Living the Pantry Lifestyle - Musings on chocolate chip cookies

It may be the freezing fog outside my window but I think I have lost my ponder and misplaced my "muse".   I really can't come up with anything much to write about today.  Even Rudolph must have his off days when his nose cannot shine bright enough to edge out the fog!

All I could think of to write about were the chocolate chip cookies I made and how wonderful it was to have them in the freezer.  It is brilliant having the dough ready because it can be baked at the last minute for nice, warm, gooey cookies.   When I freeze them already baked, their siren song woos me to the freezer for "just one".  Right...  More about them later.

With Christmas squeezing a tight budget, I haven't taken advantage of the sales on baking goods.  Except last week when Kroger had their bags of sugar 99 cents each if you bought four.  I don't need white sugar, there is more in the pantry.  But at that price four bags hopped into my grocery cart!  When stored carefully, it lasts for a long time.

I've done a lot of reading about food shortages in WWII and one item that was definitely missed was plain old sugar.  We don't need very much but by baking "sugar goodies" ourselves, we are staying away from high fructose corn syrup.  Not to mention using real food like butter.  Okay, I admit to having Crisco sticks in the pantry for a couple of recipes.  ;)

You may remember I froze cookie dough ahead of time a couple weeks ago.  This was the first time I formed chocolate chip cookies on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and then flash froze them in the deep freeze about an hour.  (Set the timer so you don't forget them!)

After they were firm enough, I slipped a dozen in each quart size Ziploc bag.  Then I slipped those bags in a gallon size Ziploc bag for double protection against freezer burn.  If you are going to that much expense and trouble to make something, you certainly don't want freezer burn!

Well, on the day after Thanksgiving, when I was going to take some of the cookies to my friend's house, I didn't feel well at all.  It was wonderful to pull out two bags of the frozen (and already formed) cookies.  All I had to do was place them frozen on the cookie sheet and bake an extra minute or two.

I told Stephanie, that this is the way I'm making chocolate chip cookies from now on.  She thought it would be a great idea to have these in the freezer for last minute cocoa nights with their family.

Did I tell you these cookies get ravings?  I tweaked two different cookie recipes to form this one.  If you are interested in making them, the recipe can be found... here.  This is a big recipe, it puts a bit of a strain on my professional size stand mixer.  If you need to cut the recipe in half, go ahead.  Although... if you don't have a large mixer and you do have a very strong person in the family to stir it... that would work, too.  ;)

NOTE:  I was asked if I used semi sweet or milk chocolate chips.  I use both in this cookie recipe.  I like to mix them in a lot of recipes calling for chocolate chips.

So... I need another cup of coffee and hopefully the frozen fog will lift outside soon.  For those outside of Northern climates... frozen fog is different than regular fog.  It can cause frozen condensation on the roads. Which is not a good time to be out!

Image:  Fresh Bread by Loren Entz