I love a good weekend project, especially when that project involves my fingers in loads of cookie dough.
I’ll admit that I may be waaaay behind the times on this trick. It’s the sort of trick that super moms have on lock to make them look even more awesome than they already are. Since I haven’t yet produced other people with my body, this trick is just now hitting my radar.
The idea is this: one day… (say, maybe a lazy Saturday morning) whip up a couple batches of your favorite cookie dough. Dollop that cookie dough onto a cookie sheet, all close like. Throw the entire cookie sheet into the freezer. Freeze the dough balls, then throw them into a zip lock bag and back into the freezer. You know what that means? All you have to do is flick on the oven and throw in a few dough balls anytime you want fresh baked cookies! Dang this livin’ is easy!
This frozen dough ball situation is key and here’s why:
You and the family can have fresh baked cookies any and every night.
Surprise guests? No problem at all… you just happened to be whipping up a batch of fresh cookies. Taaadaaa!
Bake ’em directly from frozen…. do it!
Frozen dough balls in the middle of the night? I won’t tell a soul. Can I be honest? I eat the dough balls more often than I actually bake the cookies. In fact… be right back. Dough ball for breakfast.
Full disclosure: I’ve eaten three cookie dough balls in the writing of this post. I’m not done yet.
You might also try these recipes for you cookie dough freezing pleasure:
Oatmeal Cherry White Chocolate Cookies
Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
White Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from King Arthur
makes 2 dozen cookies
2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour, or regular whole wheat flour if you’re feeling extra nutty
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1-2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts, again… if you’re feeling nutty.
Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl, whisk it together and set aside. Combine brown sugar, granulated sugar and softened butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add vanilla extract. Add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute in between each addition. Add dry ingredients all at once and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts if using.
Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Drop cookie dough by the tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet. Place them very close together so that as many cookies balls as possible fit on the tray. Put the cookie sheet in the freezer and chill dough balls until frozen through, at least 3 hours. Remove the sheet from the freezer and place dough balls in a freezer safe bag and place back in the freezer until ready to bake.
When ready to bake cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place frozen dough balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave a few inches in between the cookies, giving them room to spread. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden and irresistible.
CK
These cookies are great, very moist and chewy. My boyfriend said they were the best homemade cookies he’d ever had. We used both dark and semi-sweet chocolate chips and it was the perfect balance, not overly sweet. I cooked two batches and they were both done at 10 mins.
Wahine
Thanks for this recipe! If I want to add oatmeal, how much should I add & when? I LOVE your brown butter chocolate chip recipe and get all raves from those who eat it, but it packs on too many calories (irresistible!). Seeking a saner, more every week-healthier alternative.
Thanks for advice how to turn this into a whole wheat oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe!
Betsy
YUM! Made these yesterday with white chocolate chips….and everyone loved them! They did turn out very flat…but still great!
Ellen Clifford
Just made these and put a post with links to yours on it.
Very tasty! Glad I am not the only one who finds it appropriate to keep dough on hand mostly for eating raw:)
Lisa
These are SO good… they turned out amazing! My husband couldn’t believe I didn’t use any white flour… he kept asking me over & over… “are you SURE these are whole wheat?”! He loved them & so did I.
Ceci
They are delicious! We even added some cocoa powder and made them chocolate chocolate chip, and they were amazing. Great recipe:) Thanks!
Kaffy
Aah! Never wake and bake, and always read your recipes twice! I left an entire stick of butter out, sincerest apologies…
Kaffy
I’m a little let down by this recipe… The dough came out grainy and hard to form into balls. Any cookies had to be molded to get a decent size as after freezing the dough these suckers would not budge an inch in the oven. I admit I did stray from the recipe a tad by adding another teaspoon of peppermint extract, and reigning in the salt a little to substitute the salted butter I had lying around.
Lesson learned, cookies are not meant to be healthy in the slightest
Tammy
I made these with my kids this morning.It was such a fun and easy recipe for them to be involved with and super nummy.I love baking with whole wheat flour and this one is a keeper for sure.We are now going to deliver them to the local Hospice House and SPCA :)
Merry Christmas :)
Lena
I just made this batter yesterday and these cookies are great. Thank you so much for posting. I baked 4 and put the rest in the freezer. The freezer in the garage. Because I need a locked door between them and me. Out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. :-) Thanks for a great blog/web site! I will be back for more yummy cooking and/or baking!
