How to Bake Better (Lazier?) - Save Time and Calories with this Baking Tip

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I've said it before: I'm a lazy baker. But sometimes lazy is good because it saves time and maybe even some calories.

Whenever I make cookies or scones (which is probably more often than it should be), I only bake a few since it's just the 3 of us. Then I scoop all the rest of the dough onto a small cookie sheet and freeze the whole tray of pre-scooped dough.

You can have fresh-baked cookies whenever you want! I think it saves me calories since I am less likely to eat a bunch of cookies "before they go bad." Ha!

(I've also done this for my Sweets when he was going to be home alone for awhile and he wanted to have fresh-baked cookies without having to do most of the work. He asked me so nicely that I couldn't refuse.)

Here's what you need to know:

You can squeeze in a ton of scoops on one baking sheet, just place the scoops right next to each other. Cover the sheet with some plastic wrap and pop it in your freezer overnight. Then the next morning, take them off the cookie sheet and put them into a big freezer-quality zip-top bag.

The frozen dough balls usually come off easiest when you twist them. I've never greased the cookie sheet (remember, I'm a lazy baker) but that might work, too.

Write the cooking temperature and time on the outside of the bag so you don't have to take the recipe out each time you want to bake a few cookies. Make sure you write down if the cookie sheet needs to be greased before baking. You may also want to write the date you made the dough in case they get buried in the freezer somewhere.

When you're ready to bake the cookies, put the frozen dough onto a cookie sheet and let it come to room temperature (usually 20-30 minutes). If you can't wait that long, just add a few minutes to the baking time and they should turn out great that way, too. You might want to press the centers down a bit to help them bake more evenly.

What do you think? What's your best lazy-baker tip?