Here....make these....exactly as the recipe says....remember to preheat the oven and measure ingredients....and don't substitute anything....they are never fail!
GINGER SNAPS (Stew's favorite)

2/3 cup cooking oil
1 cup white sugar
4 Tbsp molasses
1 egg

Stir together above ingredients, then add:

2 cups sifter flour
2 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp salt

Make small balls. Roll in sugar. Bake 1" apart on ungreased baking sheet at 350 for 15 minutes.

And here's another.
These chocolate cookies were sooooo good, I had to pass along the recipe.
The recipe is from last month's Cooking Light

COCOA FUDGE COOKIES

1 cup flour
� tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
5 Tbsp butter
7 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350�
2. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine
flour, soda and salt; set aside. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium
heat. Remove from heat; stir in cocoa powder and sugars (mixture will
resemble coarse sand). Add yogurt and vanilla, stirring to combine Add
flour mixture, stirring until moist. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches
apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray.
3. Bake at 350� for 8-10 minutes or until almost set. Cool on pans 2-3
minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies.

When I make chocolate chip cookies, I've learned to add a TBLS. of milk. Someone recommended this years ago. My cookies are always puffy with a crisp outside and a soft inside. Something about the milk I guess. Also, I always use butter. One recipe calls for 1 egg and 1 egg yolk. They come out wonderful also. I just use the recipe on the back of the Nestle's chip bag with those changes.

Here's some tips about cookie textures.

How do you combine it all to come up with your favorite winning texture? The tips below will help you achieve the cookie you desire.

Flat
If you want your cookies on the flat side, you can do some or all of the following things: Use all butter, use all-purpose flour or bread flour, increase the sugar content slightly, add a bit of liquid to your dough, and or bring the dough to room temperature before baking.

Puffy
If you like your cookies light and puffy, try some of the following tricks. Use shortening or margarine and cut back on the fat, add an egg, cut back on the sugar, use cake flour or pastry flour, use baking powder instead of baking soda, refrigerate your dough before baking.

Chewy
If chewiness is your desire remove the cookies a few minutes before they are done, while their centers are still soft and not quite cooked through. The edges should be slightly golden but the middle will still look slightly raw. Use brown sugar or honey as a sweetener. Try using egg yolks instead of whole eggs. This will add some extra moistness to the cookies thus helping to be a bit more on the chewy side.

Crispy
For crisp and crunchy cookies, bake your cookies a few minutes longer than suggested and immediately remove them to a wire rack to cool. Cookies made with all butter and high amounts of white sugar will also crisp quite nicely. Another trick is to use bread flour.

Thank you!! and what kind of cookie sheet do you use ??
my cooking sheets are insulated, are those ok ? or do I need to buy aluminum ??
Thanks,
Love,
Alma

I've never used an insulated pan, but I've not heard good things about them. I have a couple of aluminum half-sheet jelly roll pans that I love. I line the bottoms with parchment paper or silicon mats.

I always, or almost always use butter rather than shortening, because I don't like the taste of shortening. I did see an episode of America's Test Kitchen, or one of their spin-off shows, where they were making cookies. They melted the butter to get rid of the water that's in the butter. I haven't tried that technique, but one of these days I might.

Sally

I only use an insulated sheet for a certain sugary cookey that has a tendency to burn.
Plain, el cheapo aluminum half sheet pans for me!

I used to use shortening, then after joining this forum switched to butter. They do taste great with butter, but I also find that they spread out too much. Last batch of cookies I made I switched back to shortening and they came out perfectly. To, me, they were very good, and I liked the texture much better.

THANK YOU!!! REALLY THANKS ! My jelly roll pans are non-stick coating are those ok, or Do I need another kind ?

Thanks again,
Alma

Here is a link that might be useful: gardenweb

I atually don't like non-stick pans for baking cookies. I agree with Linda. Try and get some heavy weight cookie sheets or jelly roll pans that are not non-stick. The heavy weight will help prevent the pans from warping and give an even heat across the bottom of the pan.

