I have made these several times making them small and using all butter and they have always been very good. After reading the comments I am now confused about the shortening. If I decide to use shortening do I melt it first? The recipe says melter butter but doesn't state to use melted shortening.

I made these smaller than suggested and added small choc chips they did not flatten out tasted more like choc brownie bites. I flattened the second batch somewhat, I also used 1 stick of butter vs crisco.

These didn't turn out at all as I expected. The dough was very dry and they did not spread at all. I used melted butter in the place of vegetable shortening as recommended. I was not able to find dutch cocoa at my local shop, so I used premium unsweetened cocoa powder; the cookies have a mild chocolate flavor. This batch yielded 35 0.25-oz cookies (it was the measuring device I had handy) I reduced the baking time to 14 minutes. I won't use this recipe again.

So good. Have made them repeatedly and turn out great each time.

I made these cookies for the first time and followed the recipe. I substituted butter for shortening like the recipe listed and they came out okay. They taste more like regular sugar cookies with a hint of chocolate then chocolate cookies. I would make these again but next time I will add more cocoa. Other than that the cookies aren't bad.

This recipe says nothing about flattening them out. I thought they would flatten out as they baked, but they came out looking just as they did when I put them in the oven - like snowballs! I think this written recipe needs some adjustments. The grnadkids liked them though. We called them chocolate snowballs (on a 90 degree day.

My family loves these chocolate sugar cookies! I made the recipe to a T & they turned out great! I made them smaller so I was able to get 30 cookies & cooked them for 12 minutes! I will make them again! Thanks Martha! :)

QUESTIONS: My husband is diabetic. Can I substitute Splenda for the sugar; also can I substitute organic cacao powder for the dutch-process cocoa???

I forgot to add that all I had was Hershey's Baking Cocoa. Used it and they came out just fine, but some time I would like to try the cocoa the recipe calls for.

I made these with my little grandsons. The dough was very easy to work with & the cookies were delicious! Instead of making 8 giant cookies, we used a TBSP to measure out the dough. Can't recall how many we ended up making, because the boys were devouring them right out of the oven. The smaller size cookie took aprox. 12 mins. to bake. I also opted for all butter & no vegetable shortening. We sandwiched some of them with peanut butter...sensational! Will add butterscotch chips the next time!