Freezer Cooking: Cookie Dough

At this next point in my freezer cooking experience, I was running out of room in my freezer. I still have ingredients on hand to make breakfast ham and cheese pockets, but I'm going to have to wait until we eat some of our goods. I might make those next week. Well, with all of these casseroles and pizza pockets and burritos and banana bread, I want to make something sweet, just in case we wanted a dessert. The eggs I had on hand were also about to pass their "best by" date, so I wanted to use those up as soon as possible.

Needless to say, we ended up with two batches of cookie dough. Simple and I had some chocolate chips on hand. You might remember I mentioned in my first post I bake a lot. So, I pretty much had everything I needed for this on hand and was able to use up goods I had in my pantry. My pantry before I started was brimming with unused pasta, flour, brown sugar, chocolate chips, etc. Now, I actually have a bit more room. It feels really great to utilize instead of waste.

Now, for the cookie dough recipe, any standard will do. I used two different variations, but you'll usually end up with your standard cookie dough. I'll post a recipe underneath, but your basic recipe on the back of the bag will work just fine.


NESTLE'S COOKIE DOUGH:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) 
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

PAN COOKIE VARIATION: Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Makes 4 dozen bars.

SLICE AND BAKE COOKIE VARIATION:
PREPARE dough as above. Divide in half; wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Shape each half into 15-inch log; wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.* Preheat oven to 375° F. Cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices; place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

* May be stored in refrigerator for up to 1 week or in freezer for up to 8 weeks.
I'll post pictures below, but mixing is very standard.

 Ingredients.

Butter first.

Next, your sugars.

Eggs and such.

Start adding the flour.

I did a batch of chocolate chip and a batch of mint. MMM!

Lastly, if you've never stored frozen cookie dough before, it's very easy. This is how I like to do it. List the date you made it, what kind it is, what temperature to cook it and for how long. Remember, those with gas stoves need to adjust their temperature and time a bit.

The second part is to push the cookie dough to the bottom of the bag as much as possible. I picked up this technique when mixing butter with herbs and refreezing it. I used the butter to stuff under the skin of my turkey for Thanksgiving and this should work relatively the same way. You push to the bottom, forming a tube with your hand. You can see some of my cookie dough smeared. Now, you have a nice tube of cookies in the freezer for when you're ready to bake them! Just slice them into "coins", pop them on your baking sheet and stick them in the oven! The other really wonderful thing? Each batch made 3 bags of cookies!

Nat's notes: I have found from personal experience, the fluffier cookies come from cold dough and the flat, moist ones come from a warmer dough. So, if I were baking these, I'd probably thaw them in the fridge first, but if I wanted a softer cookie, I might sit them out on the counter to become a bit closer to room temperature. There is egg in there, so don't let it sit out for TOO long :)