Cookie-saving hack

You know how when you make a batch of cookie dough, if you bake all the dough right away you either end up eating way too many cookies or throwing out stale cookies after somebody leaves the Tupperware cookie box open again? And you know how if you freeze half of the dough to use later, it's a giant block of cookie goodness that takes forever to thaw enough to use? I think I've solved the problem.

When I made a batch of cookies yesterday, I took the second half of the dough and formed cookies on waxed paper on a spare cookie sheet. Since I wasn't going to bake them right away, I was able to really cram a lot of them on one sheet. I covered the cookies loosely with plastic wrap, then stuck the whole thing in the freezer for a couple hours to harden up the "cookies."
After the dough was hard, I dumped all of them into a freezer bag and labeled it with the bake temperature and time. Next time I want to bake cookies, I should be able to pull out just how many I want, and they should thaw out most of the way while I preheat my oven. Just like the place-and-bake cookies you can buy at the grocery store, only fewer ingredients I can't spell, and a whole lot cheaper.

If I have time this weekend, I'm going to do the same thing with a recipe of sugar cookies, which I usually just shape into balls and flatten with the bottom of a drinking glass that I've dipped in sugar. If I get them that far and freeze them, then some day when I'm desperate for a craft activity, Liza and I can pull out a few and decorate them with the colored sugar and candies. And then eat them, of course!


Incidentally, the cookies pictured above are based on the recipe on the back of a bag of mini chocolate chips, except 1/4 cup of flour was replaced by 1/8 cup of regular cocoa and 1/8 cup of the black cocoa you can buy at King Arthur Flour. Also, I used 1 stick of butter and 1/2 cup of Crisco instead of all butter. These are the best cookies I've made (or eaten) in a long time.