I have a question about the spreading of the cookie dough after chilling for a long time. Why I was pondering it I don't know but does the chilling of the dough overnight affect the composition or chemistry of the dough? Because if you pull all your dough out, put it on the pans yet only cook one pan at a time, wouldn't the last pan of cookies cooked spread more than the first pan? Just curious! Thanks for answering all our questions, giving us great hints and tips and of course, creating great recipes that will succeed. Though unfortunately they provide way too much temptation to go YUM! and devour everything right away. Vicki, the key is baking and GIVING AWAY. That's the only way i survive here. And it's such fun to light up people's lives with treats... Chilling makes the fat solid, basically raising its melting point, so that cookies hold their shape longer before spreading; thus they spread less, since at a certain point they set and stop spreading. Also, the flour absorbs any liquid overnight, and is slow to release it, which is another reason chilled cookie dough doesn't spread as much. Does chilling change their chemistry? That I don't know... So yeah, if you pull all your dough out at once, and only bake one sheet at a time, the cookies on that last sheet will spread more than the cookies on the first. I actually kind of made that mistake the other day - put the cookies on the baking sheet before the oven was preheated, had to wait abut 15 minutes for the oven, and the cookies spread more than I wanted them to. Good questions, Vicki! PJH

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