A few weeks ago we mentioned that the holiday season was rapidly approaching. No matter how much we think we're on top of the cooking, cleaning, entertaining, gift buying and so forth that happens around that time of year, we always seem to end up a little behind. Why not get a jump on one part of the holiday work — cookies! Make them now instead of at the 11th hour.
No, obviously, some special cookies are best made when the moment calls, but many varieties do well frozen. The key is to remove as much air as possible between the dough and its packaging, and to label it before putting it in your freezer. It's surprisingly difficult to tell the difference between chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin once things are frozen.
Why is this a benefit to your holiday season? Why can't you just make them as the moment materializes? For starters, cookies make your house smell amazing and can come out of the oven in less than 15 minutes — perfect for drop-in company. They're great hostess gifts for last minute invites, sleepovers, work gatherings, and to accompany any party table when you're entertaining.
The idea of having them done and frozen ahead of time (although it's not laborious to begin with), means less to clean up and just one pan in the oven to take care of after your party. You can freeze cookie dough in pre-scooped or balled shapes, in flat round compact discs ready to roll out, or even in long logs wrapped tightly in parchment paper for ice box style cookies.
Do you keep cookies in your freezer for the holidays? What are your favorites to make ahead of time? Share your must haves in the comments below!
Related: Tip: Freezing Cookie Dough
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I'm wondering...I normally make a variety of scones for breakfast on holiday mornings and was wondering if freezing the dough ahead of time would work for these as well?
Shaped cookies actually work better when they're frozen. Cold/frozen cookie dough holds it's shape better, so chocolate chip cookies are softer in the middle, and shaped cookies don't get that bloated look.
Bobette - yes, freezing scones works. I make cream scones, par freeze on a cookie sheet, then bag them. When it's time to bake I brush them with a little milk or cream and sprinkle demarara sugar on top. They come out perfect, just take a few minutes longer to bake.
@hlg22 Thanks for the info! That just makes one less thing I'll have to worry about come Thanksgiving. I've already frozen peach puree for bilinis that morning and was going to work on sausage cheese balls after making a test batch with some new local sausage I found. Now if I could just pre-make the entire meal over the next couple of months.
If I froze cookie dough this long before the holidays, I'd have two problems: 1. no room in my freezer, 2. my boyfriend and I would snack on them for the next three months and I'd have none left for baking. (Even 24 dozen is only 3 cookies a day!)
I actually tried this - I had some shortbread dough in my freezer for a few months. When I thawed and baked a few this weekend, it simply was not as good as fresh baked. It had a strange taste to it. The wrapping may not have been tight enough, or I did something else wrong in the storage, but I would not advise freezing homemade cookie dough for more than a month.
I love this idea but am afraid that if my husband found them, they may not be around come December.
I usually have cookie dough in the freezer, but this time of year I start making extra and making some more of the really special kinds. I usually don't bake them until closer to the holidays.
Not for me. I rarely have surprise company just drop in wanting cookies at the holidays that I don't at least have the 20 minutes it takes to make, toss in the oven and clean up a batch of cookies. And yes, to agree with Sousani, I have tried it before and unless you want to waste 2 or 3 ziplocs per batch to triple bag em, that butter in those cookies will soak up that delightful freezer taste.
Is it just me or do cookies never seem like a chore period, let alone at the holidays (and I make a TON of them then as gifts) why take away a big part of what many look forward to and dump a bag of frozen cookies on the counter?
I never have issue freezing cookies- smitten's chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie recipes freeze especially well. I freeze them solid on a cookie sheet, then stuck them in a freezer bag with the air pressed out.
If you stick them in the back of the freezer, I find I tend to forget about them after a week...
We used to make Christmas cookies in October and freeze them--worked great and really loosened up the holiday season. But then we moved and took different jobs and are in a different rhythm and have just not gotten back into that habit. This year we have scheduled the first weekend in November to bake cookies for the holidays--we'll see if that ends up happening or not.
Oh. YES. We do this every year. No one can tell the difference. Otherwise, impossible to make the numbers/varieties we do!
I wish I could pre-make and freeze my cookies but I don't have the freezer space for them.
@belmontmedina - that week before you forget is the week I'd already have eaten them. :)
i *always* premix and freeze chocolate chip dough. my freezer doesn't stink, though.
I like this idea of freezing the dough too. But I do foresee them never making it until Christmas because I'd eat it all. But my MIL freezes already baked cookies all the time and I have noticed they get dried out!! I don't know if she baked them for a minute or two less they'd not dry out. But the cookie dough method is a little fresher.
With most frozen long-term storage, watch out for self-defrosting freezers. They often defrost by heating up a bit and then cooling back down, which can melt the very outside of your cookies and then freeze it again. Moisture probably sublimates at that time if your dough is not hermetically sealed. Using something like a deep freeze or a freezer that doesn't try to take care of itself would probably work quite well.
Last year I finally got around to making cookies the week before Christmas, but we didn't get to decorate them till Christmas Eve day while I was in early labor. And here I was just thinking it would be nice to plan to make the cookies before December this year and then we can just figure out when to decorate them when the holiday season starts. (I think with a baby crawling around, it will require a bit more planning.)