Do you love baking cookies, but want to bake a smaller batch? Use these tips to freeze cookie dough – bake a few cookies now and save the rest to bake later!
How to Freeze Cookie Dough
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We love making cookies, especially around the holidays! But most cookie recipes make so many cookies… who really needs 6 dozen of the same cookie sitting in your kitchen? I’m just going to eat them all, and then I’m going to have to buy new jeans.
So instead of baking the whole batch of cookies, I freeze some of the cookie dough!
Freezing cookie dough is a great way to “cook ahead” – you know, when you have some free time and want to get a jump on your holiday baking, or your birthday baking, or you just need to restock your emergency cookie supply. (By the way, if you find a store that sells free time, will you please let me know?!?)
But seriously. Freezing cookie dough is simple, and it takes about the same amount of time that it takes to bake cookies. This way, instead of having 72 cookies sitting in your kitchen, begging to be eaten, you’ll only have 12. Or however many you decide to make. And not eat. Right away.
To freeze cookie dough, roll the cookie dough into balls. Place the balls on a lipped baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave enough space so the cookie dough balls aren’t touching.
Cover the balls loosely with plastic wrap, and lay flat in your freezer for 4 hours or overnight. This is called flash freezing. Freezing the cookie dough balls this way means you’ll end up with individual cookie dough balls that are easy to take out of the freezer one at a time, instead of a big hunk of frozen cookie dough.
Once the cookie dough balls are frozen solid, transfer them to a gallon-sized Ziploc freezer bag. Now that the balls are frozen, they won’t stick together.
When you’re ready to bake, just take out as many balls as you want, put them on a cookie sheet, and follow the original baking directions. You’ll need to add 1-2 minutes to the baking time, since you’re starting with frozen cookie dough.
That’s it! How simple is that? Now the next time you just want 1 or 2 cookies, you can make just 1 or 2 cookies instead of a whole batch!
PRO TIP – If you have a freezer inventory, be sure to add your frozen cookie dough balls to the list! If you don’t have a freezer inventory, you can get a free printable inventory page here.
Enjoy!
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Printable Recipe Card for How to Freeze Cookie Dough
How to Freeze Cookie Dough
Ingredients
- 1 batch of prepared cookie dough
- Parchment paper
- Lipped baking sheet
- Plastic wrap
- Gallon-size Ziploc freezer bags
Instructions
- Line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll the cookie dough into balls.
- Place the cookie dough balls on the parchment paper. The balls should not be touching each other.
- Loosely cover with plastic wrap.
- Lay the baking sheet flat in the freezer, and freeze for 4 hours, or overnight.
- When the cookie dough balls are frozen solid, transfer them to Ziploc freezer bags.
To bake frozen cookie dough:
- Remove as many cookie dough balls as needed.
- Place them on a cookie sheet.
- Follow the original recipe directions. You may need to add 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
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