I'm fairly new to baking, but I've been attempting to make cookies lately. They taste good, but come out looking like this:

![sheet of cookies just out of the oven](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8gvfw.jpg)

The bottom looks like this:

![bottom of a cookie without any crust](https://i.stack.imgur.com/RXEsR.jpg)

They spread out a lot in the oven (they went in as balls ~1 inch diameter and came out as flat disks ~4 or more inches across) and don't really have a crust on the bottom. I used these ingredients:

```
1 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
~1/2 - 1 cup milk chocolate chips

```

To cream the butter with the white sugar I let it sit for about half an hour, cut it into small chunks, let it sit a little longer, and then alternated beating them with a fork and a hand mixer with beater attachments. I'm looking into getting a stand mixer. The dough for the pictured batch was chilled in the fridge overnight.

**How can I keep them from spreading out so much and develop a crust on the bottom?**

**Edit:** I baked them at 350F, fully preheated, for around 15 minutes on a bare cookie sheet. I peeked after about 8 minutes and then probably two more times after that before I took them out.