You've Been Making Cookies All Wrong

Chocolate chip cookies are usually considered a hard-to-mess-up treat; yet, we've certainly had our share of cookies that seem to melt rather than bake once they hit the oven. Chilling the dough and sheet can help, says Pansino, but there's another trick that works especially well for drop cookies (i.e., ones where you place spoonfuls of dough on the sheet). If your first batch comes out looking like pancakes, stir a tablespoon, or so, of flour (for a more cake-y cookie) along with one-fourth of a teaspoon of baking soda (for cookies that puff up) into the dough.