How to Freeze Cookie Dough

Balls of chocolate chip cookie dough on a plate before freezing.

How to Freeze Cookie Dough

Get a jump on the holidays, bake sales, and parties with this sweet little how-to. Here’s how to freeze cookie dough correctly, to get amazing, freshly baked homemade cookies in an instant.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Cook Time 10

Total Time 10

Servings cookies

Calories 82kcal

Author Meggan Hill

Ingredients

Cookie dough balls, logs, or discs

Instructions

To freeze balls of cookie dough:

Portion the dough into balls and freeze by arranging the balls in a single layer on a tray or plate that can fit into the freezer.
Once frozen solid, transfer into a freezer-safe bag or container. Label with the kind of cookie dough, baking temperature and cooking time in the recipe, and the date you made the dough. Freeze up to 2 months
Bake the frozen cookies straight from the freezer in a preheated oven according to the recipe instructions.

To freeze logs of cookie dough:

Shape the dough into a log, or several logs, as directed by your recipe. Make sure they will fit into the freezer bag.
Wrap the logs in waxed paper, then slide the wrapped logs of dough into a freezer bag and press out any extra air as you seal it shut. Label with the kind of cookie dough, baking temperature and cooking time in the recipe, and the date you made the dough. Freeze up to 2 months.
To bake frozen slice and bake cookies, remove the log from the freezer and let it warm up for about 15 minutes at room temperature. Then cut the cookies into slices. Bake the cookies in a preheated oven according to the recipe instructions.

To freeze blocks of cookie dough:

Form the dough into a 1” thick disc and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. You can place the dough in a freezer bag for extra protection, if you like. Label with the kind of cookie dough, baking temperature and cooking time in the recipe, and the date you made the dough. Freeze up to 2 months.
Before baking, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then roll out, cut, and bake following the recipe’s instructions.

Notes

The best cookie dough for freezing: Basically, any recipe with a higher fat or butter content, the richer the better. However, delicate cookie dough, or cookie dough batters, such as pizzelle, madeleines, and the fluffy dough of French macarons do not freeze well at all.
Label: The most important tip I can give you is to label the freezer package. This will make your life infinitely easier, and the future you will thank you for it. Be sure to include what kind of cookie, baking temperature and cooking time from the recipe, and the date you made the dough
Preheat the oven before you bake: Make sure the oven is hot enough before you bake, so the cookies bake consistently.
Baking: No need to thaw the cookies, just bake frozen and increase the cooking time by a minute or two.
Cookies rolled in sugar or other toppings: Any cookie that gets rolled in sugar or cinnamon before baking (hello, Snickerdoodles and Molasses cookies) should be frozen without the outer coating. Let the frozen cookies sit out at room temperature just long enough to get sticky on the outside (about 30 minutes) and roll them in the sugar just before they go into the oven.
Storage: Always refer to your recipe, but properly stored, most unbaked cookie dough recipes freeze well for up to 2 months. Ha, like they’ll last that long!

Nutrition