This is a good recipe. The first time around I used a low fat soy oil. BIG MISTAKE. It came out too mushy and couldn't hold shape. I threw almost the whole cake out it was a complete failure. BUT 2nd time I used 3/4 cup of Canola oil which worked well. I used half white half brown sugar. I also sprinkled some extra cinnamon on top, which was a nice touch. I baked it for 40 mins in a 10X14 (aprox) 1" pan. A little difficult to cut, but delicious and will be happy to offer it to friends.

Really nice chewy texture, and not too sweet. I doubled the recipe and baked for 30 mins. (microwave/oven) I used a 70% cocoa, which really gave it a rich chocolate lovers taste.

Wow these cookies are incredible! I was planning on getting the semi-sweet chocolate chips but they were too pricey so instead I used 5 1/2 bitter-sweet chocolate bars which came out to 330g. I just cut them up into small chunks with a knife. MISTAKE: I was so excited about baking these after tasting the batter that I became too lazy to refrigerate it before baking. They came out super flat, and were really difficult to remove from the pan without breaking, even after cooling them. I will definitely cool the batter before baking next time. And maybe add walnuts, although the recipe as is, is amazing!

So I decided to change things up a bit for Christmas. Beth's Spicy Oatmeal Raisin cookies. I was thinking about pine trees and egg nog and then I started thinking about cinnamon, which somehow made me start thinking about oatmeal although I don't see any connection on that last part.. The whole process was fairly straight forward. We didn't use shortening, and substituted with only butter. We also decided to make 2 flavors!: 1) Oatmeal Raisin 2) White Chocolate Walnut Oatmeal Raisin These cookies really spread out when you start baking so make sure you give them room or they will combine with the adjacent cookie and result in a complex phenomena called "cookie-neighboring". The cookies were slightly soft after baking, but the following day they were crispy at the edges and chewy in the center. I firmly believe the taste had improved after waiting a day. We liked both flavors but agreed the traditional Oatmeal Raisin flavor was better, and went fantastic with a Starbucks Latte. Next time, I would use slightly less sugar, maybe a 1/4 cup of granulated sugar than 1/2 cup. And I would add more raisins! I hear if you soak the raisins in boiling water they will become more plump and moist! I'll have to implement that as well. All in all, a great recipe and appropriate for the holidays. BAKE OR DIE!