Kaili
These are fabulous. I teach a lot of nutrition and cooking classes. I also make a lot of treats for my honey and wondered about pure whole wheat cookies… no worries here! They look wonderful and fit the mark. You are my go-to site for cookies. Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies have given me volunteer appreciation Queen status.
Thank you!
Karissa
Great recipe Joy! The cookies are delicious! They’re crispy and full of chocolate! mmm mmm good! :)
Holly
Made these last night to freeze the dough… We’re having a baby on Monday so I thought it would be nice to offer our guests something nicer than oreos (but w/out the effort of ACTUALLY baking).
But we had to bake off a few, just to test them first and they came out great! Used Regular Whole Wheat flour and even the 5 year old gave them a thumbs up!
Thanks!
Kto1s
Made these and am so impressed–never liked a whole wheat cookie before, but this is a keeper!
Sarafina
This recipe is so solid, so insanely awesome, I’ve made it a fillion times and it never ceases to amaze me. This last time I crunched up some pretzels and through them in with the chocolate chip. So good!
Jessica
How long will the frozen cookies last in the freezer before they go bad, get freezer burn, get icky, etc.? How much extra baking time should you add?
Meemee
I just stumbled upon your site and immediately fell in love! I’ve already printed out 4 recipes to try out this weekend! Hooray! :)
Kayla Watts
After ordering some wonderful gourmet whole grain chocolate chip cookies online from a company called Shelbys Gourmet Cookies, I started experimenting with different recipes to see if I could recreate the same cookies at home. I think I hit a home run with this recipe. They did not taste quite as good as the ones I ordered online but for my first attempt I was satisfied. Great job!
Heidi
Loved this recipe! I ground my flour right before though, so it needed just a tablespoon and a half more, but they are fabulous! Thank you for sharing this recipe. I really love your site. I have made a lot of the thing on here. Fabulous!!!
kathryn
I like to use granulated fructose instead of sugar. You can find it in most natural stores or Whole Foods. It bakes just the same as sugar but has a lower glycemic index.. which makes these cookies really easy to rationalize eating lots of!
Ariella
I know I already asked a white wheat flour question, but i have another! (since i just made these cookies 5 minutes ago and they’re baking in the oven right now). I noticed that there seems to be more salt in these cookies than most…does it have to do with the white wheat flour? or can i change out all purpose flour in other cookie recipes without changing anything?
thank youuu! =].
Kitchen Corner
Hi, this recipe looks very simple. I really like to give it a try. May I know what is the texture of these cookies? Is it the crunchy type or the melt-in-the-mouth texture?
Teresa Loop
I tried these today, they are tasty (and almost gone)!
I milled my own flour from soft wheat berries. The cookies are really thin, what did I do wrong?
Melanie
I made these this weekend! They are delicious. To cut down on some of the sugar I substituted Spenda for the 1/2 c white sugar. Thank you so much for sharing.. I am always looking for a slightly healthier alternative. :)
fried blue
Whole wheat choc chip cookies = must must try.
PS – You’ve made ‘teaspoon’ look so beautiful. You’ve got talent. :)
Hillary
Great…I thought it was bad enough that I bought cookie dough at the grocery store yesterday just to eat and now you post these pictures of amazzzing looking cookie dough and now I’m craving the rest of it.
Heidi
I always like the dough more than the actual baked cookies. I could just eat the dough, mm… So this recipe could a bit dangerous for me as I would just save the whole batch in the freezer and then just keep eating it little by little and when there would a real need to bake cookies fast… oh no, no dough left! It sound delicious though, as all your bakings! And I really like your style of blogging, so funny and sweet! :)
tpete!
another super easy way to do this is to take some wax paper and make a cookie dough log. just roll it up, freeze it, chop off what you want, stick it in the oven…and wahla! insta-home-made-cookies! (its quite nice too, because the logs dont take up much room, dont clump together, and they hold their shape!)
Sagan
YUM.
When I was little my mum used to do that, with freezing large batches of cookie dough. She’d forget it was in there, but I wouldn’t. I’d just eat the dough raw when she wasn’t looking. Hehehe.
annette
Whole Wheat AND Frozen!!!! Can’t beat that! Thanks Joy!
