<p>Timing is the key. I presume you are preheating the oven to the exact temperature required (have an Indian H and therefore inlaws, know the lack of measuring, exactness of the culture). Place the rack in the middle of the oven. Check cookies at the minimum time- lighter/darker cookie sheets take different times, it doesn’t mater which you use. I like the premade Nestle’s cookies- oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip especially., but any recipe, mix or premade cookie can be made just right The cookies are done by the time they are a bit brown around the edges, they still form an indentation when a finger is pushed into the middle of one but aren’t “liquidy”. There is carryover- one reason to remove them with a flat "pancake turner’ to a cooling rack soon (you have to be careful as they will fall apart if lifted by an edge). Some cookies are overdone by the time you see any brown edges. It takes practice to “know” when cookies are just right- experience means mine are more likely than not to be done in the middle and not too brown on the outsides. The same cooking practices are used in baking refrigerator rolls- check at the minimum time and take them out when just done.</p>
<p>I agree with tango about experimenting. For example, I almost always add more vanilla and salt than called for in a cookie recipe. And I often add an extra egg yolk for every 2-3 whole eggs. My tips - pure vanilla extract, not imitation vanilla flavoring - it is worth the difference in price. I also use a very good-tasting salt called Real Salt that is available in health food stores. After some experience you will start to have a sense of what dough consistency produces the just-right cookie. It does depend on variables such as humidity in the room (and thus in the flour), minor variations in egg size, etc. Try starting out with a little less flour than the recipe calls for and baking just one test cookie, and if it spreads too much, add just a little more flour to the dough.</p>
<p>The tile in the oven sounds like a good tip. And you can layer two baking sheets to get the same effect as the air-cushion sheets.</p>
<p>OKGirl - the flat cookie problem can come from using too little flour or as I recently discovered, a different kind of butter. I find that the amount of flour I actually get in a half-cup measure depends on how full the flour container is. When I open a new bag of flour, it’s densely packed and I’ll get more flour (often too much). When I’m taking it from the bottom of the bag, the flour is much less packed so I get less. Try to avoid the extremes - shake the bag to settle the flour if the bag is low, and lift up the flour with a fork before measuring if the bag is full. If your recipe offers weights as well as volume amounts, you can weigh the flour instead with a kitchen scale. I do this for a few very picky recipes.</p>
<p>If you find that your first pan of cookies turns out flat, you can stir an extra tablespoon or two into the dough and the rest of the cookies will probably turn out fine.</p>
<p>Recently I bought “European style butter” because it was the only unsalted butter I could find at the store. It made the cookies much flatter, so I’ll avoid that next time.</p>
<p>Using shortening instead of butter in a cookie recipe really does make a difference in the height of the cookie. A long time ago there was an ad campaign , I think for Crisco, that suggested you try both in chocolate chip cookies in a side by side “contest”. IMO, while the cookies with shortening are taller, they taste better with butter. I do use the new Crisco without trans fats in a few recipes, especially in crumbs for crumb cake. They hold their “crumb shape” better.</p>
<p>about flour for baking: it is a good idea to stir the flour first and then spoon it into the measuring cup before leveling it off. If you scoop the flour with the measuring cup, it can be compacted and you will get more than is called for in the recipe.</p>
<p>Am I the only one who thinks flat cookies are a GOOD thing? I like them flat and chewy, preferably with little chocolate chip bulges.</p>
<p>OKgirl –</p>
<p>I always bake with butter instead of shortening and I figured this out when I first made the transition 19 years ago 
Butter is softer at room temperature than shortening. This makes room temperature cookie dough made with butter softer – so it spreads more (and gets thinner) when put straight in the oven. To get fatter cookies with butter, refrigerate the dough after mixing. Roll and cut (or spoon and drop) straight from the refrigerator to the pan and pop in the oven – the height will then be comparable to shortening.</p>
<p>BTW, folks, I bake hundreds of cookies a year and I <em>hate</em> the air bake pans - the texture of the cookies is not as good, I think. It’s much better to set a timer for a minute before the minimum bake time and watch them. I also find that most baked goods are perfectly done the minute you smell them Of course, that doesn’t work for the second batch when the house already smells yummy.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>