Terribly flat..

Hi Carmen,

If by "flat" you mean tasteless, then take a whiff of the vanilla that you used. Does it smell like alcohol rather than vanilla? It may have been sitting on the shelf for too long and might be due for a replacement. Buy only 100% pure vanilla, preferably a good quality. And if you like the taste of vanilla, you can always add a little more to the batter; the key is to taste the batter before baking (you can do this before adding the eggs).

If it's bland before it goes into the oven, it will still be bland when it comes out (some of the flavor even bakes off). It's up to you to add all the flavor that you're looking for! You can add flavored liqueurs and any type of favorite extract flavorings, as well as citrus peels, etc.

If by "flat" you mean the cookies didn't rise, it may have been that your self-rising flour was more than six months old; you can always add a tsp. baking powder per cup if your self-rising flour is too old (but it's better just to toss it).

Please note that regular flour can't be substituted for self-rising flour; if you used regular flour, there was no baking powder/soda in this recipe, so the cookies would have been quite flat!

-- CM

Good but add more flour and a bit less chocolate