Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, or any other holiday at this time of year, it is generally a time when people gather on the weekends, are invited to a multitude of holiday parties and others just stop by for a coffee and a cookie.

If you’re like most people, you will think about where that cookie will come from about 4 seconds before your friends show up at the door.

Sure, Chips Ahoy are fine, but will they be memorable?  Wouldn’t a freshly baked cookie be that much better?  I know, I know…I hear you already…”but, who has time to make freshly baked cookies?”.

Well, now you will have time with these cookie tips:

#1.  Make a double batch of your favourite cookie dough – and there’s no need to get fancy…most people love a plain ol’ warm chocolate chip cookie – and bake off a few (if you don’t have a favourite recipe, try my Ultimate Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Skor Cookie).  With the rest of the dough, scoop spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and freeze.

When they are frozen, just pop them in a large Ziploc bag so you can pull out only the amount you need!  Whenever your friends call, tell them to come on over, pop a few of these in the oven and they’ll be ready in a heartbeat (note:  this is also a way to save calories because you only bake what you need and you won’t be tempted to eat a cookie every time you walk by your cookie jar…speaking from experience!!)

#2.  Take your dough and roll it in long sheets of parchment…tie with twist ties and label it with permanent marker.

When you want a dozen, just take out the log, leave on the counter for about 10 minutes, then slice and bake (the only downfall with this is that you can’t just bake a couple…but a log makes about 1 1/2 dozen which is a good amount for you and a few friends!).

#3.  Kinda the same as #2 but, while you’re at “parchment rolling”, why don’t you tie the ends of a couple of logs with some cute bakery twine, and attach a really nice label so you can grab a few logs as a hostess gift for one of your visits?  Just remember to add the recipe so if they really like them, they can make a batch themselves.

#4.  If you would rather just do all the baking instead of freezing the dough, then this is a great idea for baking cookies ahead of time?

Want a hint?  It has something  to do with this:

The curiosity is killing you, right??  🙂