6 Mistakes People Make When Freezing Cookies Or Cookie Dough

Baking cookies is always a fun time. From making the dough to smelling the warm cookies that just came out of the oven, many memories are made when baking a batch of cookies. Only some occasions call for making cookies, though. Sometimes grabbing a bunch of ready-made dough and cutting the cookies can seem much quicker. A quick and easy method is freezing your cookie dough at home. 

Preparing to make cookies for an upcoming event can be a time-saving endeavor. It can come in helpful when you have an extra batch of ingredients you need in your cupboard. You can also premake cookies for the festive season and freeze them, ready to bake once the holidays come around. Remember, you can't pre-bake the cookies and then freeze them; you'll only have to freeze the dough. What is the best way to freeze cookie dough? A few tips to remember can help you freeze and store cookie dough perfectly to be ready at a second's notice. 

1. What dough can I freeze? Not all cookie doughs work

Not all doughs are created equally. In fact, some don't work well for home freezing at all! Be careful and take note of which cookies you want to prepare. Using the wrong dough and trying to freeze them can result in a big disaster, or worse, Santa won't have anything to snack on. The best cookie doughs for freezing are drop, slice-and-bake, or cut-out dough. Try to stay away from thin cookies as they might break and crack during the freezing process.

2. How do I freeze cookie dough? By using various freezing methods

If you want to freeze cookie dough, start by making your dough, and be sure to wrap them accordingly. Wrap slice-and-bake dough tightly, cut out dough in plastic, and place drop cookie dough on baking sheets. All of them must be transferred to an airtight container after pre-making. FInally, prevent freezer burn by putting your cookie dough in plastic containers. 

3. Freeze cookies individually before moving them to airtight containers

Make sure to not put all your cookie dough together at a time. The result will be terrifying and a disaster when you want to make cookies quickly. Make sure the cookies are frozen individually on baking sheets and don't touch each other. After that, you can move them to their respective containers. If you miss this step, you might end up with cookies that are frozen together and make for a nightmare to bake. 

4. Add extra baking time to frozen cookies

Some cookies need different baking times than others, so note what cookies you want to bake. A good idea is to label your cookie dough properly before freezing. Slice-and-bake cookies generally need to be thawed well before they are baked, whereas drop cookie dough can just be thrown in the oven from the freezer. Make sure to also thaw your cookies in the containers they were frozen in for best results. 

5. Prepare well in advance if you want to freeze your cookie dough

Freezing cookie dough can be a lifesaver. It can make your life so much easier if you have a batch of cookies for a special occasion, especially for usually forgotten events. Prepare your dough and leave enough time for the cookies to freeze properly. At the same time, ensure you have enough time to thaw cookies before baking them, and consider this when managing time. 

6. Avoid freezing cookie dough with icing and decorations

Although freezing read-to-go cookies might seem like a good idea, it might not always turn out as one. Some ingredients on and in cookies tend to freeze poorly. This means you can end up with weird-tasting sweet treats. Instead, leave the decorating and icing after the cookies come out of the freezer. This way, you can ensure that the cookies and decorations do your baking justice. 

Here's to happy baking! Freezing cookie dough is an effective and straightforward way to save time and energy, especially if you do it right. Avoiding the mistakes people make when freezing cookies or cookie dough should certainly help.