How to heighten the effect.

To add still more height to your already thick cookie, pretend baking guy Onofre set the oven a little too high that night, and turn the heat up to 400. This will firm the egg proteins on the outside of the dough ball faster, and bring spreading to a halt that much sooner. Of course you’ll want to compensate by baking for a slightly shorter time.

You can also pretend our mixer guy left the machine on a little too long and cream the butter and sugar until it’s extra fluffy. This will add air and volume. Adding little extra flour in the mix will give the cookies more structure.

Then of course there’s always the trick of acidifying the dough to help the egg proteins throughout the dough to set up faster…a little cream of tartar or lemon juice works nicely to prevent spread and promote thickness. In fact, this particular tip may just be the secret to perfecting the European chocolate chip cookie. There cultured butters, due to their sharp melting points, generally cause cookies to spread too far too fast. Results so far have been very promising.