I know we're more of a cooking than a baking community (bread excepted), but I thought I'd try and run this by the group anyway.
I've been making my late grandmother's chocolate-chocolate cookie recipe for many years now. And while they taste amazing, I've always had the trouble of getting the shape right. My grandma used to make these amazing little tablespoon size drops that would be maybe a quarter in diameter and about an inch high (actually, I think she just shaped them with a tablespoon and they stayed that way, getting a bit cracked in the oven). But no matter what I do, mine spread out to about two inches in diameter and maybe half an inch at best in height. I've tried refrigerating and freezing before I put them on the baking sheet, but no luck. Any help you guys might have is very much welcomed!
I've pasted the recipe below, but I should say a word of caution: a Jewish grandmother's recipe is closer to a loose set of suggestions than a precise formula. I'm pretty sure I have all the ingredients, but I know for a fact that the temperature and the amounts of sugar varied depending on how she was feeling that day and, as she aged, how insistent her doctor was about her avoiding sugar. Personally, I always add more cocoa than the recipe calls for. But any number of ingredients or steps may be missing. I also rearrange the ingredients to mix all the dry first and then the wet, since that is how I learned to bake, but I'll present it in the order it was given to me, though that may just be how it came to her mind on the day I asked her for the recipe.
Grandma's Chocolate Cookies:
1/3 cup oil
.5 cup white sugar
.5 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 cup flour, plus a bit more
.5 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup cocao powder
Add chocolate chips or walnuts if you like. Refrigerate or freeze for at least 15 minutes. Bake on 375 for 10-12 minutes.