How to Bake Frozen Cookies

Can you freeze chocolate chip cookies? Yes you can! Here’s how to make Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, for the best chocolate chip cookies – ever!

Freezing chocolate chip cookie dough is easy. Our neighbor gave us a platter of perfect rounded scoops of cookie dough. The plate was wrapped with a giant red ribbon on top, with easy instructions. Keep the frozen dough in the freezer until you’re ready to bake. 

How to Bake Frozen Cookies

But first, these cookies are thick, chewy, soft in the middle, and a texture that is crispy on the outside. It’s a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe that’s been popular for years with home cooks. Plus, it’s loaded with chocolate chips! If you love chocolate, you may also want to try our Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies (sprinkled with flake salt).

Today, this post shows you how to make the best cookie dough, freeze it, and then how to bake the cookies (from frozen dough)! Delicious!

Why we love this recipe

We love this idea for Valentine’s Day, so we’re sharing it with you–the recipe, the steps to follow, and how to make the sweetest Valentine’s Day gift to give to a family who will “love you forever!”

• Super easy.
• Big scoops of dough freeze very well.
• You’ll always have a delicious dessert in minutes, if company stops by.
• Everyone loves a giant chocolate chip cookie!
• A fun Valentine’s Day or Christmas gift (a frozen platter of cookie dough with red ribbon).

Ingredients for Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

• Flour
• Baking soda + baking powder
• Salt: we use coarse sea salt
• Butter: use unsalted butter
• Sugar: both brown sugar and white sugar
• Eggs: at room temp
• Pure vanilla extract: the more you use the richer the flavor
• Chocolate chips: use both milk chocolate chips & semi sweet chocolate chips
• Pecans: toasted and chopped

How do you make the chocolate chip cookie dough?

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high until light and fluffy, 6 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla.
3. Mix in flour mixture just until incorporated; fold in chocolate chips and chunks and nuts.

How do you freeze cookie dough?

1. Using a 1/4-cup ice-cream scoop or a large spoon, drop dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
2. Makes about 24 balls.
3. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

How do you bake the cookies if frozen?

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Arrange 6 unbaked cookies, 3 inches apart, on each of two parchment-lined baking sheets.
2. Bake until edges are light golden brown, rotating sheets halfway through.
3. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool. Bake remaining dough using new parchment.

Tips and substitutions:

Try different chips, like caramel, vanilla, mini peanut butter cups, toffee, etc.

Optional to leave out the nuts, or use walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, in place of pecans.

Use almond extract in addition to vanilla. So good!

Make up the cookie dough and bake it right away, or use the freeze option (for gifts on plates, or in Ziploc bags).

How to make for gift-giving

If you choose to freeze for gifts, it’s easy.

1. Make up the dough. You may want to double, trip, quadruple the batch – depending on how many platters you plan to give.
2. Freeze the plates ahead of time. Bring them out of the freezer and scoop (ice cream scoop) the dough balls onto the platter.
3. Wrap the plates with clear cellophane wrap, and place the platters filled with cookies back into the freezer (for at least 1 hour).
4. Pull out of the freezer and tie each plate with a giant red bow. Give the gift platters frozen – so the recipients can pop right into their own freezer, if they choose to.

Tag to type up (or write out) for the cookie plate:

Attach this tag to the frozen balls of cookie dough: Freeze and bake from frozen @350 for 18 minutes.

Bring out of your own freezer, at the most hospitable time, and bake the cookies frozen for your family or guests!

Place the cookies back on to the platter and serve!

It’s the perfect way to bless your guests.

And what a sweet, sweet gift to give – and to receive!

How to freeze in Ziploc bags

Here are more tips, if you choose to make the balls of dough ahead of time and freeze in Ziploc bags (and not use the plate method):

1. Mix the dough.
2. Scoop balls of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze until firm, 15-20 minutes.
3. Transfer the frozen balls to a freezer-safe container (or Ziploc bag).
4. Freeze for up to 3 months.

Below is the Martha’s regular recipe (that I adapted), if you choose to make not freeze the dough. Either way, you can make the dough and follow the steps above, or make the dough, bake, and devour them now. They are that good!

My neighbor, Ellie, reminded me, and I had to chuckle (because I, too, have a weakness for cookie dough):

However, if they were in my freezer they would all be gone before any company dropped by. :)

True, very true.

Enjoy!

More chocolate recipes you may enjoy:

Irish Guinness Cupcakes

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Best Chocolate Cake recipe

Chocolate Coffee Cake (for breakfast!)

5 stars (1 review)

Leave a Review

Get the Recipe:

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Can you freeze chocolate chip cookies? Yes you can! Here's how to make Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, for the best chocolate chip cookies - ever! 

Here are tips for baking the frozen cookies balls:

Place the frozen balls on a baking sheet.

Bake at 350 for 18 minutes for 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 inch balls.

Prep Time: 1 hour hr 45 minutes mins

Cook Time: 18 minutes mins

Total Time: 2 hours hrs 3 minutes mins

Yield: 12

Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save RecipeSaved!

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

• 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
• 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 ¼ cups 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups packed light-brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cups milk chocolate chips
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup pecans, chopped

Equipment

• 1 1/4-cup ice-cream scoop

Instructions

 

• In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
• In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high until light and fluffy, 6 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Mix in flour mixture just until incorporated; fold in chocolate chips and chunks and nuts.
• Using a 1/4-cup ice-cream scoop or a large spoon, drop dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (you should have 24 balls) and refrigerate 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Arrange 6 unbaked cookies, 3 inches apart, on each of two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until edges are light golden brown, 17 to 18 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.
• Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool. Bake remaining dough using new parchment.
• If you choose to freeze for gifts, follow the instructions above in the post.

Notes

Reposted from February 2014.

Cuisine: American

Course: Dessert

Author: Sandy / Reluctant Entertainer

Did you make this recipe?Tag @reluctantentertainer on Instagram and hashtag it #reluctantentertainer!