[w1ljm]

My wife makes a great tasting Oatmeal Choc-Chip cookie from scratch. She is concerned about the looks of the cookies. Her dough is thick, but the cookies are very thin once baked. She has tried doing different things to correct problem such as: using salted butter, unsalted butter, substituting Crisco (butter flavor) instead of butter, mixing the ingredients in different order, adding more flour, trying different flour, tried mixing the dough the night before and storing it in the refrigerator before baking, all to no avail. Please Help!

[Kelleybean]

Hi there,

Could you post the recipe that your wife uses? I have the same problem and the last time I made them I added a tsp. and half of baking powder and a tsp. and a half of baking soda. It seemed to have helped a little and the cookies went over great with the family. I never use anything other then REAL butter. There is no way that you can ever replicate thee taste of the real thing.

[fliggie]

It would be most helpful if you posted the recipe, but here is something a lot of people do not check: oven temperature. I discovered this the hard way myself--I was having a similar problem and finally heeded the advice of many a baker, putting an oven thermometer in my oven. As it turns out, my oven was baking about 10 to 15 degrees lower than what the temperature was set at. I've learned to now adjust my pre-heat time and have since had no problems (lower baking temp causes the shortening to melt but the cookies to take too long to bake and increases the spread).

Aside from that, there are lots of other variables it could be, but again, please post!

[KyleW]

I use cold butter in my cookies to avoid excess spread.

[BettyR]

I know you're going to think I'm nuts but I have had great success in getting a large, chewy cookie by:

*If the recipe calls for baking soda replace it with baking powder
*In a 2 egg recipe, use 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk
*For every 1 cup of flour add 1 teaspoon of vital wheat gluten (you can find it in the grocery store on the flour isle)
*Use butter Crisco in place of butter: for every 1/2 cup add 1-1/2 tablespoons of milk

The cookie dough will hold up very well and she can form and bake large thick cookies that will stay moist and chewy. Just be very careful not to overbake.

For my cookies I use a #20 ice cream scoop (it makes a dough ball about the size of a lime) place 6 cookies on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 18 minutes in a 325° oven.

When cookies are done, let them cool on the cookie sheet for about 2 minutes to firm up. Then gently lift the parchment paper, with the cookies still on it, off the cookie sheet and onto the table to cool.