I love having a well-stocked freezer. A double batch of vegetarian black bean chili and multiple portions of Mexican rice have saved the day on multiple occasions. I freeze leftover sauce, broth, black beans and shredded chicken to prevent leftovers from spoiling and to save for future use. However, the most enjoyable part of my freezer stash has to be cookie dough.

Freezing cookie dough serves multiple purposes: 1) It prevents my husband and I from eating too many cookies in a short period of time. Sometimes you just want a few cookies, and it’s not always easy to figure out what to do with the remaining four dozen! 2) It allows me to whip up freshly-baked cookies with no mess in a very short amount of time!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies were my bite-sized dessert of choice for most of the fall, but the classic Toll House cookie became my go-to dessert during the latter part of the winter and into the spring. There are countless variations of the classic chocolate chip cookie, but this is my favorite. They come out chewy on the inside with a hint of crunch on the outside.

I made a few minor changes to the original recipe, based upon recommendations from a friend. I use half butter and have shortening, and I adjusted the amounts of brown sugar and granulated sugar.

If you want to freeze your cookie dough and bake at a later date, drop the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper (for easy clean up) and place the sheet in the freezer for about a half hour. Remove the firm balls of dough from the sheet and place in a freezer bag, removing as much air as possible. When you want to bake the frozen dough, there’s no need to defrost! Preheat the oven to 375 and place the frozen balls of dough on a cookie sheet. You’ll probably need to bake the cookies 2-3 minutes longer than usual, but keep and eye on them so that they don’t burn.

Toll House Cookies

Yields 60 cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until creamy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Beat in vanilla extract.
4. Beat in flour mixture gradually.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Drop dough by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.
7. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Cool on cookie sheets for at least two minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

BAKE at 375 for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Tags: Chocolate, Chocolate Chips

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 6:02 pm and is filed under Baked Goods, Cookies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.