Moderation and Cookies: Tips and Tricks for Healthful Eating

Nothing says "I love you" like a batch of chocolate chip cookies, but a whole batch offers way too many servings for the average household. A typical batch of cookie dough produces about 32 cookies... that's a lot of cookies.At the same time, mixing cookie dough can take quite a bit of time and effort, especially if you don't have all the ingredients on hand. It can be more trouble than it's worth to scale down a recipe to make just 7 or 8 cookies, then mix minute portions of each ingredient.So, how can you solve the problem of excess versus extra effort? The answer is surprisingly simple! When you make a batch of cookie dough, just freeze 3/4 of what you have made. That way, you will have cookies wrapped and ready to bake for future cookie cravings, but you won't be staring down a huge pile of deliciousness all at once. Slice and bake is easy, too, when you want to bake a cookie for everyone for a family treat.Here's how we do it at Food and Health. First, make one batch of the cookie dough of your choice (we have a great recipe for chocolate chip cookies here), then split the dough into 4 equal portions. Roll 3 of the 4 portions into logs, then wrap them tightly in a few layers of plastic wrap and place each one in the freezer. Scoop and bake the rest of the dough for a great single batch of 7-8 cookies. Then, the next time you and your family would like cookies, grab one of the logs and slice it into 7 or 8 pieces. Each piece should be approximately 1/4 inch thick. Place those pieces on a cookie sheet and bake according to the recipe instructions. We've found that it takes about 3 extra minutes for a batch of frozen dough to bake through.With this technique, you can mix the dough once, yet serve cookies 4 different times!