Jessanna
i heart chocolate chip cookie dough- even more than the cookies- but the cookies are a keeper too- and I’ve been using the whole wheat flour for years now- you don’t even look back! :D
Sue
It made my day finding your great site! Love it!
Gourmet Mama
Honestly, this is one excellent whole wheat cookie recipe. Never thought one could enjoy a chocolate chip cookie made healthy like this. Thanks for sharing this recipe, I love it. I’ll probably try this next week.
Kelly
Amazing idea!!
Erica from Cooking for Seven
That really is an awesome trick. I love that last line in the recipe: “Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden and irresistible.”
Ooooh, eating the dough balls sounds so wonderful. :D
Melissa
Before I froze them in balls, I froze them in a log and sliced them off to snack on and bake. That stroke of genius was something I learned from Martha…
This week two of my kids are at camp and one is at home with me. I think I now have a plan for today, cookies!
CookiePie
Oh Joy – I love your blog so much!
I can only do this with cookie dough when I know I’m going to need it for something, otherwise I eat WAY too many dough balls! (Though I imagine if you eat the dough balls right out of the freezer, there are no calories, right? Especially if you eat them standing up?) I love the idea of whole wheat flour in choc chip cookies. And hey, if you use dark chocolate chips, it’s practically health food, right? :)
Rebecca
You don’t have to go through all those steps to freeze dough balls. (I hate getting extra pans dirty.) Just take a large piece of plastic wrap and place a few dough balls on one end, leaving space between each one. Roll them up until the plastic wrap just covers them, and place the next set of balls next to it (I stagger them with the spaces of the other dough balls, but it doesn’t really matter). Flip the rolled up balls over the new ones, and repeat. I just take the completed roll of plastic wrap and dough, seal the ends, and throw it in the freezer. When using them (or sneaking a dough-ball snack) just unroll it far enough to get out as many as you need.
Caro
I LOVE YOUR SITE!!!
Brandy
I love freezing cookie dough. It’s always nice to have it on hand. I’m always looking for new cookie dough recipes so thank you so much for this wonderful blog post!!
Suzie
Yup, have been freezing dough for years! Had to ban the children from eating them though LOL
dani
i always laugh out loud when i read your posts joy! i love this idea!!!!!!!!! totally gonna steal it :)
Melani
Or the best is baking a pan of frozen cookie dough balls and then transforming them into ice cream sandwiches. Mmm….many hot evenings made more bearable by cold ice cream between two warm chocolate chip cookies.
jessie
I’m not sure whether anyone has ever asked you this, but do you eat everything you bake?! I’ve been spending the last half hour going through all your recipes and I’m just wondering where it all goes!!!
Beautiful site by the way. You helped salvage my buttercream frosting (from one of your earlier posts on why the frosting curdles).
Christine
Lovely! I like to use whole wheat pastry flour cut with regular whole wheat if I want something to stay fluffy light, like cookie dough. Since all the butter and shug makes the cookies turn brown regardless, it works like magic!
Honey Bee Sweets
Hi Joy,
I have been your blog follower ever since I started blogging, love your work! To say thanks, I have just send the Kreativ Blogger Award to you. Can you please go to my blog for more details, thanks! Actually you always have so many comments to read…I wonder if you will read mine, haha!
The Blushing Hostess
I sneak whole wheat flour and shredded zucchini into our cookies and bars to get veggies into my Daughter… I will put whole grain anywhere!
felicia
omg smart! thanks for the tip ;)
interesting cake you have btw.
never thought of using avacado on a cake!
Dianne
first vegan cake with avocado frosting, now whole wheat cookies? are you going healthy on us?
kris
I will have to look for white whole wheat flour and give it a try. I do 1/2 and 1/2 with pretty much anything that calls for flour.
New to the site and enjoying it so much!
Elle Bee
This is my first visit to your site and may I just say, you are lovely! This is a beautiful blog and I am loving it! I’m a mom of 3 and I had yet to discover frozen cookie dough…in the shape of cookies! Until today, that is. Thanks for the awesome recipes. I’ll definitely be back.
My open roads
I love your website! The photos are awesome, I love just looking at them, the things you make look so yummy! Thanks for the recipes!
