What's the best method for freezing cookies?

[deniseannsc]

I asked a general question about freezing cookies on another thread. There were questions by others so I thought I'd start a new thread and get all the info in way place.

1. Are there some cookie recipes better than others to freeze?
2. Once baked how do you go about packaging and freezing the cookies?
3. What's the best way to thaw the frozen cookies?
4. If you have the time to answer, maybe someone could take us "freezer newbies" through a step by step process on what to do starting with what you do after you take the cookies out of the oven.

Much appreciated! Especially this time of year when I bake lots and lots of cookies! Once I learn to do this I might start earlier and bake even more!!!!

denise

[knunes]

bump

[Chefmom]

Wow, there can be a lot to say on baking for the freezer. Usually most recipes will work for raw cookies that are frozen, except for those like macaroons or egg white based cookies.

I begin baking in early November by stocking up on ingredients when I see sales. by Thanksgiving I am baking quite a lot, most of it is making doughs and freezing them. This way I can only bake what I need, and I don't have a lot of cookies just laying around, or sitting in containers. I really don't like just "storing" the cookies on the counter, they can pick up plastic flavors from the tupperware kind of containers and even funky flavors from metal tins. Exceptions to the rule are biscotti of course, but store them in ziploc bags or GLASS so they don't pick up nasty flavors.

Packaging? The tighter the better. I like to wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and then wrap in foil, but be sure to label the containers. Ziploc bags work well too. You have several choices, you can freeze the whole dough, usually in a plastic bag, or you can portion the dough into balls etc and then freeze on a cookie sheet. Then after the dough is solid come back and place in a ziptop bag. this way you can pull out exactly what you need to bake. As for thawing, don't bother, just place on your cookie sheet and sit for a minute to soften them, then bake as usual. It may add a minute to the baking time.

If you freeze already baked cookies, I would freeze them on cookie sheets with parchment between the layers, then again come back and place in a ziploc bag. As for thawing it won't take long to thaw, so set out what you need onto a cookie sheet, then give them about 30 minutes to thaw and come to room temp before trying to package them. If they are cold when you package them you run the risk of moisture building up under the packaging and making everything soggy.

I usually only freeze cookies that are high labor. Especially things like nut rolls, pastry based cookies and especially sugar cookies. I freeze the dough or the rolled out raw cookies. Don't decorate and then freeze because the decorations can be ruined in the thaw and the colors can run. I think I do about 25 dozen sugar cookies every year, that's just decorated sugar cookies, not counting the hundreds of other kinds I make. Every year I try to add one or two new cookies, but most people still want the classic traditional cookies.

My faves are sliced cookies, dropped cookies and rolled cookies. things like snowballs and spritz are just to quick and easy to make a day before you need them that they don't see the freezer.

Also, through the year, when you have plenty of time for baking, pop a few cookies into the freezer and taste after a week to see how they work in the freezer. Just be sure to make a note on your recipe to remind yourself during the Holidays!!

Happy Holidays and Happy Cookie Baking!!

Tami

[knunes]

Tami,
Thanks for taking the time to put out all your useful info. I was only the "bumper", not the original poster, but I learned a few things! :)

[sherri]

Tami,
Thanks for the good advice about freezing sugar cookies. Last year my DH and I spent quite some time decorating our cookies and then unfortunately, post freezer thaw, they ran...I was so sad!
Sounds like you are busy baking, have fun.

[pattiarl]

Tami.

I'm gearing up for a Christmas open house and am wondering if you think it's better to freeze the dough or the baked cookies?

You seem like a pro so that you for your guidance.

Patti O.

[catharine]

Tami.

I'm gearing up for a Christmas open house and am wondering if you think it's better to freeze the dough or the baked cookies?

You seem like a pro so that you for your guidance.

Patti O.

Hey Patti,

I just got an email from Cook's Illustrated yesterday that discussed this subject. You're in luck because I liked the tip so much I copied it. Here's what it said:

Get a Jump on Holiday Baking
If you like to prepare holiday cookies before the baking rush sets in,
we recommend that you freeze the cookie dough rather than fully baked
cookies for fresh-tasting results. We've discovered that it's best to
first freeze individual preformed cookie dough (balls, piped shapes,
or cut-outs) on a cookie sheet. Once the pieces of dough have frozen,
place them in a zipper-lock freezer bag and store in the freezer. To
bake, put directly in the oven, increasing the baking time by a minute
or two. Do not thaw. Click here for our recommendation on the best
freezer bags.

