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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

I love chocolate chip cookies
 I love chocolate chip cookie dough. I buy pasteurized eggs so I can eat lots of raw cookie dough without worrying about salmonella. I feel kind of silly worrying about eating raw dough because I ate tons of it as a kid and never got sick. But then again food poisoning is awful. So pasteurized eggs it is. Next to raw dough, I like still warm from the oven melt in your mouth cookies. I don't really care for them as much once they have cooled.
I have a simple solution. I make cookie dough and refrigerate and/or freeze the dough. That way I can have freshly baked cookies whenever I want them.  To refrigerate the dough, form into the shape of a log and wrap in plastic wrap.
A log of cookie dough
 When the urge for warm cookies strikes, preheat the oven to 350F/176C/Gas Mark 4, slice the log into cookies, place on a cookie sheet, and bake for 11-13 minutes.
Ready to bake
To freeze shape into a log and freeze. Make sure that the dough log is well wrapped because the dough will soak up any odors from the freezer. To bake the dough, thaw in the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 350F/176C/Gas Mark 4, slice the log into cookies, place on a cookie sheet, and bake for 11-13 minutes. 
This also works for shortbread, peanut butter, refrigerator, and sugar cookies. Cookies that do not freeze well are meringue type, cake like cookies, and cookies with a liquidy batter (madeleines and tuiles).
To freeze drop cookies place the dough in heaping tablespoonfuls or teaspoonfuls (depending on the recipe) on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once frozen place in a plastic bag or airtight container and freeze. Take cookies as needed out of the freezer and defrost in the refrigerator and bake according to the recipe.
To freeze rolled cookies, roll out dough (to the thickness required in the recipe), place the dough between layers of parchment paper and freeze. Once frozen place in a container or wrap well. Defrost in the refrigerator, cut out cookies, and bake according to the recipe.

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