As someone who prefers the flexibility of cooking to the rigidity of baking, I’m not exactly Betty Crocker. However, as a food editor, I’ve collected plenty of tips from the experts over the years that make the latter a bit easier—including Ina Garten. The Barefoot Contessa has taught her fans everything from how to ice a cake without getting crumbs in the frosting to adding coffee or espresso to chocolate desserts for a more intense flavor. But above all, I was curious about her insistence on freezing cookie dough before baking for an impeccable texture and more even cooking. Does this slightly time-consuming step really make a difference? I baked one of her easiest cookie recipes to find out.
I, a Food Editor (and Amateur Baker), Tested a Popular Ina Garten Cookie Hack to See If It Actually Works
PSA: Anyone can bake these
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Updated Oct 15, 2024
Taryn Pire/Manny Carabel/Getty Images
The Recipe
I went with her beginner-level giant crinkled chocolate chip cookies from her 2020 cookbook, Modern Comfort Food. The ingredients are mostly pantry staples that you likely already have on hand. You cream the butter and sugar in a mixer, add the wet ingredients, then slowly add the dry ingredients until the dough is combined. Then, using an ice cream scoop or measuring cup, you scoop the dough into balls and freeze them on sheet pans for 15 minutes before placing them in the oven. While the cookies bake, you remove the pans every few minutes to bang them on the counter, which gives the cookies their deflated, flat, crinkly appearance.
Taryn Pire
Making the Cookie Dough
I’m not a baker by any means, so I followed the recipe as closely as possible (my one exception: subbing a large egg for Garten’s go-to extra-large egg). It was easy to follow. Ideally, you’d have four baking sheets (three for baking, one for freezing; the way I read the recipe, you don’t bake them on a cold tray) and three racks in your oven to pull it off. I had two trays and two racks, so don’t let that stop you. (It’s giving, “If you can’t summon the flames directly from hell, store-bought is fine.”)
I also have one hot tip: Spring for an ice cream scoop. I didn’t have one, so I used a ⅓ measuring cup instead, per Garten’s instructions. Most of my cookies were oversized. (I’ll take at least 50 percent of the blame…the rest is on the cup, OK?) That kind of made it tough to compare spreading between frozen and room temperature dough, since they weren’t uniformly sized to start with. I guess you could weigh them after scooping if you’re feeling ambitious, but an ice cream scoop would have been a more foolproof tool.
Taryn Pire
The Test
I made four cookies with frozen dough, four with room temperature and two with refrigerated. (I should have had enough dough for four, according to the recipe, but my dough balls were too big.) I baked them for ten minutes, took the trays out and banged them on the counter to deflate, then repeated this in 3-minute intervals until the cookies’ edges were golden brown. It took one extra interval than the recipe indicated to fully bake them (again, giant cookies). Then, I let them cool completely (on the sheet pans, atop cooling racks) before tasting them.
Taryn Pire
The Final Verdict
Here’s a breakdown on how the cookies turned out:
- Texture: The room temperature cookie is super chewy and soft, despite its thinness. The frozen cookie offers more crispness at the edges and on the bottom due to its superior browning. But there’s not a massive difference, TBH.
- Taste: The frozen cookies taste slightly more caramel-y and brown sugar-y, and somehow a touch saltier than the room temperature ones. Honestly though, both versions are delicious.
- Appearance: The frozen cookies look more evenly baked, while the room temperature ones are lumpier and more ruffled at the edges. As for the bottoms, the frozen cookies are more evenly browned and caramelized, while the room temperature ones are greasier and have more visible holes.
According to Better Homes & Gardens, freezing cookie dough solidifies the fat, which prevents excessive spreading and ensures a soft, tender texture. (Chilling cookie dough in the fridge has the same effect, but the freezer gets the job done faster.) Taste asserts that chilling dough before baking can also improve browning, and that it helps the flour in the dough hydrate, resulting in a chewy—not cakey—final product. King Arthur Baking approves of the rule too, advising that bakers preheat the oven right after placing the cookie dough in the fridge or freezer. The brand also asserts that chilling cookie dough results in better caramelization and more profound flavor.
Because my test had its flaws, these photos aren’t the greatest proof of the spreading claim. But I will say that the frozen cookies were slightly to remarkably better in three essential categories compared to the room temperature ones. The fridge cookies also cooked very evenly and browned beautifully, but it’s worth noting that they started as slightly smaller dough balls. That said, I think they’re the least attractive of the three; the chocolate kind of gets lost in the tops of the cookies…but maybe that’s because it was the last of my cookie dough and it was less chunks and more flakes or bits of chocolate.
Where it really matters, though—taste and texture—I have to give it to the freezer cookies. But, if you don’t have the patience to wait, baking right away is (dare I say it?) fine.