I will accept your gratitude in the form of cookies (frozen or baked) when I see you next ;) Have fun.

[BeachBum]

Thanks for the tips!

Better Homes and Gardens has a new suppliment out on Christmas cookies. One of the headlines was about "start now and freeze"...Just thought I'd mention it in case some one was interested in checking out their tips or recipes.

[rburganmckinley]

I never go through that much trouble to freeze cookies.

My basic rules of thumb:
-I never mix icing colors. No problems with the colors running then.
-If you freeze cookies with frosting/icing it MUST be COMPLETELY DRY before you stack the cookies
-Moist/sticky cookies need a layer of waxed paper between to prevent them from sticking to one another. Most of mine aren't moist enough to need that. I just stack them.
-Package in an airtight container with ONE cookie type in the container.
-Freeze. To thaw I just place the container on the counter and leave it there for several hours without opening until they are thawed.

I've never noticed any off flavors from the containers.

Some cookies textures will shift with freezing, for me it isn't usually an issue. They just become moister, which isn't normally a bad thing.

I actually have one cookie recipe that has been passed down from several generations that I ALWAYS freeze, even if it's only overnight. It's my "secret" for them. None of the rest of the family can seem to get them just right. :D But after freezing they are just moist enough and the almond flavor in the frosting has time to "meld" so to say with the cookie. These also get sprinkles of some form or another on top of them and freeze just fine with the sprinkles.

If any of you got cookies from me last year in the cookie swap, they had all been frozen.

[Kathy B]

I pretty much do it like rburganmckinley does, except I don't ever freeze iced cookies. That is, I freeze the cookies unfrosted, then ice them after they are completely thawed. Otherwise, her method of using waxed paper and tupperware is what I do, also, and I have never had any problems. :)

[Valerie226]

I'm not sure if this is useful but here goes.
My mother used to bake 25-30 kinds of cookies for the holidays. She'd bake them, let them cool completely, then put them in metal tins (like old fruitcake tins) with a sheet of wax paper between each layer. only one type of cookie per tin. Then she'd put the tins in an unheated attic. This was Wisconsin, so things stayed pretty cold and dry. They stayed as fresh as the day they were made.
when we had guests someone would go up to the attic & arrange cookies on a platter and they were ready to eat in minutes. They lasted for months that way & didn't take up valuable freezer space. If you live in a cold climate with some unheated space it may work for you too.

[knunes]

I freeze balls of dough as suggested by C.I. (on cookie sheets), then transfer to freezer bags. I love the smell of fresh baked cookies!

[Sheila in MD]

Click here for our recommendation on the best
freezer bags.

Thanks for the tip on freezing from CI...does anyone have a link or the info they posted on their favorite freezer bags? Thanks in advance!

Sheila in MD

[catharine]

Thanks for the tip on freezing from CI...does anyone have a link or the info they posted on their favorite freezer bags? Thanks in advance!


Here you go, Sheila!

Bag Check - Food Storage Bags

Plastic-bag makers are forever rolling out the 'next great advance' in food storage technology. But how far have we come from the simple twist-tied baggie?


If the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ever goes out of business, it won't be the fault of the food storage industry. A stroll down the plastic-bag aisle reveals an array of brightly colored boxes beckoning shoppers with breathless claims, coined terminology, and more circled R's than a conservative voter's ballot.

Just in case weighing the respective merits of FreshProtect®II (Glad's patented "pocketing" texture), Ziploc with FreezeGuard® (a patented zipper), and Hefty OneZip®'s Easy Grip® Slider (a patented sealing mechanism) wasn't dizzying enough, manufacturers have divided their product lines into bags for the freezer and bags for general storage. But how meaningful are these fancy-sounding features and designations? Could the simple baggie that our mothers used offer just as much protection--for a fraction of the price?

To find out, I tested 10 different 1-gallon bags from the three national brands--Glad, Hefty, and Ziploc--including four "storage" bags and five "freezer" bags. Within these categories, the bags also varied by seal design: regular zipper (a raised ridge that fits into a groove on the opposite flap) and slider zipper (same groove setup, but sealed by sliding a tab down the length of the opening). We also included a twist-tied baggie.

