Flash Freezing Cookie Dough

So it’s Friday night, you’ve had one hell of a week at work and all you want in life right now is your pajamas, a glass of wine, a great movie and ohhhhhhhhhhhh… YES!  A fresh-hot-from-the-oven-cookie.  Just a single (or 2) awesome cookie.  But you look at the clock and it’s late and you’re tired.  You really don’t have the energy to go out to the kitchen, grab the ingredients, the mixer, the scoopers and make an entire batch of cookie dough for just one (or 3 cookies). And then you’re faced with all that clean up.  Ugh… forget it.

…but man that cookie just sounds so awesome right about now.  So you lie there in your jammies having an argument in your head. Do you get up and make a whole batch of cookies or do you ignore it and go to bed hungry only to dream of hot cookies that are ooey and gooey and just delicious.

….sigh sucks, huh?  BUT… what if I told you there was a way that you could have one (or 4) cookies and all you had to do was take them out of your freezer, plop them on a pan and bake?  They’d be just as amazing as the day you made the dough?

Yeah I thought that would get your attention *wink*

What I’m talking about is called “Flash Freezing”. I have been doing this for eons and at any given point in time I will have at least 3-4 different types of frozen cookie dough balls in my freezer for unexpected company, late night cravings or when Mr. Fantabulous informs me that “there is nothing in this house to eat“. Yeah that last part kills me as you people all know I ALWAYS have a superfluity of food here for that man to eat and choose from.

I started doing this God like 15 years ago when I started making cookies for family and friends around the holidays.  I got tired of working full time, running my own company on top of that, going to school and working my family’s pizza shop.  There literally wasn’t enough time in the day.  My first go around was to make tons of cookies at once and then freeze them.  Yeah it saved time BUT when I took them out they defrosted they lost their cookie awesomeness.  I actually hated the taste. They were NOT my cookies.

The next go around I thought if I just made a little every night (like one tray of 47 different flavors) that would be easier.  Um no… wrong. I had to wash and rewash the same dishes, bowls, spatulas and so forth a bajillion times a night.  That pretty much sucked the life out of me and I swore I was going to have forever water-pruned hands!

So I scrapped that idea.

Around that time I was talking with one of my best friends that owns a cake bake shop and we were talking about baking and cookies.  I had been bending her ear about starting TKW and what my dreams were with it.  The mentioned how she ‘drop froze’ cakes all the time.  She would bake them, let them cool and then place them uncovered in the freezer until rock hard.  Once hard, she’d double wrap them and then when she was ready to frost she’d take them out, unwrap and have it.

Now I being ever the optimist doubted her (okay secretly I believed her but I just wanted her to make me a cake because she is an AMAZING baker!).  LOL

And she was absolutely right (as I really suspected!). The cake was perfect, moist and tasted fresh from the oven!

So that weekend I decided to do the same thing with cookie dough.  Flash Freezing means you make up your cookie dough, portion it out on to a parchment lined cookie tray, then put the tray (uncovered) in the freezer for an hour or until rock solid .  Once the raw dough portions are frozen, put them then in a freezer tight container or plastic bag.  So when you want a hot & fresh cookie-from-the-oven just preheat your oven for whatever the recipe temp calls for, line your tray with parchment and pop few frozen cookie portions on to a tray and put them puppies into the oven.  In 8-12 minutes you have freshly baked cookie awesomeness!

Pretty simple, huh?  Trust me, do this!  So unless your oven is broken you have no reason to not be able to have a cookie on a Friday night at midnight ever again (well okay unless you’re on a diet or what not).

Flash Freezing Cookie Dough

• Author: The Kitchen Whisperer

Find more fantabulous recipes, tips and tricks at www.thekitchenwhisperer.net. Also, join our TKW Family on Facebook

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Ingredients

• Your favorite mixed cookie dough
• Cookie Tray
• Parchment Paper
• Containers or plastic bags
• Plastic wrap for log, slice and bake cookies

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Instructions

Drop or rolled cookies

1. Once your dough is all mixed up, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Scoop out your individual cookies and place them closely on the paper. Do your best to get them close to one another without touching.
3. Place the whole tray in the freezer for at least an hour or until the cookies are frozen solid.
4. Once frozen, place the dough balls in a freezer safe container or plastic bag marking the outside of the bag with what the cookie is, the temp you cookie at and how long.

Log, slice and bake cookies

1. Once your dough is all mixed up, get out a baking sheet, some plastic wrap or parchment paper
2. Place the dough in a log form in the plastic wrap or parchment paper and shape into a log.
3. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap or parchment paper and place onto the baking sheet.
4. Place the whole tray in the freezer for at least an hour or until the logs are frozen solid.
5. Once frozen place the logs in a freezer safe container or plastic bag marking the outside of the bag with what the cookie is, the temp you cookie at and how long.
6. When you’re ready to bake, slice and bake away!

Notes

I would advise adding 1-3 minutes additional baking time to your frozen cookies. Don’t touch the temperature though.

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