12 Cookie Dough Recipes to Make Ahead and Freeze (2024)

FAQs

What cookie doughs can you freeze? ›

Any cookie dough with a lot of butter or fat. Drop cookies are best. What I mean is cookies like chocolate chip cookies, double chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, etc. Shortbread also freezes beautifully.

In most cases, I prefer to freeze cookie dough over freezing baked cookies. That way, you still get the nice homemade smell and softness of the cookies when they come out of the oven. But if you want to get the whole job done, you can certainly bake the cookies, then freeze them later.

Most cookie doughs freeze well for up to 3 months. Remember to write the date, type of cookie, and baking instructions on the outside of the package. Drop Cookies: Shape the cookie dough into balls as you would when preparing to bake them. Place them on a silicone- or parchment-lined sheet.

Chilling cookie dough controls spread.

Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread.

To store cookies in the freezer, you have multiple options. The first is using a Ziploc bag. Simply put the baked cookies in the bag, seal it, and put it in the freezer to be used at any time. Another way to store the cookies is in a sealed container.

Freezing any food will preserve it for a later date, especially baked goods. Refrigerating cookies will dry them out but freezing them will maintain their original glorious state if you store them correctly. Like a fridge, a freezer can also suck the moisture out of your food.

Scoop out the dough just as if you were about to bake it, but then freeze it instead. Once frozen, the little balls of dough get sealed up inside a plastic freezer bag — when you need a cookie fix, just grab as many as you want to bake.

Freezing cookies is easy and they taste great after you thaw them.

What cookies stay fresh the longest? ›

Dry cookies, like shortbread cookies, gingersnaps, and Danish butter cookies, will stay fresher for longer because they have very little moisture.

Freezing them with icing and other decorations.

While you can freeze baked cookies already decorated with icing or filling with jam or ganache, those ingredients don't freeze incredibly well; you'll get better overall results if you add them after you've thawed the baked cookies.

Cookies Made with Butter vs Shortening

Cookies made with only butter may not rise as much and may spread a bit more, but the edges will be crispier and will have a rich buttery taste. Cookies made with only shortening will result in a cookie that bakes higher and holds its shape better during baking.

Lining a baking sheet when making cookies: Not only will the parchment help cookies bake more evenly, the non-stick quality also helps prevent them from cracking or breaking when lifting them off the sheet. Decorating home-baked goods: Parchment paper makes the perfect wrapper for baked goods.

There's no need to thaw frozen drop cookie dough in order to bake your cookies — in fact, we don't recommend it. Start by preheating the oven slightly lower than the temperature called for in your recipe — about 15 degrees F lower.

If you store it in your fridge, you can usually expect this cookie dough to last about 1 to 2 weeks past the “best by” date. In your freezer, frozen raw cookie dough can actually last 9 to 12 months, giving you plenty of time to use it before it goes bad.

When you ask about freezing cookie dough, the short answer is, of course, a resounding yes!

When should you freeze yeast dough? Two points in the dough-making process are good times to freeze the dough. The first is after kneading and before the first rise. The other is after you've shaped the dough and before the second rise.

It's best to chill your dough in the refrigerator for the entire recommended time.

What happens if you don't Chill cookie dough before baking? ›

As she says, not chilling the cookie and baking at 350 degrees can result in a more crackly cookie, since the dough hasn't had enough time to absorb the flour. Chilling it for half an hour, however, gives you thicker, chewier dough.

Thaw Before Baking Method: Thaw the dough in the refrigerator for a few hours, or at room temperature about 1 hour before baking as directed in your recipe. You don't need to adjust the bake time or temperature for thawed cookie dough.

Most cookies do well being frozen after they are baked. Simple cookies like shortbread, gingerbread, sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, and chocolate chip cookies all freeze well once baked. Make sure your cookies are completely cooled first. Flash freeze the cooled cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet.

To thaw frozen cookies, take them out of the container in which they were stored and spread them out until they come to room temperature. From there, you can decorate them as needed, serve them, or, if necessary, refresh them in a 325º oven for 5 to 10 minutes.

Most cookie dough can be refrigerated, well-wrapped, for three to five days before baking. If you want to make it farther in advance, freeze the dough.

