preNow that the Holiday Season is upon us, we are starting to do whatever advance preparations we can! I do an annual Christmas cookie baking day with one of my dearest friends, Chef Debbey. We spend the whole day making up cookies and cookie dough while we laugh, catch up with each other’s lives, and, of course, enjoy a couple of hot toddies! Because of our schedules, we sometimes have to have our annual cookie baking day a few weeks before the actual holiday, and we don’t want the cookies to get stale or go bad, so we’ll make up the cookie dough(s) and not actually bake off the cookies together, but bake them on our own closer to the Holiday.
I also always like to have something sweet available for my friends who stop by sometimes unexpectedly or with little advance notice. I’m thrilled when they stop by and I always have a batch of cookie dough made up in the freezer so that I can offer them a freshly baked cookie or two with their coffee or tea. So this tip works well for both holiday baking, and just having cookie dough on hand!
I make up my chosen cookie dough and I roll the dough into 1 inch balls, place them on a baking sheet, and then I freeze as individual cookie portions. After the cookie dough balls have hardened, I place them in a freezer bag or container, and then you have as many cookies as needed and ready for fast and easy baking.
If you have to, you can bake them right from the freezer, but you’ll need to add a couple of minutes to their standard cooking time. If you have time, let the cookie dough balls defrost on the lined cookie sheet pan for about 10 minutes before baking.
If you don’t want to roll the dough into individual cookies, you can also roll the dough into a log, wrap tightly and freeze instead. Just be sure to let the log defrost before cutting into pieces.
You can safely stow these frozen cookies or log in the freezer for about 2 months. Be sure to put a date on the freezer bag, and squeeze out as much air as possible.
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