Make your own Frozen Cookie Dough

The other day when I was making cookies, I thought of a super easy way to freeze my extra dough to make cookies later! Here's how it goes:

1. Make your favorite cookie dough.

2. Place a normal ziploc baggie (like the cheap sandwich ones) inside a big cup with the edges folded over the side of the cup:

3. Plop a few big scoops of dough into the cup:

Keep plopping until the cup is full.....

4. Take the bag out of the cup, push out the air and seal the bag:

5. Flatten the dough in the bag, pushing out excess air as needed:

6. Place it in a big gallon-size freezer bag. And on a small piece of paper, write what kind of cookies they are and the time and temperature to cook them:

7. Repeat with the rest of the dough, placing all the small bags of dough in this same big freezer bag. 

8. Then place all the dough in the freezer.

9. When the craving for cookies strikes, pull out a bag of dough:

10. With a knife or scissors, cut the small ziploc bag off the dough and throw it away. Then place the square of dough on a cutting board:

11. Using a knife, cut the dough square into smaller squares:

12. Place the squares on a cookie sheet and bake!

Then eat up! 

(Sorry I didn't take any cooked cookie pictures. I forgot to snap a shot before they all got eaten!  But I will say that even though they were square shaped as dough, they rounded out and were beautiful cookies! It might depend on your recipe, but placing them on as squares shouldn't be too much of a problem in how they look once baked.)

Here are a few reasons why this has changed my life:

• When I make cookie dough, I usually just bake 1 batch so we don't have tons of cookies sitting around that will either all get eaten by me (bringing endless shame and regret).....or go stale. FREEZING the extra dough ensures that all that hard work of making the dough will be much more appreciated another day!

• Once you've frozen the dough, it's ready whenever you need instant cookies! Here are a few times when you might want/need a batch of cookies in a hurry:
• A friend is sick.
• You remembered you were supposed to take treats somewhere......30 minutes before you leave!
• A quick after-school snack for your kids.
• A quick anytime snack for YOU when the craving strikes. :)

• Cutting the frozen dough is SO easy!!! And you don't even have to round the edges out or anything. Just cut and transfer them to a cookie sheet. It's much easier than freezing dough into logs (which I've done before and it always crumbles when I try to slice it.)

• When I cut the dough into squares, it reminded me of the packaged refrigerated cookie dough that comes in squares. It's just as easy as that, but WAY tastier.....because it's your own favorite HOMEMADE cookie recipe!!!

• The Holiday season is upon us! I think I'm going to spend a day making and freezing a bunch of cookie dough so it's all ready to go for when I need it. :)