Melanie in Prescott has a problem with flat cookies. She’s using an old recipe that has always works great, but now her cookies are inexplicably unleavened. Without knowing the exact recipe (a family secret is a sacred thing), we can guess that something has changed over time: the ingredients, the climate, the tools, what have you. Here are some tips for finding that perfect cookie again:

Tips for Thick Cookies

Cool your cookie sheet and your cookie dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 minutes. You may do this either before or after you form your cookies and place them on the cookie sheet, whichever makes the dough easier for you to work with.

Think about replacing some or all of the margarine in your recipe with butter, which spreads less when it melts, or shortening, which spreads even less than butter.

Make sure that, when you cream the sugar and butter (or other fat), you do not over-mix it.

Adding just a bit of flour to a cookie recipe can have dramatic effects of the shape and texture of your cookies. A mere ¼ or ½ cup ought to do it.

Experiment with your oven temperature: lower temperatures can give the leavening agent more time to work; higher temperatures can seal the cookie before it deflates.

Lower-protein flours like cake flour or bleached all-purpose flour have more bounce, which makes cookies fluffier and chewier.