So I have a bit of a sweet tooth. I start craving my grandma's pecan pie about three months before Thanksgiving. I think brownies are a perfectly acceptable breakfast food. I have justified going to one of those self-serve frozen yogurt places for
dinner because it's
yogurt, you guys, and yogurt is HEALTHY (even when it's covered in hot fudge). So curling up on the couch with a warm from the oven chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk??... is pretty much my idea of perfection. Chocolate chip cookies are my
favorite, and have been since I was very little; every time we walked by Mrs. Field's at the mall, I would beggggg my mom for a chocolate chip cookie. And I spent countless afternoons baking with my grandma--without fail, we
always made chocolate chip cookies, and I
always got scolded by my grandma for eating too much of the dough. Ha :)
Given this history and my 27 year love affair with the chocolate chip cookie, I know myself well enough to know that a dozen or so of them laying around my house will last about a day and a half under my watch. Even
I, frozen-yogurt-for-dinner-girl, can't justify that too often. Enter these things: Frozen Balls. What the hell is a frozen ball you ask? Individual frozen cookie dough balls. In particular, chocolate chip cookie dough balls. A couple of years ago, I had some friends that had just had babies--when I was getting ready to go over to meet the new little ones, I wanted to bring them food, but figured they were up to eyeballs in frozen lasagna, crockpot meals, etc. I think I read about the idea of freezing individual cookie dough balls somewhere and figured that would be an easy treat that new parents could enjoy whenever they felt like it. So I gave it a try, and (for test-purposes sake ;)), saved a couple of the balls of dough for myself. The cookie dough balls were a huge hit with my friends and in my "testing", I discovered I loved the concept too. Since then, I've been hooked.
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| MMMM Dough. I may have eaten one of these just like this. |
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| Frozen Balls. |
So about once a month, I make a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough. After I chill the dough in the fridge, I roll it into individual balls as if I were going to make cookies right then, but instead, I put the cookie sheet in the freezer until they're good and frozen, and then toss them in a gallon freezer bag and stash them back in the freezer. Whenever I want a warm chocolate chip cookie, I take out 1-2 balls and bake them up. (I
try to limit myself to one at a time, but the concept of self-control is a work in progress around these parts) 15 minutes later, I am rewarded with a warm and fresh chocolate chip cookie AND there aren't 10 more of these bad boys laying around the house tempting me to eat them. Win.
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| The finished product. And my view from the couch. These babies were gone in about 30 seconds. |
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My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe is Alton Brown's
The Chewy. If you don't feel like busting out a kitchen scale to make cookies, go
here for a converted version of the recipe. I also really really love
this recipe. It's a little more work to make than your basic chocolate chip cookie, but how can you go wrong with warm Nutella in the middle of a cookie?
