I used to make cookies a lot as a child and somewhat in college...and then again last night. I saw a bag of Nestle chocolate and peanut butter chips and had a craving

I followed the recipe on the bag and they turned out terrible. The dough was good, but the basically just melted on the sheet. Turned a dark brown, almost burnt look. Greasy. Just not good. Wish I had pictures. It's like they didn't rise. Despite the appearance though, they're at least not horribly bad tasting.

But what did I do wrong? Is it just a bad recipe? I tried freezing the dough for the last batch thinking it would hold up longer...no good. But I want them "meaty." Thick and lightly golden brown.

You've just joined the Nestle's Famous cookie recipe Flop Club. I've heard so many people complain about the same thing. They were flat and they spread.

Did you use butter, margarine, shortening or spread? I'll tell you this - I won't use margarine for any baking anymore - it's not margarine - not like the good stuff we had back in the good ol' days. It's crap and will ruin anything you bake - especially cookies.

If the recipe calls for butter or margarine - use margarine- --- if it calls for shortening then use shortening.

whipped butter or low-cal butters also ruin cookies and spreads change the consistency of the dough completely

your butter should be a room temp - not to the point that it is too soft - that will also cause problems

always place the cookies on cool baking sheets

use shiny baking sheets - the dark ones give you dark bottomed cookies

if greasing the pans - use shortening - butter/margarine causing over browning as well

cookies also spread when the oven temp is too cool, when sugar is substituted with a different sweetener or sugar blend and if cookie sheets are greased too heavily

also if using brown sugar - use light brown - not dark brown to prevent spreading

try a different recipe - use quality ingredients - and see what happens

hehe, I buy store made cookies almost all the time...probably too much! But sometimes you just have to have that oven baked smell while you're eating.

But I think we nailed down the problem. My GF was helping me, well actually she wanted to do it all, but I don't know that she's ever made cookies before so I was kind of coaching her. Well, I didn't realize it, but she took the baking soda from from the refrigerator that I used for odor absorption, which has been there for at least a good year...lol. We tried a rematch with them last night and that was definitely the problem.

Now we just gotta work on making normal cookies better. Thanks Mama Mangia, those were some super tips to keep in mind for next time! But to answer your question, we used 100% sweetened real butter, though I don't think they were room temp, if I remember they were refrigerated and then microwaved to soften.