This recipe saved me today. I was just trying to dip pretzels in semi sweet chocolate but somehow the chocolate did not melt and reach the consistency that it should have for the pretzels to be dipped. My dilemma was now: what to do with all this semi melted semi sweet chocolate. I hurried to find a recipe that called for 12 oz of semi sweet chocolate and came across this one. I decided to gamble and try it though I didn't even have one ingredient: cocoa powder and I don't even own a sifter. (I halved the recipe by the way and added a half cup of almond pieces.) I just folded the melted chocolate with the butter and sugar prior to adding the dry ingredients. The cookies turned out great. They are yummy and moist and I am sure they will fly out of the containers when I take them to work on Monday :)