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?
- Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- 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.
How do you freeze cookie dough?
- Using a 1/4-cup ice-cream scoop or a large spoon, drop dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Makes about 24 balls.
- Refrigerate for 1 hour.
How do you bake the cookies if frozen?
- 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, rotating sheets halfway through.
- 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.
- Make up the dough. You may want to double, trip, quadruple the batch – depending on how many platters you plan to give.
- Freeze the plates ahead of time. Bring them out of the freezer and scoop (ice cream scoop) the dough balls onto the platter.
- Wrap the plates with clear cellophane wrap, and place the platters filled with cookies back into the freezer (for at least 1 hour).
- 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):
- Mix the dough.
- Scoop balls of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze until firm, 15-20 minutes.
- Transfer the frozen balls to a freezer-safe container (or Ziploc bag).
- 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:
Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Chocolate Coffee Cake (for breakfast!)
![can you freeze cookie dough?](https://reluctantentertainer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/cookie-dough-balls-258x344.jpeg)
Get the Recipe:
Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 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.
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I love this idea. Was thinking of doing this for myself, actually… just so we had cookie dough in the freezer to take out when we felt like a cookie. Dangerous, I know… but we only live once, right?
Such a fun idea! I would personally love a gift like this!
Love this idea! I did this for a friend who had a baby. I made them three different kinds of cookies. She said it was the best gift ever!
Sandy, this is such a beautiful idea! You are so creative! :)
Nate would DIE if we ever got a platter like this. And I doubt he would let me share with others – I’d have to do it in secret :)
Awesome idea to give as a gift. I have frozen cookie dough before and it is so great to always have them accessible…that is, if my family doesn’t find them and eat them from the freezer!
What an awesome idea! Why didn’t I ever think of this? Thank you for sharing. Cant wait to surprise some friends with some homemade treats.
LOVE this! Such a sweet gift. Who wouldn’t love a freshly baked cookie, without the work?!
This is such a great idea! Who wouldn’t love this? My favorite cookie to freeze and then bake are peanut butter oatmeal.
Very nice!
You had me at “chocolate chip cookie…”!! This is a great idea, Sandy {and Ellie!}!!!!
I’m pretty sure I would be thrilled if I had this show up at my door. What a great idea!