The Freezer is your Friend

Last night we were having dinner with some friends.  One had been to my annual cookie party and one had not.  Rob, who had not, had done a cookie party a year or so ago and made about 20 kinds.  So, after he had stayed up until 2am for several nights in a row leading up to the party, he was informed that I baked my cookies in advance and froze them to keep them fresh.  Believe it or not, it works. 

If you know me, you know I go through an amazing amount of zippy bags during cookie season.  I also focus on shirt boxes because they fit in my freezer best.  I learned the art of freezing cookies from my Mom.  She would bake while we were at school and we would come home to absolutely no dirty dishes and no cookies in sight.  On Christmas Eve, cookies would magically appear on a platter and we would have to wait for them to defrost before we could eat them.  Nothing like biting into a semi frozen Christmas cookie…ahh the memories. 

I have refined the freezing process to a greater degree due to the amount of cookies I bake.  I have found that stored in a zippy bag inside the shirt boxes keeps them fresher and avoids the cookies from picking up flavors from the other cookies.  I do try to put peanut butter cookies together in the box when I can, but I never mix flavors inside the zippy bag.  I learned that the hard way one year when using a huge airtight container that I put all mixed cookies into.  They all started to taste the same after a while. 

When using a strong flavoring like peppermint, you may want to double bag the cookies and not put anything else in the same box.   Sometimes this is a factor with coffee flavored cookies as well.  Generally, if you can still smell the ingredient after the cookie is in a sealed bag, you want to double bag it. 

My storage process works like this.  Once the cookies are done, I quick freeze a plate at a time and start loading the bags.  This is primarily for drop cookies without any special frosting, or jam in them.  I use one zippy bag and fill it up 2 – 3 layers on top of each other, the full length of the bag.  How many depends on the cookie itself.  Then I seal that bag.  I turn the box around and do a 1/2 of a bag of the cookie that filles up the balance of the shirt box.  Then the box is closed and the cookie is written on the spine and the top for easy identification.  Voila!  Ready for the freezer.

I am blessed to have a full size standing deep freeze in my basement where I store cookies.  I get it cleaned out in the fall so it is ready to receive the onslaught of cookies.  Since I use my frozen butter as we bake along, that evens itself out.   I usually bring up my cookies from the freezer either the night before or early the morning of m

y party to give them time to defrost.  I just put them on a table and they defrost in their boxes and bags. 

So, you have your cookie list done, your ingredients bought.  Think about how nice it would be to do some baking early on cold, rainy days and not feel the pressure of baking cookies the night before you need them.  Make your freezer your friend.

 

 

 

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