"Thomas R. Leith" > wrote in
link.net:

> Hi --
>
> The thread on baking sheets makes me think I can get some advice here.
>
> I've been having troubles with my toll-house recipe chocolate chip
> cookeis and snickerdoodles "spreading" too much for several years. (I
> only bake at Christmas, so this isn't so drastic as it sounds).
>
> I'd thought maybe butter nowadays has a higher milk content or
> soemthing, and I should try to adjust the flour upwards to compensate.
> But the cookiesheet thread suggests a couple more possibilities.
>
> We use air-cushioned pans. Do they not heat-up quick enough, and let
> the butter melt before the flour, sugar, and eggs start to "set"? Can
> this be why my cookies are too flat?
>
> We bought a box of frozen, unbaked cookies from some school fundraiser
> and we don't have trouble with these. But maybe they're made with
> shortening instead of butter, or baking them from frozen mitigates the
> problem.
>
> Any ideas??
>
> t
>
>

I would like to suggest that you try different flour. A cake flour with
cold butter will give you a fluffy puffy cookie. Shortening and all purpose
flour will give you a thin and crispier cookie. High glutem bread flour or
bread machine flour with melted butter will give you a nice chewy cookie.
The melted butter will help develop the glutens before baking. A
combination of cake and some bread (high gluten), with clearified butter
will tend to give a puffier chewy cookie.

Jean-Scott