Until now i've been using Shiny's idea and glued the sticks onto the back of the wrapped cookies and it's worked beautifully.
Yesterday i tried to bake cookies with the sticks inserted and it was a total flop. The cookie dough around the stick dipped inwards (making the cookie look like a book). The same thing happened a few months back.
What is the secret here? How do i get the cookies to bake flat with the stick inserted?
As much as I dislike doing cookies on a stick, I put the sticks in hot out of the oven. Never had one fall off yet.
Just make sure you make your cookies thick enough.
Oh, and I use skewers.
I roll my dough for cookies that will go on sticks a little bit thicker (maybe 1 1/2 times the thickness of my regular cookies) so that there is enough room to stick the sticks into the dough. I also lightly place my hand on the top of the cookie as I insert the stick, to help it go straight and keep the cookie more flat.
I always put mine in the cookie before baking. I think Indideby gave me this tip 
, sorry if it was someone else... I get wet the tip of the stick a little bit before inserting it on the chilled cookie. If I do it when the dough is soft, it makes a bigger hole. After trying this I haven't had a cookie come off the stick!
Sheila
I do what most of you suggest (though i have not tried inserting while hot out of the oven) and never had a problem with them falling out either; thank you all for your helpful suggestions;
TubbsCookies got what i was talking about. Yes, it's a valley that forms on both sides of the stick while it is baking.
Can they really disappear under the flooding? Last time i decorated them, i spread a layer of icing....didn't flood....and the icing settled into the valleys.
Thanks so much for your replies.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%