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TL;DR: This is a great recipe for Tate’s style thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies. Follow it exactly, don’t mix and match recipes. Baking is a science. You have to control all of the variables to ensure your baked goods turn out as intended. One or two variables being off can cause the problems you described. The tips below are good for all baked goods, not just cookies. Source quality recipes. King Arthur Baking, America’s Test Kitchen, New York Times Cooking, and Stella Park are my go to sources for quality recipes. Many people love Sally’s Baking Addiction (I haven’t tried many of her recipes, but she seems to have great recipes according to reviews). Make sure to follow the recipe exactly. The ratio of fat, liquid, flour, and sugar are all important. Weigh your ingredients with a kitchen scale, don’t use cups or volume measurements. Cups and volume measurements are less precise. Cakey cookies can be a result of too much flour. Find recipes that have weight measurements and use the weight listed in the recipe. (Some recipe developers believe a cup of flour equal different weights, so it’s not always easy to convert recipes with only volume measurements into weights). Cream your butter and sugars for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. When you add your dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, fold until just combined. Over mixing will lead to gluten development and tough cookies. Line your baking sheets with parchment, not silicone mats. Use a light colored baking sheet (Nordic Ware has the best). Preheat your oven for at least 30 minutes. If you haven’t already, use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is heating properly. If it’s not, adjust it up or down. Make sure your cookie dough balls are roughly the same weight and size. This will ensure they bake evenly. I usually weigh my dough to 75 grams for about a 4-5 inch cookie. If I’m on a crunch for time, I use a #16 cookie scoop. Most people prefer smaller cookies. Make the size that you like but adjust the baking time accordingly. After scooping, I then refrigerate or freeze my dough for at least one day. If I’m pressed for time, I’ll freeze them for an hour or however much time I have. When you bake your cookies, bake two or three at a time and play around with the length of time you bake them. This will allow you to figure out what your preference is. I personally love crispy cookies, so I bake mine for 25 minutes and let them cool completely so they crisp up nicely. My friends prefer them to be baked for 15-17 minutes and they eat them fresh out of the oven. The times in recipes usually have a range because each oven is different. So find what works for you and your oven. (Edited for formatting).
Here are some general baking recommendations for this and any other items you bake. Baking is a science. You need to be precise. Buy a kitchen scale and use recipes that have weight measurements. They can be as cheap as $10 (Ozeri) or as much as $65 (OXO). I have both of these and prefer the OXO scale. But the other one works fine. Measuring by volume is not as accurate and can lead to too much or too little of an ingredient. Only use recipes that are from reputable sources (King Arthur Baking, America’s Test Kitchen, New York Times Cooking, Sally’s Baking Addiction, Serious Eats, etc.). Recipes found on social media are not always reliable. Use thermometers for accuracy. An oven thermometer will test the accuracy of your oven temperature. Analog thermometers are cheaper, but harder to read. I really like this probe digital thermometer because you can use it for so many other purposes like grilling, baking large meats, making caramel and candy, etc. You’ll need to also buy this grate clip to use it in the oven. An instant read thermometer to ensure your liquids are at the right temperature and you can temp your breads (including cinnamon rolls) to test for doneness. They should around 190-200F when done. I recommend. Thermapen One for $74 or the ThermoPop 2 for $39. 4. Use aluminum baking pans. Glass baking pans conduct heat slower than aluminum and can cause baked goods to over bake on the outside but not fully baked on the inside. Good brands for aluminum baking pans are USA Pan, Williams Sonoma and King Arthur Baking (both brands made by USA Pan). Nordic Ware is good for their naturals baking sheets, Bundt pans, and naturals round cake pans. I don’t recommend their 13”x9” baking pan because it’s smaller than advertised.