Make Now, Bake Later

Someone Special, who prefers to be called "Sexy, Hot Hunk of Manhood" from now on, has a friend who writes on his blog that you should always keep slice and bake cookies in the fridge. You know, for serious cookie emergencies.

I agree completely.

The problem, though, is that I don't trust packaged cookie dough because they are, by necessity for shelf life, packed with preservatives. One of my little goals is to find whole food ways to enjoy typical convenience foods, but cookies are a bit tricky. How can you enjoy homemade cookies without having to lug out the mixer or bribe a grandma every time you want some? The proverbial light bulb went off above my head when I recalled a memory from my childhood:

When we were little, my dad coached my brothers' little league baseball team, and my mom was expected to have homemade chocolate chip cookies ready for after practice.  She would mix up tons of chocolate chip cookie dough ahead of time, freeze spoonfuls of dough on cookie sheets, then transfer said dough to a baggie and store in the freezer. She could pull a few out whenever the boys on the team were over.

Genius.

As our emergency cookie stash was running low, the girls and I whipped out our aprons and got right to work.

Everyone knows homemade cookies taste better when children stick their fingers in the dough.

Make the spoonfuls roughly the same size so that your cookies will bake evenly

I just place the cookie sheets in the freezer for an hour or so. 

Ready for the freezer, to be baked another day

So, with just a little bit of extra up-front effort, it is possible to have the convenience of slice and bake cookies with none of the additives. And to kill two birds with one stone, you can make the actual dough-mixing your math lesson for the day. Older kids can be challenged with a lesson on, say, fractions, while toddlers can develop motor skills by mixing, pouring, and stirring. Preschoolers can count out chocolate chips, kindergarteners can arrange the dough in groups of fives or twos to build the foundations of multiplication later on. And they're all learning to be helpful. It's a win-win-win-win-win situation.

That's the best kind.