Flour in recipes

Hi all!

I'm a rookie sourdough enthusiast. I'm working with an Alaska starter kit. I didn't bake until the starter was about a month old and I initially began making bread. Once that was successful, I decided to try baking cookies. I'm not having much luck. The cookies all seem dry. One recipe in particular (peanut butter cookies) was just awful. It was unbelievable dry. Next batch, I cut back about a 1/2 cup of flour and still the same thing. Then I tried chocolate chip cookies and while they were good, they were still moderately dry. When baking goods, do you follow the flour measurements in the recipe, or do you cut back?