So apparently I am a very slow learner. I no longer believe there is a problem with the recipe or with my ability to follow one. It's my memory that's failing! Didn't I explain earlier about my oven which was not behaving very well? Certainly it does not work on convection mode. But I was preheating it on on non-convection mode and when the beeper went off to say it had reached the temperature of 350°F I went to put my trays in there. But one extra neuron kicked in and I told myself to throw a thermometer into that oven and make sure that it was accurate. It read 200°F despite the signal that it had preheated to 350. Therein lies my problem with spreading cookies I do believe. So long as I remember never to trust that beep but to check the temperature with a separate thermometer I think I should be good.
These are not the ones that went so badly wrong the other day but I doubt that it makes any difference as the recipes for oatmeal cookies are very close no matter which one you consult.
Thanks for everyone who tried to help.