Julia @ Mélanger
Yes, love to freeze cookie dough. Great to make more than you want to start and then have extra leftover! I love how you have used whole wheat flour here. I have to admit, that’s not something I’ve used before in chocolate chip cookies.
kris
I roll my dough into a log wrap it in wax paper and a zip lock bag. Usually I have two boys climbing on me for the cookies and it’s faster to roll and just throw it in the freezer. I’m lazy that way!
Ariella – Try 1/2 whole wheat 1/2 white flour. I find there are some things that just don’t taste right with all whole wheat.
Ariella
Everytime I bake something with whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur brand) it has a weird/completely different aftertaste. How do you change that? Thank youu!
joythebaker
Ariella- I would say that you can either use White Whole Wheat Flour which has a lighter wheat taste, or you can mix whole wheat and all-purpose flour together… half and half.
Courtney
This is what I do for when my nephews come over. Aunt Coco always has cookies ;) How does the whole wheat flour taste in these?
Fallon
That is so smart! I started freezing some already baked cookies to just pop in the microwave but this idea is even better!!
Lollie
I love the idea of the frozen dough and always plan on doing it but family and friends seem to have implanted a sensor in me so that when I bake there always seems to be people around eating them as fast as I can take them out of the oven. BUT I cant get over the fact of raw eggs and people eating the cookie dough. Yeah when I was a kid I licked the batter off the mixer beaters but times have changed and the “production” of eggs have changed. Our eggs are just not the same (sorry, but I went to a farm that provided eggs to supermarkets in NJ/PA area and was told maybe way too much). Most of us are using eggs from the super market not the “special” eggs Martha Stewart and the like talk about. I really dont want to be a buzz kill but at the very least small kids, people with gastro issues, etc. shouldnt indulge. My niece and nephew, grew up with the drill of no raw eggs, only lick the beaters if what I made had no eggs (frosting) and they still have tons of fond memories of baking with their aunt (who amazingly is still young!)
Rhubarb and Venison
Snack-sized cookie dough available at anytime, day or night? This would be absolutely dangerous in our house!
Indigo
I’m a huge fan of frozen cookie dough, and I’m definitely not a mum… uni student, anyone? If you can’t eat a frozen cookie dough ball for breakfast as a student, when can you?
I like them best when you put them in the microwave for a few seconds from frozen, and the outside goes soft and gooey and the inside’s still frozen. Try it, for real.
…Maybe this is where my freshman fifteen came from, now I think about it.
Avanika (Yumsilicious Bakes)
I’m ALWAYS freezing cookie dough! It’s just sooo much more convenient! And I’m usually substituting whole wheat flour in everything, but never thought to do so in cookies!
dana aka gluten free in cleveland
Joy, I see your frozen cookie dough balls and raise you homemade cookie dough ice cream.
As a gluten-free kinda girl, this idea is music to my ears (and death to my pancreas). Vanilla ice cream with chunks of cookie dough is one of those pleasures that’s fully lost on the gluten-free, but this just might bring it back into my kitchen.
Just… remind me how it’s okay to eat a little raw egg every now and then….?
Linda Y
no kitchen rut here! sweet…
Flapper Food
love. this. idea.
but wait: FROZEN dough balls bake normally into a regular cookie without burning??? that’s amazing if true. (and scary for me) :-O
Angela
I have been using this technique for a few months now for my little baking business and it has been a total life saver! Thanks for the yummy new recipes for my arsenal.
Kerstin
Great idea, I would need more room in my freezer though :) I’ve never attempted a whole wheat cookie dough before.
Meredith
I just started doing this. I do about 3 or 4 batches at a time, flash freeze on a baking sheet then stick in a labeled ziploc bag. It’s so easy and they taste so much better than store bought. Plus, if we’re having a party, I can pull out cookies and instant food.
Yolanda
I live by this. If you have a toaster over, then you don’t even have to heat the whole kitchen. I also do this with slice and bake cookie doughs. I keep them in the freezer, wrapped and stuffed into a tube from a roll of paper towels.
This is also a great idea for a cookie exchange. Let people take the frozen, ready-to-bake dough to bake at their leisure, instead of a box of cookies hat have to be gorged on immediately, lest they go stale.
stephchows
Seriously great idea!! And love the full disclosure :)
Food Hunter
Frozen dough is a great idea…thanks!
