Every year I put together a folder of cookies and bars and other wonderful goodies that I would like to make for people for Christmas. Not only does baking help me relieve stress (and if you've been reading any of my past posts, you know there's a fair bit of that going around in Suburbia at the moment, and you don't know the half of it!), but it's also a nice and cheap gift to give people. And you can almost guarantee it won't be returned.
The problem/dilemma...if you can call it that...is that I am not seeing most of the intended recipients until closer to Christmas Eve. But precisely because I will be spending the joyous holiday season with those intended recipients, I don't have a ton of time leading up to it to bake.
So every year I go through the aforementioned folder and try to narrow it to 5 different baked goods. And then what typically happens is on baked good #3, I look at the mess in my kitchen, think of the cleaning time PLUS the baking time, get totally overwhelmed, crack open a bottle of wine and figure people will just deal with what they get.
My goal this year is to actually MAKE these 5, if not more and actually use my folder to its capacity! So here's my question for you good folks out there: to freeze or not to freeze? If you vote freeze, how do you freeze? Do you freeze the dough/makings and bake them fresh? Do you bake and then freeze? Are there some things like bars that you can't freeze or don't freeze well?
And of course, links to recipes on your blogs or others are so much more than welcome! I've got to keep building that folder up, people. In exchange, I will share one of my favorites with you this week.
6 comments:
Hey! Freezing is great. The way I freeze is to scoop the dough out onto a cookie sheet, just like you were going to bake them and then place the cookie sheet in the freezer. Let the balls freeze and then remove them into a plastic freezer bag all balled up and ready to go.
I agree with the previous poster...I would freeze the dough, then bake fresh.
One recipe I'm going to make for every one is The Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Roll recipe. It's a doozy (big mess) but it makes eight pans of the most delicious cinnamon rolls on earth. That's what I'm giving out this year! And they freeze well!
Definitely make the dough and then freeze it for future baking. They'll never know it was once frozen and all you have to do is supervise the oven on the day-of.
i do both. I freeze the dough for some cookies, sugar, chocolate chip, peanut butter etc. or freeze them already made. i've never had a problem with either.
But there are definitely cookies that should not be frozen.
Bars are good frozen after baking, but not before.
Yum, that all sounds good, and freezing the dough sounds smart like these ladies suggested :)
By the way, I'm brand new to your blog, followed you over from Mrs. Baby Plan, and now a new follower of yours :)
Thanks for all the advice, All! And welcome, Crystal, so nice of you to drop by and I plan to peruse your blog further when I get a second. What I saw looked great, and lots of fun!
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