How to Freeze Cookie Dough

A short and sweet post How To for you today… all about cookie dough!

Homemade chocolate chunk cookies are one of the greatest things in life, clearly. The couple of most common issues with them:

1. If I bake a whole batch I will almost certainly eat a whole batch
2. Sometimes they go all melty and bake too thin instead of the thick, puffy, chewy cookies I want

can both be solved by simply freezing your cookie dough! So let’s run through how to freeze cookie dough.

This is also a super-handy method for when you need to make a lot of cookies, like for a party or bake sale. It’s easy to underestimate how long it will take (especially as you need to chill the dough for good results!), so now I always make the dough ahead of time and freeze it – it makes it easy to bake 50 cookies without the stress!

Otherwise (and maybe this only happens to me!) I end up spending all night in the kitchen baking cookies, skipping dinner and eventually going to bed covered in flour and sugar!

 It’s better to freeze your cookie dough balls individually before popping them all into a freezer bag to live happily in their new cold home. Here’s how:

1. Make a batch of cookie dough
2. Use an ice cream scoop to portion out identical sized cookie dough balls (or pinch them out and do it by eye!)
3. Roll the cookie dough into smooth round balls
4. Pop the balls onto a baking sheet and slide into the freezer for about an hour
5. Once frozen, remove the baking sheet, and collect the cookie dough balls into a large, strong sealable freezer bag, then put that into another, larger freezer bag. Double bagging is important! Otherwise your cookie dough might pick up odours in the freezer – trust me!
6. Press the air out of the bags before freezing, and write the date and type of cookies on the bag. The frozen cookies will be good for up to three months

Then, when you’re ready for a warm home-baked cookie or three, remove some cookie dough balls from the freezer (Taking care to carefully reseal the bags) and pop on a lined baking sheet, into a hot oven direct from the freezer. Trust me – lots of other people recommend letting the balls thaw first, but I find that this is the best way to guarantee a thick delicious cookie! You’ll need to bake the cookies for about 2 minutes longer than if they weren’t frozen.

You do still have to have a modicum of self-control, as the frozen cookie dough can also be enjoyed as a delicious cold treat in hot weather (or pretend I didn’t just tell you that!). Enjoy!

 

x Kerry

 

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