A Baking Story

Life lately has been...stressful.  That's ok.  It's made me realize how much I appreciate when life is slower and I have enough time to stop and think about all the little things that make it interesting.  Like cookies, for example.

Part 1:  When I was younger, my mom heard from a friend that you can make cookie dough, scoop it into ready-to-bake balls, and then put the dough balls in the freezer.  That way, you can have fresh baked cookies whenever you want, and you can control the portion size so that you don't have a whole batch of cookies that you could never finish by yourself.  (On second thought, perhaps you could.  I've never tried).

Part 2:  I usually eat two out of three meals per day at work, and the toaster oven across from my is often filled with toast, leftover pizza, or whatever else people like to bring for lunch.

Part 3:  Discovery: toaster oven at work + frozen cookie balls = fresh baked cookies at work.  Easy to bake, easy to share, available to whoever wants them whenever they want them.  The hallway smells amazing.

Here's what to do:

A)  Mix up your cookie dough the night before the day you want to eat them.  Limitation: if you want them to be easy, they need to be of the variety that you make from dough balls and don't require extra toppings (i.e. frosting, hershey kisses, filling, etc.).

B)  Scoop your cookie dough on to cookie sheets.  It's easier to clean up if you cover the cookie sheets with wax paper beforehand, because then you don't even have to wash the cookie sheets.

C)  Freeze your cookie dough balls overnight, and place them all in ziplock bags in the morning.  Bring them to wherever you plan to eat them (as long as the place has a freezer).  Obviously, you can leave them at home if you feel so inclined...

D)  When you feel like eating cookies, preheat your oven/toaster oven to whatever temperature the cookies bake at.  Bake them for 5 - 10 minutes longer than the recipe calls for to account for the fact that they're frozen.

E)  Let them cool awhile and then eat them.  Make everyone jealous of the fact that you're eating fresh cookies, and if they ask where you got them, tell them they can make some too!

F)  Achieve fame for out of the box thinking and tasty baked goods.

Cookie recommendations:

Toll House chocolate chip
Chocolate mint chip
Chocolate chocolate chip
White chocolate chip macadamia nut
Oatmeal chocolate chip
Oatmeal raisin
Peanut butter
Snickerdoodles
"Chunky Chocolate Gobs"
Any of the Betty Crocker mix cookies
Funfetti cake mix cookies
...pretty much anything else you can think of that goes on a cookie sheet in a ball...

Next office dessert project?  Microwave cake.