How to make the perfect cookies?

There is a formula, but there are many, many variables that must be filled in by you.

Are you living at high altitude? Some people say 'high altitude' means

6.5k feet but anything over say 3k and you may or may not need to adjust some recipes. I live at roughly 4.9k and sometimes but not always have to adjust.

Have you checked to see if your oven's thermostat is accurate? If you don't have one, buy an oven thermometer. a reputable one. Ekco is fine, cheaper than ekco probably isn't advisable.

Have you checked for hot spots in your oven?

What flour measuring conventions do you follow? Sifted? Stirred? Weighed? None of the above?

Do you use margarine? Sure it's not really 'spread' with 60% fat content instead of 80%?

To tell the truth the only really reliable formula is to understand what you're doing, understand the tools you have at hand, and how to use them, and use that understanding to interpret rather than merely follow the recipe.

If you have specific problems with specific cookies, you can always post the recipe and your process and details of the problem here, and plenty of people can point out what you might change.

The trick is to understand how little changes can make the difference between hockey pucks and tasty cookies. Most recipes will have some assumptions. I learned how to bake by finding different recipes for the same thing. I usually found that each recipe had a little hint that helped. As I combined all the hints from all the recipes my cookies got better.

Someone has already noted somethings. For example, high altitudes will affect things. Recipes often have a tip indicating that for every XXXX feet above sea level, adjust by doing YYYY.

I have also noted that when a recipe indicates use a specific item they sometimes mean it. Butter, margarine, spreads, etc. are different. If the recipe requires unsalted butter then you really should use unsalted butter. Even regular butter (which contains salt) will make a difference.

Additionally, the order you mix the ingredients can make a difference.

Bottom line, you can read many recipes and try various things or get a book that teaches you to bake and not just a recipe.

I didn't even consider that, but i guess there was a time, when i was four or five years old, when i just tossed everything in the mixer. Of course, those were the days when i sometimes confused baking powder and baking soda. I don't think the birds would eat those cookies. I know my siblings didn't.

But, yes. nearly all cookie recipes suggest creaming together the sugar, fat, and eggs. this process is chemically and mechanically critical, for reasons too numerous to note here.

While there is science behind baking, you don't have to understand it to bake well. I would recommend that you get a reliable cookie cookbook and follow the direction to the letter. Some cookies are very soft, very hard, or very crumbly. In other words, cookies have a very wide range of characteristics and you need to choose cookies that are to your liking. I would recommend that you get "Rose's Christmas Cookies" by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Beranbaum takes a scientific approach to baking and her recipes are very well tested. She states measurements by volume and weight, and is very detailed about the method.