Once they're set, place the individual dough balls into a freezer-safe plastic bag and write the date. Frozen cookie dough will keep for about 3 months.

The key to keeping cookies fresh and soft is to seal them in an airtight container, like a resealable freezer bag.

To extend the shelf life of products, many bakers use specially formulated enzymes for preservation. These naturally occurring protein compounds can keep baked goods soft while preventing crumbling and staling.

Keeping cookies fresh for five days should be no problem at all. Store soft cookies in an airtight container or resealable bag.

🎄Holiday cookie baking

Depending on how you are going to store them, Christmas cookies can be baked as early as 3 months before you plan to eat them. If you plan to keep them at room temperature, it's best to make the cookies about 2 weeks or less in advance.

What is the golden rule in baking cookies? ›

"My golden rule for baking is make it cold and bake it hot," she said. The food and lifestyle maven said that using frozen butter over a box grater creates perfect size pieces. "You'll have no problem with it making the most beautiful flakiness -- in biscuits, scones, pie crusts and other laminated doughs."

Add more complex proteins, like malted milk powder and brown butter. Caramelizing the sugar beforehand brings bright notes to your cookies, but you can further expand your dessert's flavor profile by playing with proteins.

It's all about moisture. To keep it simple, cookie recipes that contain a lot of butter, brown sugar or egg yolks are going to yield soft and chewy cookies, because those ingredients add moisture and retain it for a longer amount of time.

Baking soda is most commonly used in cookie and muffin recipes. Baking powder, however, already contains an acid and a base and has a more neutral taste, which works great when baking cakes and bread.

Different types of sugars affect the texture because they absorb different amounts of water. Remember moisture is the key! White sugar creates crispier cookies and brown sugar creates chewier cookies. Chilling your cookie dough before baking prevents the cookie from spreading and creating cookie disasters like below.

Crisco® all-vegetable shortening will make your cakes moist, pie crusts flaky, and cookies soft and fluffy, with 0g of trans fat per serving*. One look, and you'll see why we've got butter beat.

The silicone side should always be facing up. If the silicone side is facing down, it will stick to the pan, and the food will not release easily. Parchment paper is coated with a thin layer of silicone, which gives it a nonstick surface.

There is no right side to use when placing parchment paper in a baking pan. And while we're on the subject, there's no right or wrong side to foil, either, said Rebecca Danchise, spokeswoman for Reynolds Kitchens in Richmond, Va.

For buns, cinnamon rolls, balls of pizza dough, and dinner rolls, you can freeze them on a cookie sheet—line the sheet with parchment paper and cover it with plastic wrap. You should freeze non-yeast doughs, such as flatbread dough, immediately after kneading it.

The taste and texture won't be harmed at all, and in fact, most doughs, from pie crust to cookies of all kinds, freeze quite well.

Can you freeze Betty Crocker sugar cookie dough? ›

Freeze cookie dough to bake later on; it's easier than you might think. Freezing works best for cutout cookies, drop cookies and slice-and-bake cookies because the dough has a firm texture and can withstand more time in the freezer. Store it correctly and it'll keep for up to three months.

Freezing Cookie Dough

™ cookie dough can be frozen up to 2 months in advance. You'll need to defrost the rolls of cookie dough before slicing and baking, but our Ready to Bake! ™ cookies can be made straight from the freezer.

To use a frozen loaf of dough, remove it from the freezer the night before you want to bake it. Keep the loaf wrapped in the plastic and let it thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Place the thawed dough in a greased bread pan, cover, and let it rise on the counter.

Let the dough freeze until it is completely solid — at least 4 hours and up to overnight. It's crucial that the cookie dough freezes completely so the balls don't fuse together when you store them.

Instead, frozen pizza dough needs to be taken out from frozen and then defrosted in the refrigerator for ten to twelve hours. If you don't have that much time, setting the dough out on a counter and allowing it to defrost at room temperature for two hours should also be plenty of time.

Refrigerating cookies will dry them out but freezing them will maintain their original glorious state if you store them correctly.

When baking frozen cookie dough, you do not have to thaw the cookie dough. Simply place the frozen, pre-scooped cookie dough onto a baking sheet and bake for 2-3 minutes longer than the original recipe recommends. That's it!

When you ask about freezing cookie dough, the short answer is, of course, a resounding yes!