You see, I don't really bake. I make brownies out of a box. Cupcakes from a mix. I made a cake once. I made Tollhouse cookies once. I think baking can be a little "fussy" sometimes. I always have a mess left when I bake. But mostly? I live alone - I cook for one. I'm quite good at that. Baking for one? That's a challenge. It's not like I'm going to eat a couple of dozen cookies while they're still fresh!
I like fresh baked things as much as the next guy. Maybe more so. But I mostly go without. Oh, the bakery has perfectly good things but for some reason cookies just have to be fresh and homemade. I can't recall buying a really good cookie. Ever. Couple of months ago I had a serious itching for oatmeal cookies. I love oatmeal cookies. I hadn't had a good oatmeal cookie in ages. And I recalled reading how people have formed their dough into cookies, frozen and bagged them to bake off a couple at a time on demand. So I decided I'd try that.
I used this recipe. I used 100% whole wheat flour.
And...they bake beautifully!
So yesterday I did the same with peanut butter cookies. I haven't had peanut butter cookies since I was a kid.
I used the Simply Recipes recipe. I used 100% whole wheat flour. Yes I use 100% whole wheat flour in *everything*. Bread. Pizza. White sauce. Breading. Chowders. The one and only thing I've found that whole wheat flour doesn't work with is a baguette. Use whole wheat flour. It's good for you.
I also spun about a tablespoon of plain dry roasted unsalted peanuts in a spice grinder and added the powdery peanuts to the mix.
And they baked beautifully!
Both baking methods made awesome cookies. Very peanutty!
So here's what you do.
Put parchment paper on a half sheet pan and put it in the freezer. Make your cookie dough. Form cookies on to the frozen half sheet pan and put it in the freezer. The cookies will freeze quickly enough. When the cookies are frozen, bag them and keep them in the freezer.
Then you can just bake off the frozen cookies whenever you want a fresh cookie. Bake them frozen. Follow the recommended baking temperature and time, you don't need to compensate for the frozen dough.
I don't imagine this will work for lemon squares or cupcakes but it works really well with cookies.
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