This article is compliments of Jane from Make Ahead Meals For Busy Moms. This is the perfect solution if you bake in bulk, don’t want to end up eating the second half of the batch while the kiddos are at school or for planning ahead for when you need cookies in a flash. A perfect start to the recipes I’ll be sharing weekly during the Home for the Holidays event! And I am still accepting holiday and favorite recipes so snag some extra entries while you can.
How to Freeze Cookie Dough
Home baked cookies are a perfect dessert for holiday gatherings, birthday parties and your children’s school functions, but having to make them on the same day you need to do one million other things, like working a full time job, or cleaning your house, can be a major challenge for a busy mom! Fortunately, many cookie recipes can be frozen for later use. With cookie dough that you’ve made ahead and frozen, you spend less time in the kitchen, which stays clean, and you have some delicious homemade cookies to offer your guests (or to send off to school) in a snap. Here are some guidelines for freezing cookie dough.
Flash Freezing
Yes, there is a method to freezing cookie dough! Simply putting your cookie dough in a plastic container and throwing it in the freezer will work, but I don’t recommend it. What happens when you are ready to cook, but your cookie dough is a solid chunk of ice? You will be waiting hours for that huge mass to thaw! There is a better way, and it’s called flash freezing. For flash freezing, you will need a large sheet pan, plastic wrap, parchment paper, a small cookie scoop, and a gallon size freezer bag.
Once you’ve assembled and mixed your cookie dough, use a tablespoon cookie scoop, to scoop out the dough into balls and then place them onto your cookie sheet very close together. A cookie scoop will save time and produce perfect balls of dough for perfectly shaped cookies. Your fingers will stay clean, and you won’t have to deal with sticky tablespoons! Once you’ve filled your sheet pan, cover it with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for two to three hours, until partially frozen.
Label Your Freezer Bags
While your cookie dough is freezing, label your freezer bag. Most freezer bags have a white area for labeling. If you prefer, you may use freezer tape, available at most grocery stores. Using a permanent marker, label your freezer bag with the name of the cookies, the date they were frozen, the oven temperature and cooking time, and any other specific cooking directions, so that you don’t have to search for the recipe, when you’re ready to cook.
Once your dough is partially frozen and no longer sticky to the touch, place your dough into the freezer bag, remove the excess air, seal tightly, and put it back in the freezer. By flash freezing, your pre-formed cookie dough won’t stick together, and will be ready for the oven when you are.
On the day you are ready to cook, take the dough out and place the balls of dough on your parchment lined sheet pan. The dough should thaw for at least 30 to 45 minutes and then you are ready to bake according to the instructions on your freezer bag.
Make Ahead Cookies
I have used the flash freezing method for many cookie recipes and have had fantastic results. Some of my cookie recipes include: big ginger cookies; brownie cookies; macadamia nut cookies; oatmeal cookies; peanut butter chocolate chip crackles; peanut butter kiss cookies; snickerdoodles; and everyone’s favorite, chocolate chip cookies.
You can find these great make-ahead cookie recipes, as well as specific flash freezing instructions, in my cookbook Make-Ahead Meals for Busy Moms, now available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
For homemade cookies in a flash, I highly recommend flash freezing. Enjoy!
www.makeaheadmealsforbusymoms.
www.makeaheadmealsforbusymoms.
I do this quite a bit, but we usually end up eating most of the frozen cookie dough straight out of the freezer!
Yumm! I think I would also eat the frozen dough. I really need to get a copy of this book. I would love to make ahead and freeze for another day.
I have used this method for freezing cookie dough before and it works really well.