This might be old news….but I was talking with a friend awhile ago about freezing your own cookie dough and she had never thought of doing it, so I thought I should post about it.
Do you buy frozen cookie dough at the store? Well, no more! You can mix up a batch of your favorite cookie dough at home and freeze the dough. Then you can have REAL homemade cookies at your convenience!
Homemade not only tastes better, but it is better for you (healthier than store bought anyway.) There are so many preservatives, lots of sodium, high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils in store bought items such as cookie dough. Even if I can get store-bought cookie dough free with coupons I don’t buy it.
Sooo….mix up a batch of your favorite cookies. I have a favorite recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I doubled the batch, baked a couple dozen for us, then decided to freeze the rest.
I make cookie balls, place them on a large cookie sheet and then stick in the freezer. I usually leave them there for several hours so they can get hard.
After the cookie balls are frozen, put them into a Ziploc bag. I don’t use my Food Saver on these because I know we will want to get into them soon! 🙂 Now I have 60 cookie balls all ready to bake when I need or want some fresh cookies!
You can let them completely thaw before baking, but I don’t always do that because I am impatient. Sometimes they are only partly thawed when I bake. Depending on your cookie recipe and the ingredients, it might vary on the consistency of your baked cookie. I have noticed they turn out better appearance-wise when I let them thaw first. But they always taste the same no matter what. YUMMY! Just experiment and see what you like.
I only make cookie balls out of convenience for myself later. I also freeze cookie dough in logs. I just shape the dough into a long log and wrap in saran wrap and then in foil. Then we can slice off the dough as we need it. I just prefer the cookie balls. I think they are easier and I can thaw just what I need instead of the whole log.
I haven’t tried freezing very many types of cookie dough, so I am not sure if cookies like Snickerdoodles would freeze well or not. I try not to keep stuff like this always around as my kids and hubby tend to sneak it. 🙂 And if you don’t want to freeze the cookie dough then try freezing the cookies already baked! That usually works well also.
Have you done this before? What has worked for you?
Eileen
that's how i do it. then i can bake them a few at a time and have fresh cookies when i want. haven't done it in awhile, but i find chocolate chip works quite well. oatmeal cookies for me don't work as well after being frozen.
Shalon
Mmmm hmmm!! I'm a fan of *eating* my cookie dough, so this is something I love to do, so I can have a quick CD fix when I want it, without having to make a full batch (just make sure to use egg substitute, for safety's sake). Thanks for the post!
Sparrow's
I just did this around Christmas time. I made about 3 double batches of chocolate chip cookies. I used pastureized eggs in some and baking soda in others so the dough would be safe from contamination. Both turned out well & my kids loved it because they could snitch the dough. We put them in our chest freezer, now 7 months later we are still eating them. They bake up perfect every time & have little mess to clean up. We made them pretty much the same way as you, but this year for Christmas since our experiment worked, we are going to make new & give the frozen dough to our neighbors with a note that says, "We thought you could use a little extra "dough" this time of year."
Susie
I do it the same way you do. The recipe that works best for me is a chocolate chip one that includes ground up oatmeal. Regular chocolate chip was too sticky for my cookie scoop.
Paige
I do this all the time. I never let mine thaw at all. I take out a couple each night after the kids are in bed and my husband and I share a plate of warm cookies. I make choc. chip cookies and they are wonderful.
Amelia Harris
So any good recipes you ladies willing to share? 🙂 All of mine call for reg. eggs, can you just substitute them out for the egg substitutes to make dough safer to eat raw?
Brenda
Just wrap them in freezer paper and mark "Liver". No one snitches any then! Haha!
Thanks for the great reminder…
Jenifer
thanks for this post….. those look fabulous and I will for sure be trying them 🙂
Bri!!!
What a fantastic idea! And yes, even though we can't say they are healthy, they are way healthier than store bought. I figure if you make the treats then it's ok:-). I'm excited to try this. I hate having too many cookies around at one time because I eat too many.
Bonnie
Has anyone tried snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, or other kinds? I feel guilty when I buy frozen cookie dough but I would like to try more than chocolate chip cookies?
Jenny
I've tried doing this with lots of different cookie recipes over the years and I have never had a problem. (Or a cookie turned down!)Snickerdoodles should be rolled in cinnamon sugar before freezing. Peanut butter cookies will only get the traditional crisscross shape if you thaw them and use a fork while the dough is soft. I always cook the dough frozen, so that never happens here. 🙂 I love this cookie recipe: https://9fordinner.blogspot.com/2010/04/ranger-cookies.html
Cherylene
YES! I have done snickerdoodles and I have a pretty good recipe for them. I made the dough, rolled them in balls and froze the balls. So easy and so yummy. And yes, they do look better dethawed and then cooked but I'm often impatient and bake a few not totally thawed. If you want the recipe, please email me at simpledinners@pocketinet.com or I will try and get it on my blog at http://www.cherylenemcdermott@blogspot.com. I have also baked sugar cookies and frozen them.