I'd tried freezing leftover batter once before, with not very good results. I did some Google-ing, and saw that a lot of people freeze the dough after spooning it into cookie-sized portions. That way, they can just take out the number they want, cook them up, and always have fresh cookies on hand. I tried this and it worked really well. My problem was that dishing out by hand, while nice and rustic, didn't lend itself packing in plastic containers.
I'm a huge Good Eats fan. I love the off-beat, scientific approach Alton uses. Most of his recipes I've tried have been good. He uses an ice cream scoop to portion his cookies. I hit up the local restaurant supply stores a few weeks ago and got myself a #40 scoop. It looked to be the right size for my usual cookie portions. It turned out to be perfect.
I now get uniform cookies and they are very easy to pack into our various Rubbermaid/Glad/Tupperware containers. I just line the container with parchment paper or wax paper and then seal them up. I generally make a dozen and a half right after I mix up the batter.
To use the frozen nuggets, I take out the number I want to bake and set them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. This weekend we were way over in Mesa and stopped into the tiny outlet mall off of Power and the 60. There's a Kitchen Collection shop in there and they had a two-pack of silicone mats for $5. I tried one last night and it worked really well. Once on the sheet, I let them sit out for anywhere from 15-45 min so they can thaw a bit. Some people put them directly into the oven frozen, but I tried that to not good results. Others use their toaster oven, but again, I had bad results. I stick to the regular oven with perfect results.
The ones I made last night tasted just as good as the ones I made from the same batch several weeks ago. I like my cookies either raw (it's a sickness, I know) or fresh out of the oven while the chocolate is still somewhat molten. Now, I can have them either way just about any time I want. :)
7 comments:
BEWARE!!! The frozen cookie dough very rarely makes it to the oven here. Also works great to mix with plain ice cream you have at home!
A pizza chain around here serves what they call a pizzookie for dessert. It's a small deep-dish pizza pan with cookie dough spread like the pizza dough. They cook it until it's just barely done and serve it hot with ice cream on top. It's very decadent but oh so good.
There is usually a high casualty rate when I take cookies out of the freezer. One or two frozen nuggets generally never see the oven. :)
Those are awesome tips for cookies, but would you mind posting your recipe too? My boyfriend has been asking for choc chip cookies for 2 wks now, and I've on the hunt! :) BTW, went to Stacey's yesterday... the fried okra and fried chicken, oh yum!
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 sticks margarine(what I use) or butter
2 eggs
2 tsp Penzey's Double-strength vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups flour
1 bag semi-sweet chips
Mix baking soda, salt, and flour by hand in a bowl.
Cream sugars and margarine in a stand mixer. I use my old KitchenAid.
Add eggs and vanilla and mix.
Slowly add flour mixture until combined.
Add chips and mix well.
Bake at 375 for 12 min/freeze/eat with a spoon.
I bake using insulated cookie sheets w/ parchment paper or the silicone mat.
And Stacy's fried chicken. Yum. We went too early to get it on the Fourth.
Thanks, these look awesome! I'll be baking these for my bf's birthday! No pressure.. :D
Made these today, I love how the (kosher) salt offset the sugar! I submitted a prez for the upcoming Ignite Phoenix event (sort of spoof: Reduce Your Cooking Footprint: Car Cooking 101), and if picked, I plan to "bake" Dashboard Cookies, but I might serve these as a tasty alternative for those who aren't willing to try it! ;) Thanks, they are so yummy! (hehe.. you don't hv to post this wordy comment)
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