Cookies: Now 'n Later

Cookies in the freezer and in the "tin of love."

This as simple as it gets! There are only two of us in my household so if I bake cookies, they often get stale before we finish them (neither of us has a particularly strong sweet tooth but we do love some cookies!)

I reached out to my restaurant days when we stored sheet pans loaded with huge cookie dough balls (ready to be baked off) in our walk-in freezer. They were transported to the fridge before they were baked so every day the bakery section of the restaurant had freshly baked cookies. I do confess, some of them never made it to the oven as those cookie dough balls were delicious, especially when scarfed down during a quick break on a busy night. (The walk-in fridge was also wonderfully cool after cooking over a ripping hot grill/oven and fryolator!)

In any case - I duplicate it at home on a much smaller scale. I make the batter and scoop about 8 cookie balls to a cookie sheet to bake right then...and then I scoop as many as I can onto a small cookie sheet and pop it into the freezer for about 30 minutes. After 30 minute, just pluck each ball off the sheet and put in a zip lock freezer bag for easy storing. Presto! Next time you want fresh baked cookies just pull as many balls as you need and bake in a 375 oven for about 10 minutes (one trick I learned: if you don't thaw them, which you can in the fridge, keep an eye on them and pat them flat about halfway through cooking with your spatula to help the process.

Only want 2 or want to make a quick after school snack? Is it still hot out and you don't want to warm up the kitchen? Now you can bake them off in your toaster oven!

Today I made a batch of classic chocolate chip (recipe from the bag and Chris' favorite) and chocolate peanut butter chip (again...right off the bag and my favorite) and I filled what is known as the "tin of love" up with a few of each*. The "tin of love" is so named since it is a part of my childhood. My grandmother had this tin since, I'm guessing, the 40s. And it appeared at our house every Thanksgiving and Christmas filled with cookies. Usually chocolate chip or snickerdoodles. She would be so happy to know I keep filling it up!

*Butterscotch Oatmeal will have to wait for another day.