Why do my cookies come out flat?

The number one question that visitors ask is about cookie spread and a deflated cookie.

• The dough maybe be too warm in which case you should try refrigerating dough until well-chilled (1 to 2 hours). If the dough is still too soft, stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour
  
• The cookie sheet may also be too hot when you put the cookies on it. Use two pans, and while one is cooking the other is cooling off in the refrigerator or run cool water over it and rinse and dry before cooking the next batch.
  
• Make sure that the butter or margarine that you are using does not have water added to the product.
  
• Make sure that the butter is not too soft before making the dough - just enough to cream with the sugar.
  
• You can also change the formulation to replace 5% of the pastry flour that you are using with chlorinated cake flour or a bread flour. This will help to restrict the spread. If this does not work, then increase the replacement by another 2 1/2% and then maybe up to 10%. Eventually, you will be able to control the spread to the diameter you require and a consistency which will give you a good eating quality.
  
• There is also no reason to grease a cookie sheet unless a recipe calls for it. There is usually enough oil in the cookie dough. Greasing a sheet will cause a cookie to spread.
  
• Before baking an entire batch, bake a test cookie to give a good indication of dough condition. If it spreads too much, the dough may be too soft.
  
• Some bakers swear that the new silicone baking mats will also remedy the situation. Try searching for them online here.