Reader Query: Freezer-Friendly Formulations?

Marya and her sister Em are readers and real-life recipe users. Marya wrote in recently with a question about freezing the dough for my XXX Cranberry Cookies:

Hi! Em's sister here. She made these cookies last week, and I decided after hearing again about how good they are, that I needed to make them for myself. However, I like to freeze cookies and make them week after week and not go through all the work every time. So my question is, can these freeze? (no matter what your answer, I intend to find out- same with the oatmeal choco chip. yes I'm going to make two batches of your cookies in one day. I'm on a mission).

Hi, Marya. (And hi, Em.) Wow! Good on you for tackling two recipes in one day. I'm very impressed! And you've made excellent choices. My XXX Cranberry Cookies and Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies are among my most popular recipes and are guaranteed to please.

I've frozen cookie dough plenty of times. It holds up well, but I have noticed that cookies made with frozen dough bake up a little rounder than cookies made with fresh dough. The frozen guys don't spread out or flatten much--something to do with the leavening, I think. They're not as pretty as the ones made with fresh dough, but they taste just as good. But, of course, the danger of having frozen cookie dough on hand is that you've got frozen cookie dough on hand. Be prepared to snack on dough nubbins snapped from the mama log until you've got only enough dough left to bake off a few misshapen cookies.

Happy baking, Marya. And Happy Thanksgiving!

Comments

[Marya]

Hi!

Well, as of yesterday both batches of cookies were gone. I froze two giant ziploc bags of cookie dough, and we hardly made any actual cookies after the initial day of baking (a dozen of each). We just warmed some dough up in the microwave and ate it like that. And baking two different kinds at once is DANGEROUS. because you can't just have one, you need to have one of each, but really who only has one cookie at a time? So it was most often two of each kind, and dang it was good.

I can't wait to bake another recipe-although it will have to wait until after the new year! I think I will stick strictly to your recipe this time instead of adding a bunch of stuff like I usually do.