Jill
This is so AWESOME!!! I was just thinking about doing this, but haven’t gotten around to it. We love having warm cookies from dessert, but usually pull frozen baked ones out of the freezer and microwave them for a bit. They would be WAY better fresh from the oven!!!
Can’t wait to stock the freezer!!!
Micha B
ME TOO! In fact I quit freezing dough because of my tendency to eat it all.
In addition to the WW goodness going on here, I add ground flax. Clearly I like it nutty – and then I feel less guilty loading the neighborhood kids up on sugar.
Heidi
This is death to me – I have unfortunately discovered that I like to eat frozen cookie dough balls better than fresh baked cookies. It’s safer for me to bake them all at once and give them away.
The Duo Dishes
Freezing cookie dough in balls is what we do all the time! Saves so much time when all you want is a fresh cookie. Plus, you can avoid eating 5 dozen in one sitting. :)
Jenn
I’ve always wanted to do this, but have been wary since I don’t know how long it would keep in the freezer. Any ideas on that??
Corinne
I have an entire bag of chocolate chip dough balls in our freezer. I’m convinced my husband sneaks one every night… but with two kids at home, it’s WAY easy to make fresh cookies without having to buy the stuff they pass off as “cookies” in the store. :)
Erin
Oh no! You’ve discovered my magic secret!
Frozen cookie dough balls are also GREAT for if say…. you and your friends are renting a fully furnished cabin in the woods for 4th of July! On the morning of the 4th as we were all getting ready to go out on the boat for the day, I pulled out my bag of frozen cookie dough, baked them up, and put them in a container to take out on the boat! At lunchtime everyone DEVOURED the freshly baked cookies and proclaimed they were MUCH MUCH better than Chips Ahoy!
The Waspy Redhead
What a great idea! I’m busy working full time and going to grad school at night, so this is a great trick for me. Also I love the king Arthur flour website, it’s a phenomenal resource. I’m planning whole wheat zucchini quick bread for this weekend.
Megan
YUM!
Trader Joe’s sells frozen cookie dough balls and it’s like a dream. At any given moment when you want a cookie straight from the oven you can have one aaaaaand making them homemade is even better.
I’m excited to do this!
You’re one smart cookie!
Katie
I am the queen of flash freezing cookies. I love it. At any particular time in my freezer, you’ll find about 5 different kinds in there. The only problem….is that I love frozen cookie dough almost as much as I love the freshly baked cookies.
Romy
Yeah! This is one of my favorite things to do, I always have cookies of some sort in the freezer. Sometimes I come home and my husband is washing off a baking tray with a guilty expression… a sure sign he has been in my freezer stash since otherwise he does NOT bake. ;)
Frieda
I have frozen my favorite cookies before…what is really fun is if all the cookies take the same amount of time to bake, I can take several different kinds of cookies. A dozen of 3-4 different kinds of cookies, right out of the oven, does make quite an impression!
I grind my own wheat and have yet to include it in my cookies/baking. I’ve heard that soft (pastry flour) is better if you want a light, soft product. What is your experience with this?
Hleure
I’ve been meaning to freeze cookie dough for a while now, but I never thought of making cookies with whole wheat flour! Unfortunately, I don’t think my freezer is large enough (or at least it is too full…) to fit an entire cookie sheet in it. I’ve got to find a solution to this problem!
Saw your images and link to your blog on Cupcakes Take the Cake today. Neato! Congrats!
Erin
This is such a great idea! I am such a loser and I always buy those big, premade hunks of dough that you break off and bake. But I am sure that these are way better. This is on my to-do list for next week!
Joi
Yummy! Another great way to store them in the freezer is in an washed out ice cream tub. :)
Heather @ chiknpastry
fantabulous. Although, I’m already totally addicted to freezing almost everything in sight. Every dessert or snack I make, I feel as if i stash a few in the freezer. But… no raw cookie dough yet. No better time than now :)
Lizzie
this is like music to my ears. i’m so ready to change the way i make cookies forever! the freezer is my new best friend ;)
Kate @ Savour Fare
I did this when I was pregnant — I made huge batches of molasses cookies and froze the dough. Then I impressed the bejeezus out of people who dropped in to see my brand new baby by serving them fresh baked cookies. It’s an excellent party trick.
brandi
beautiful!
great tips, and thanks for doing a ww cookie recipe!