Film Studies
Storage bags have three core functions: keeping moisture in and keeping air and odor out. The first line of defense is the plastic film itself. So I sent the bags to a lab that uses a specialized machine to measure how fast moisture travels through a material--called the water vapor transmission rate, or porosity. The lower (or slower) the rate, the greater the protection.
The lab results arrived, and I made three important discoveries. First, porosity did vary significantly. The plastic film in the old-fashioned baggie had let through nearly six times more moisture than the next least porous bag. Second, forget FreshProtect II and all those other fancy-sounding features. A plastic bag's relative moisture protection springs from one thing and one thing alone: the thickness of the film. (In fact, all the bags were made from the exact same material--polyethylene.) The thicker the plastic, the better its moisture protection. Most bags ranged between 45 and 72 micrometers thick, which correlated inversely with porosity. (The poor, porous baggie was a flimsy 20 micrometers!)

Finally, the results suggested that the freezer bag/storage bag divide is little more than marketing. In general, freezer bags are thicker, but only 5 micrometers separated our thickest storage bag from our thinnest freezer bag--a suspiciously arbitrary difference.

Performing Seals
If the plastic film were the only route for moisture, air, and odor, testing would be done; the winner would simply be the thickest bag (Hefty Freezer). But moisture can also escape past the seal. To find out which bags were airtight, I placed five water-filled bags of each type in an airtight container with a half-dozen desiccant packs (those moisture-absorbing packets you find in boxes of new shoes), which I weighed before closing the containers.

A week later, I reweighed the packets to see how much moisture they had absorbed. In general, bags with zipper seals proved more airtight than those with slider seals. Three of the five zipper bags (Ziploc Freezer, Glad Freezer, and Ziploc Storage) exuded just 2 grams of total moisture--in line with the expected loss through the plastic film. By contrast, only one of the four slider bags (Hefty Storage) suffered no leakage through the seal. Two slider bags failed miserably: After a week, the desiccant packets were floating in a pool of water 2 inches deep. To make sure the seals had not been compromised by faulty sealing, I repeated the test. Second try, same results.

The problem? As the mechanism slides down the length of the bag's opening, the seal it creates along the way is essentially the same as the regular zipper seal. But the part of the opening directly beneath where the slider tab comes to rest is sealed only by its contact with the tab--and most weren't designed well enough to fit precisely.

Choosing a Winner
It was time to test how bag thickness and seal effectiveness worked in tandem in real applications. First, to evaluate odor protection, I placed bread-packed bags in airtight containers, along with freshly cut onions and garlic. The containers went into the refrigerator. Two weeks later, I roped in a dozen staffers for what may be the test kitchen's least popular tasting to date: comparing 10 samples of 14-day-old bread for onion-garlic contamination. The clear results, however, were worth my colleagues' grumblings: The bags with airtight seals were the odor-protection champs-regardless of film thickness.

Next, I stored bread slices in bags placed directly in the fridge and the freezer. For the next 21 days, my drill never wavered: Arrive at the office, bring 40 packets of bread to room temperature, then reweigh the slices for moisture loss. The slices stored in baggies lost the most weight (and were well on their way toward crouton consistency). Ziploc Freezer and Glad Freezer emerged as the moisture protection champs. Even after three weeks, the bread was soft and fairly fresh.

As testing drew to a close, I realized I needed to break a few ties. So I divided 15 gallons of spaghetti sauce among 20 bags (two samples each), then sealed the bags. Which contender was bag enough to survive an accidental plummet from the counter to the floor? Twenty drops later, the floor was a virtual bloodbath. Tiptoeing through the carnage in search of survivors, I spied only two bags with their entire two-member team still intact: Hefty Storage and Glad Freezer.

Which bag should you buy? Glad Freezer--with its trusty seal, low water vapor transmission rate, thick plastic film (the second thickest of the bunch), and break resistance--is our top recommendation. Based on our findings, the only reason to buy a "storage" bag rather than a "freezer" bag is price; freezer bags tend to cost more. But given that our winning freezer bag is at the cheaper end of the price spectrum, why clutter the kitchen with multiple products? The extra protection can't hurt.