Help. What did we do wrong? Cookie dough and cookies too hard. Baking

My wife and I got a new Kitchenaid mixer last week and we have tried it out a few times. We tried to make some chocolate chip cookies, though and they were really hard. I followed this recipe: http://ift.tt/2vZ7BGI

The recipe recommends letting the cookie dough set for several hours to overnight to blend the flavors better. So, we mixed the dough last evening and made the cookies this evening.

The cookie dough out of the refrigerator was extremely hard. I had a cookie scooper and it took all I had as a 6' 180" man to dig the dough out with the scooper.

I made balls out of them and flattened them out. Baked for 20 minutes and took out of the oven. Tried a bite pretty much within the first minute and it was not soft and chewy at all. It was hard and dry.

So, do I need to let the dough thaw out some from being cool in the refrigerator before I scoop it out? Does it sound like we mixed the cookie dough too much or maybe just over cooked the cookies?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Submitted August 12, 2017 at 08:30AM by balderic http://ift.tt/2uz3uxG Baking