I avoid non-stick pans, period. I don't trust them to be safe. I have learned though, that if using brown or dark pans, which non-stick pans are, or if using glass pans, one should adjust the temperature down by 25 degrees. I do this when using my glass bread pans, and my results in bread baking has improved dramatically. Of course, you didn't ask about bread, but the same thing may apply to cookies. Other people are more expert on that than I am.

I sure am getting in the mood to bake cookies, now! lol I can't wait for cooler weather. It's getting closer, only in the 80's now. Woo hoo!

Sally

alma, you got some good advice about the ingredients, and you'd think cookies would be easy, but I just did a batch of chocolate chip and they were not right. I refrigerated the batter for a day, baked them the next and the texture was flat and crispy, not chewy. Sigh.

I bought aluminum sheet pans at Sam's Club, PolarWare I think, made in the USA. They were less than $10 for 2 and work like a charm. I line the pans with parchment paper.

I had some of those insulated airbake pans and absolutely hated them, the cookies were overdone before the bottoms were brown. I took them to recycling after I was unable to give them away at a yard sale.

I don't care for non-stick either, because the coating tends to come off eventually and I just don't like the thought of my grandkids eating the little flakes of teflon coating on the bottoms of their cookies....

Annie

Thanks for all your time trying to help me, I'll follow your tips , and continue baking cookies and the moment I get the good ones I'll keep you posted.
Thks., Alma

Alma, I am sorry you are having such disappointments with your cookies. I have two suggestions: first, most of my cookies recipes start by having the softened butter, shortening, or margarine creamed with the sugar. It is important at this stage to really, really cream it all together well--also do NOT used melted butter, just a bit softened. When it is well creamed, light and fluffy, add any eggs in the recipe, and again, beat very, very well. Now you can add spices and flavorings, beating them in thoroughly. At this point, step back and take a breath, change your pace because you do NOT want to beat much when you add the flour. You only need to mix it enough to incorporate the flour well, but no more. Other than that, I do nothing special with my cookies and people love them.

My other suggestion is to be sure you are using good sugar. You may want to try another brand. My best friend, also an avid baker, shared her favorite, stand-by cookie recipe with me years ago, and when I baked the cookies for her, we couldn't understand the difference in texture and appearance of the cookies. She liked mine better. After comparing notes and techniques, we realized the only real difference was the sugar. After she used my brand in her famous fudge recipe with great results, she swore off bargain-brand sugar forever.

I hope one or both of these suggestions helps you.

Re cookie sheets

It's best if your cookie sheet doesn't have edges. A complety flat cookie sheet ensures that the heat is distributed evenly. I have such a cookie sheet and absolutely love it! Makes the best cookies. It's also non-stick. I bought it at Zellers 19 years ago and haven't been able to find one the same since anywhere. The bottoms of my cookies are NEVER dark...always golden. In fact, when I tried parchment paper a few times, the bottoms got darker. Not sure why that happened!?

I really, really like that choc chip cookie recipe from the NY Times that someone posted here awhile ago. I just made it again this past week and the cookies turn out perfect every time. I'll post the link.

Lakemayor, I'm positive that the recipe on the Toll House bag used to call for milk. My grandma always used to buy the 6-oz. bag and I'm sure I remember it calling for 2 tsp. of milk. Of course, this would have been 50 years ago. Anyone else remember that!

I always use all-butter, cane sugar and brown sugar with no added molasses - not really sure if that makes a huge difference, but my dietician sister swears that brown sugar with molasses affects the texture.

And last year at Christmas-time, I ordered 2 Vollrath cookie sheets. My old cookie sheets were shot after years of use, so I figured these will probably last me for the rest of my baking life. I have a Silpat, but usually use parchment paper instead. Something about the backs of the Silpat-baked cookies seems odd to me.

Here is a link that might be useful: New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

Virginia7074, Thanks for the recipe. My DH loves chocolate chip cookies and I like to try different recipes just looking for the perfect one. I'm going to try the recipe you posted today.

Karen