Pro tip: the reason your cookies spread flat might be the pan, not the recipe
I was convinced I was a bad baker for about 2 years because my chocolate chip cookies kept coming out as flat puddles. I tried chilling the dough overnight, I weighed my flour, I even switched butter brands. Then my aunt in Boise watched me bake and asked why I was putting dough on a hot sheet pan straight from the oven. Turns out if you scoop onto a warm pan, the butter starts melting before the cookie even hits the oven, so it spreads way out. I started letting pans cool for 10 minutes between batches and using 2 pans so one is always cool, and my cookies finally came out thick and chewy on my very next try. Nobody ever mentions this in recipes and I feel like it cost me a solid 2 years of sad flat cookies. If you've been fighting flat cookies, what ended up being the real cause for you?