cookie-dough cookie

My approach to eating can be summed up in one word: balance. No one food will make you fat, and no one food will make you thin. So a long time ago I stopped asking, “Is this a good food?” You create a terrible relationship with food when you think you have to completely avoid what you love. This instills a mindset of restriction, which leads to frustration, which leads to a lack of consistency, which leads to… well, you know the drill: You end up giving nutrition the middle finger, go to town on everything in your pantry, and feel even worse about yourself.

A more effective approach is one that allows you to satisfy your cravings in controlled portions. So in summary, once and a while when I’m craving something sweet, I let myself have a cookie or a scoop of ice cream. One of my favorite treats are these cookie-dough cookies.

What, might you ask, is a cookie-dough cookie? It’s a confection made in a very hot oven so that it looks like a perfectly baked cookie on the outside, but on the inside, you have a gooey, unbaked cookie dough center. My. Dream. Come. True.

The great thing about this recipe is that you make a batch of cookie dough, freeze it, and then when you get a sugar craving, you can put one cookie into the oven. The cookie dough will last up to three months in the freezer.

You can use this technique with different cookie dough recipes, but I love it best when made with my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup Crisco
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Combine and stir dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
2. Mix wet ingredients (Crisco, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract) until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time and mix well.
3. Gradually mix in flour mixture then stir in chocolate chips.
4. Pinch tablespoon sized balls onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet that fits in your freezer. They don’t need to be spaced too far apart since you will not be baking them now.
5. Stick the filled pan into the freezer and keep them in there until they are hard, about one hour. This will prevent the balls from sticking together in the freezer.
6. Take all of the cookie dough balls out of the pan and place them into a labeled zip top bag (i.e. recipe name and date).
7. After filling, lay the bag flat (flat takes up less space). Remove as much air as possible and leave in your freezer for up to three months.
8. When you’re ready to eat a cookie, heat the oven to 500°F.
9. Put the frozen cookie dough round on a greased baking sheet and bake just until the cookie begins to spread and the thinnest of golden brown skins forms on the surface, but before the bottom of the cookie begins to burn, about 4 to 5 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven and immediately refrigerate until cool and set, about 15 minutes.