Yes, You Can Freeze Cookie Dough to Speed Up Your Chill Time—Here's How (2024)

FAQs

Yes, You Can Freeze Cookie Dough to Speed Up Your Chill Time—Here's How? ›

That's right, you can freeze it for a bit to shave quite a bit of time off the chilling suggestion in the recipe. Here's what our Test Kitchen recommends when quickly chilling cookie dough in the freezer: Place the cookie dough in the freezer for one-quarter of the recommended refrigerator time.

The #1 Shortcut to Chill Cookie Dough Quicker

The ultimate way to hit fast-forward on this process: your freezer. “Putting cookie dough in the freezer can speed up the chilling process by a lot,” Hill says.

Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool. As a result, the cookies will expand more slowly, holding onto their texture. If you skip the chilling step, you're more likely to wind up with flat, sad disks instead of lovely, chewy cookies. Cookies made from chilled dough are also much more flavorful.

Cookie dough freezes well for up to 3 months, so it's a great way to get ahead for the holidays or other busy times. For drop cookies, you don't need to wait for the dough to thaw—bake from frozen. You don't have to bake the whole batch at once—you can bake just 1 or 2 when you're craving a freshly baked, warm cookie.

If you want to freeze the cookie dough (specific directions on that here), simply do it after the 24 – 72 hour chilling period.

Homemade cookie dough should be stored in small containers in the refrigerator for two to four days or freeze for two months. Alternatively, small quantities of dough can be frozen and thawed in the refrigerator as needed.

The refrigerator will keep food cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will keep the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) if the door remains closed.

When a recipe asks for something to be chilled or to let it chill, it means the selected ingredients need to be put in the refrigerator to get it to a lower temperature.

A cookie cooling rack allows air to circulate under the cookies, cooling them quickly and completely. Good news: If you don't have a cookie cooling rack, there's a workaround. To cool cookies without a rack, remove cookies from the baking sheet and allow them to cool on paper towels on the countertop.

Solidifies the fat in the dough, allowing the liquid to dissolve the sugar and flavorings and the flour to absorb them. This improves the flavor of the cookies. Makes the cookie dough less sticky and easier to handle.

How long can you freeze cookies? ›

Cookies retain their quality when stored in the freezer for eight to 12 months. Moist bars, such as cheesecake and lemon bars, can be refrigerated for seven days. For best quality, store bars in the freezer for two to three months.

In the process of frozen dough storage, due to changes in the frozen storage temperature and time, the products will crack, shrink, collapse, and develop an uneven internal structure, poor taste, etc., resulting in poor sensory characteristics of the final product, reduced consumption, and limited large-scale ...

As you can imagine, utilizing the freezer is an alternative way to chill your cookie dough if you are in a hurry. As a rule of thumb, aim to chill the dough in the freezer for about a quarter of the time you would typically refrigerate it. So, if you can't do an hour in the refrigerator, do 15 minutes in the freezer.

If the dough is too soft, portion it onto a wax paper lined baking sheet and freeze for about 30 minutes.

Beyond the convenience factor, freezing cookie dough also helps preserve the flavor and texture of the cookies. By freezing the dough at the right stage, you can lock in the freshness and prevent the ingredients from degrading over time.

Freezing cookie dough gives the butter in the dough the chance to become firmer. Colder butter disperses through the cookie more slowly causing a more structured and complex cookie. Cold butter also causes the cookie to spread less creating a final product that is softer and meltier.

This allows the dough to soften and come to room temperature , which helps the cookies spread evenly and bake properly . However , if you are short on time , you can also thaw the dough at room temperature for 30 - 60 minutes , or use a microwave to defrost it quickly .