Cookie 'Dough-to-Go'

My household is spoiled with impromptu, 'fresh baked' cookies. This idea was inspired through my cookie shop years ago. It all began with the request from a customer who wanted to purchase their favorite cookie as raw dough to bake fresh at home. Through that request, 'Dough-to-Go' was born!

Portion with a scoop onto a parchment lined bakesheet

I still use our favorite recipes from the cookie shop, in smaller batches, then portion and freeze individual cookie dough balls. Most cookie dough freezes well, try it with your favorite recipe. 

Here are a few tips to make the process more efficient. Line a bake sheet with parchment paper, the parchment can be reused later for baking your cookies. I use a #30 scoop to portion the dough balls. For a smaller cookie use a #50 scoop for an even larger cookie use a #20 scoop. 

Place the bake sheet of dough balls in the freezer. With a permanent marker, write the following information on a large, zip-type freezer bag; the flavor of cookie dough, the date, baking temperature and baking time. Once the dough balls are frozen solid, quickly transfer to the marked freezer bag. If the balls are stuck or frozen together, separate them. Store in the freezer until ready to bake. Fresh baked cookies are now as fast as preheating the oven and a trip to the freezer!  

To bake fresh cookies from frozen dough balls; remove the amount of cookies you want to bake from the freezer. Place the frozen dough balls on a parchment lined bake sheet, space properly for baking and allow to defrost at room temp. Meanwhile, preheat oven to required temperature. When defrosted, slightly press down the cookies with the heel of your hand or a fork... or prepare as required for your recipe, then bake. Fast, easy and the house will smell great!

Fresh baked Gingersnap Cookies

CHEF'S TIPS: Our constant favorites for the freezer are 'Chocolate Chunk' and 'Fudge Mint Chip' cookies. The secret behind my chocolate chip cookies loaded with chocolate, is to use different sized chocolate chips and almost double the amount of chocolate called for in the recipe. I incorporate 3 different sizes of chocolate pieces; small pure chocolate chips, large pure chocolate chips and hand-chopped Belgian Callebaut chocolate slab. This results in the dough to chocolate pieces at about a 50/50 ratio. Warning, this dough becomes very difficult to mix and scoop, but well worth the effort! 

You can transform most fudge or chocolate based cookie dough into chocolate mint by substituting pure mint flavor instead of vanilla and using half or more of the chocolate called for in the recipe of mint flavored chocolate chips.  

A few more cookie tips I learned from professional baker Anna Olsen; if you want a 'chewy' cookie, use baking soda. For a 'crunchy' cookie, use baking powder... and for a 'soft center' add 2 Tbsp. cornstarch to your recipe.  

Till next week, Happy Baking and Bon Appétit! 

Photos and 'Dough-to Go' method by Sally Rae