Martha Stewart Chocolate Chip Cookies - why were they cakey?

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I use the Martha Stewart Crispy and Chewy recipe but no salt (once I folllowed the recipe they were not nice )
I usually do the brown/granulated sugar
Plain flour and add the bicarb and baking powder

Last time I made them they were cakey not cookie'like and I don't know what I did to cause this .
I read some hints online about chilling them which I do and whacking the tray to deflate them.

Any tips ?
I make these most Christmas -times but the last lot put me off a bit

TIA

Overbaked?

What flour was in the recipe? Could there be a variation between ingredients between American and British flour?

Not overbaked (I have commited that sin before and it was not well recieved !)

Recipe says All Purpose Flour which I looked up is plain flour ( and the addition of the raising agents )
I have cups to measure .

They've always been fine except last year when they ....weren't .

I don;t know if the brown sugar/ white sugar ratio would make a difference ?

All purpose flour doesn't have leavening agents. If you added extra bicarb that's why they were cakey.

I did try them again before Christmas and same result - cakey
The recipe has bicarb and baking powder ( with plain flour) and usually they're crisp and chewy .the cookies usually spread a bit so I give them room.

I chilled overnight as usual this time tried the whacking of the baking sheet to deflate them , But no luck .

I'm not going to try again, it;s a waste of ingredients .

Are you fluffing up the flour first before measuring or just scooping with the cup from the bag? I don't use cups as a rule but it seems the number one fail with them is using too much flour as people don't fluff it up or sieve it or someway aerate it before filling the cup then with a spoon as opposed to scooping the cup into the bag which compresses the flour and you end up with too much compared to what the recipe wanted and hey ho cakey cookies!

This is the definitive article on chocolate chip cookies Nicola Lamb - check your recipe proportions!

No , I need to fill the cups with a spoon as I'm too cack handed to scoop the cup into the bag without getting flour everywhere so it isn't compressed .I noticed on cookery shows they keep flours etc in huge tubs

The brown sugar is meant to be compressed though.

It might be the Bicarb . I bought a big jar of it off Amazon a couple of times for cleaning . I might go back to the Baking Dept small ones .
Maybe my mega tub is a bit too fizzy for cooking ?
It's the only difference I can think of .
I use Sainsbury or HomePride flour and Sainsbury or DR Oketer Baking powder .

Thank you , that is a lot of detail in there !
I did read an article online once about how the changing of proportions of the caster:brown sugar can change them
And the Chill/Don't Chill

I'll compare the MS recipe to this