Why do my cookies go flat?

[thomamon]

Guys,

I made chocolate chip cookies the other day with the recipe on the back of the bag. They came out extremely flat for some reason and have no clue why. Anyone know why?

Thanks,

TM

[PA Baker]

Welcome to the board, Thom! Not knowing what recipe you used, it's hard to answer the question. Can you post the recipe--then we can help try and figure out what might have happened.

[thomamon]

Here is the recipe, it was the one on the back Hershey Bag.

2 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 Cup (2 sticks) Butter or Margarine (I used Margarine)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups chocolate chips

[mudbug]

Thom, if you followed the recipe exactly as on the back of the bag, the only things I can think of are these:

You spread them out too much when you first dropped the raw dough on your sheets. This recipe has a lot of shortening in it (two sticks of butter), so they are going to spread quite a bit unless you "heap" the dough up some. (A friend of mine measures her "cookies" out in 1/4 cup increments of dough.)

Your oven got too hot, and kablooey - flat cookies.

Hope this helps.

[mouse]

Your cookie sheet may have been too hot.
Try using an insulated pan, or dough that is a bit more chilled.

[thomamon]

Originally Posted by mudbug

Thom, if you followed the recipe exactly as on the back of the bag, the only things I can think of are these:

You spread them out too much when you first dropped the raw dough on your sheets. This recipe has a lot of shortening in it (two sticks of butter), so they are going to spread quite a bit unless you "heap" the dough up some. (A friend of mine measures her "cookies" out in 1/4 cup increments of dough.)

Your oven got too hot, and kablooey - flat cookies.

Hope this helps.

I am not sure what your saying exactly. Should I use less butter? How do I heap up the dough? I also used the tea spoon as it said to put it on the sheets and the scoops were not too big.

I may try the oven again, but I don't think that is the problem, although I am not in there. lol

[mudbug]

Something else I just thought of - if you used the dark, non-stick type of cookie sheets, they probably got too hot and again - kablooey.

I just used a new Chicago Metallic jelly roll pan (dark non-stick) yesterday to make some bar cookies, and the packaging said to reduce the oven temp by 25 degrees.

[thomamon]

I am actually using stones from pampered chef... I actually have no problem with the store bought dough that you buy if I do that on them. But when I tried home made this happened.

[mudbug]

Did you use the soft tub margarine? That stuff has a lot of water in it as compared to the stick kind. I'm wondering if that could have been the problem.

I have a Pampered Chef baking stone too, but don't use it much. Those things absorb a lot of heat too.

Another thing you could try on a new batch is to chill the dough for about 30 minutes in the fridge before baking.

p.s. I always use more than a teaspoonful to measure out my cookie dough.

[PA Baker]

Thom, it may have been because you used margarine instead of butter. My mom always uses margarine in her chocolate chip cookies and they're very flat. Try using unsalted butter next time. Also, refrigerate the dough before you scoop it onto the cookie sheets (baking stones). Butter melts relatively quickly so if it's soft when the cookies go into the oven, it melts faster than rest of the ingredients cook, leading to flat cookies. If you chill the dough, the cookies start to bake throughout before the butter melts down. What the others said about making sure your pans cool down in-between batches ties into that, too. Also, just to be on the safe side, check the expiration dates on your eggs, baking soda, and flour. If they're old, you won't get the proper "rise," although I bet you see a difference just switching to butter and chilling the dough. Good luck!