Why did baking soda flatten chocolate chip cookies?
I lead a food/nutrition project for 4H. As an experiment to learn more about baking soda, we made one batch of choc chip cookies, dividing it into thirds. For two thirds we followed the recipe (and ate the cookies!!!), to the other third we added extra baking soda. The recipe called for 1 1/4 teaspoon for entire batch, and we added that amount again to the one third portion. We all expected the one third with extra baking soda to be larger, taller, and generally bigger because baking soda is a leavening. However, the cookies cooked faster and flattened out. I did the experiment twice: once by myself and once with the kids, and both times got the same results. Can you please tell us why.
