…crumbs. 
No really, they taste fantastic, and I’m proud of Michaela’s accomplishment in making them unsupervised. The problem is, she was really going for cookies, rather than what’s turned out to be ice cream sundae topping.
Anyway, here’s the recipe. I should mention that it was from a fund-raising cookbook compiled by the California Home Economics Teachers in anout 1991.
1 1/4 C softened butter
2 C granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 C flour
3/4 C cocoa powder (not sweetened)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 12-oz pkg of chocolate chips
*Preheat oven to 350F.
Cream together the butter and suger until they’re light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and vanilla. Beat well.
Combine the dry ingredients; gradually blend into the creamed mixture.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes. The cookies will puff up while baking, and flatten while cooking. They are intended to be soft.*
Michaela followed this recipe to the letter, and the cookies cooled with a tendency to stick to the cookie sheet. They also were exceptionally fragile, and however much care was exercised in removing them from the cookie sheet, they tended to droop, sag, and break when they were removed from the cooling rack.
I’m wondering if perhaps there was too much fat for the amount of flour, or if the recipe could benefit by replacing some of the butter with shortening. I’m even wondering if the oven temperature should be calibrated. I’m wondering if the baking soda (which was borrowed in a measuring cup from our next-door neighbor) might have been less-than-potent. Those cookies were way flatter than I’ve ever seen before.
I’m wondering all kinds of things. mostly, I’m wondering if the good folks in CS can tell me how to fix this recipe for the next time we want to try it.
Thanks, everybody!