-fat, or if liquid fat is used in the recipe), others need to be chilled at least an hour or 12-hours works well. If I freeze the dough balls, I prefer thawing them in the refrigerator overnight rather than baking them frozen, although, that's just one more option. --If you have a large amount of cookie dough to bake, be sure to keep it in the refrigerator while waiting for use. The heat in the kitchen can cause the fat to melt and the dough to go "slack", especially towards the end of the batch. --Don't continue to stir the cookie dough between handling for portioning because mixing it will over-develop the gluten and you'll get tough cookies. Pilllog mentioned not aerating the dough..... It's not so much about aerating as it is about over-mixing and over-developing the gluten once the flour has been added, which will cause the cookies to be tough. Once the fat/sugar have been properly mixed, don't over-mix the dough once the eggs have been added or the fat/liquid can "break". --Avoid placing cookie dough on a hot/warm pan. Have at least 3-4 cookies sheets to use so you always have one that is completely cool before loading the dough on it. Even warm pans will begin melting the fat in the dough. --Other causes for cookie spread: too much sugar (be sure to measure carefully), large-grained sugar (fine-grained is a better choice), too much baking soda - which makes the pH too high, too much grease or fat residue on the pan (wipe off between batches - better yet, cover them with parchment paper), incorrect temperature or cold oven temperature (be sure to preheat and check your oven for actual temperature using an oven thermometer). --Another important, and often missed, point.... When mixing the fat and sugar, be sure to take your time. If you rush through this step you can cause cookie spread because the two ingredients haven't been properly incorporated and the sugar crystals will remain too large. Other points to consider: -Size of the cookies you make. -Use a portion scoop so you get like-sized cookies which bake in the same amount of time. -Use a timer, and remember, the first pan normally takes a little longer then the subsequent pans. -In a standard oven, only bake one pan of cookies at a time and turn the pan half-way through baking. If you have a convection oven, reduce the temperature by 25-degrees F, and half-way through turn the pans and move the pans top to bottom. On a personal note, I've used nothing but insulated baking sheets for over 30-years, however I don't bake directly on the pans, I always top them with parchment paper. Adding parchment paper will give slightly different results on ALL pan types, as would adding a silicon sheet. When judging cookies at Fairs I can usually tell which kind of pan was used by the bottom of the cookies. Each pan type will give different results and there are different hints and tips for baking on each of them successfully. -Grainlady

I found the site that had the cookie recipe. The link is below. The ones in the webpage look similar to Snickerdoodles, probably due to them being rolled in cinnamon sugar. Mine look boring, but they taste very good, tender with a good ginger bite. I didn't want to adulterate my 'ginger cookies' with 'cinnamon', so I mixed ginger with the rolling sugar. I used 1 Tbs of regular molasses(you can't taste it at all) and increased the butter to 1/2 cup because 1/4 cup seemed like too little(I don't do low-fat anything). The first part of the batch(on the right in the photo)puffed up a lot into little mountains(maybe the added butter?)and stayed that way. I never noticed(can you say ADD?)that the recipe called for rolling 1/2" balls...really? Does that seem right? I'm used to making fairly large cookies, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2" balls. So for the rest of the batch(the ones on the left), I managed to get the dough balls down to 1" and I flattened them a little with the bottom of a glass. I think they look a little better. Either way I'm happy with the taste and I think my friend will like them too. Here is a link that might be useful: Fresh Ginger Cookies

My mother wasn't a baker - she was too impatient - but I'm the opposite. The weeks of marathon baking, candy making, caramel corn, fruit cakes (dark and light), pound cakes, party mix (and other snack-mixes), and any number of other assorted goodies I once loved doing are officially over. I honestly don't think I could afford it anymore!!! It was one time of the year we could share our bounty with others. The dining room table was filled with plate after plate, bag after bag, box after box, of goodies distributed far and wide. Now you have to worry who's gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, sugar-free, fat-free, cholesterol-free, low-carb, paleo, vegan, vegetarian, and cross-contamination....and it takes all the fun out of it. Years ago, this was about the only time we had these kinds of goodies, and now we are all trying to avoid them (LOL). I remember gallon and 1/2-gallon jars filled with those tiny little Peppernuts. Then there were pressed cookies, thumbprint cookies, whole wheat sugar cookies, gumdrop cookies, snickerdoodles, rosettes, Christmas mince bars, chocolate pixies, turtle cookies, shortbread, ginger creams, spritz, chocolate and almond teacakes, glazed fruit bars, peanut butter oatmeal cookies..... It was great fun to get the whole family involved in production because we always talk about those memories of all the things we made in our dinky little kitchen. How hubby's famous microwave peanut brittle took up the whole kitchen table to cool. Now all fond memories.... :-)