You would think this would be a “no-brainer”. But believe me, I’ve had my trials and errors with freezing cookie dough.

I would simply put my dough in a zip lock storage back, and stuff the entire lump into the freezer. End of story. But then, I ran into trouble when I would try to defrost it.

The dough wouldn’t defrost very quickly due to it being more of a brick than anything else, and if I wanted just a few cookies, I’d have to defrost the entire thing, take the little bit I wanted, and then refreeze it. And if you know anything about cookie dough, you know it can only be refrozen so many times before the flavor starts to change, and not for the better.

So through trial and error (and a little research), I did, in fact learn to freeze my dough correctly. Here’s what I learned:

Cookies that are “sliced” and baked should be frozen in rounded logs. Thaw slightly, slice off what you need with a warm knife (dip in hot water), and then put remainder back in the freezer.

Cookies that are generally considered “drop cookies”, or cookies that need to be rolled into balls and then flattened on the cookie sheet should be frozen in pre-made balls. Simply roll your dough into the size of ball you want, and freeze on a cookie sheet. When they are frozen, place them in a zip lock storage bag. You can either just throw them in a bag (like I do), or you can divide layers of dough balls with parchment paper. (That would be the proper way to do it).

For form cookies, make your dough and cut out the cookies. Place on a cookie sheet and freeze. Remove from cookie sheet and place in storage bags, using parchment paper as dividers between layers.

So there you have it. The culmination of all my mistakes. But some lessons you just have to learn the hard way, I guess. At least now I always have fresh baked cookies when guests come over…. minus the headache!

Happy Baking!

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