Please help me freeze some homemade baked goods!

492 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by cristeen, Jun 25, 2007

icxcnika

Discussion Starter · Jun 21, 2007

Hi mamas,
I need some tips on freezing my homemade baked goods, either already-baked or pre-baked. I sort of know how to freeze cookie, biscuit, and scone dough pre-mixed and cut into shapes, and increase the baking time to compensate for them being frozen. But what about things like muffins and banana breads that are already baked? Do they freeze well? Do you use Ziplock bags to freeze them in,

or some other container? How long can they be frozen, and how do you go about defrosting them? Do they still taste good, or are they kinda dry and crumbly when defrosted? Does it matter if batter breads are unsliced or sliced? (I know that I often buy extra loaves of (sliced) sandwich bread from the store and stick them in the freezer, then transfer them to the fridge as I need them and they seem to thaw fine, whether toasted or not. Can I do the same thing with my own batter breads?

[ETA: Also, can I freeze already-baked cookies??]
Thank you so much!

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CrunchyParent

· #2 · Jun 21, 2007

I freeze quickbreads (and yeast breads for that matter) all the time. Muffins I toss in plastic zipper baggies. Loaves I wrap in plastic wrap and then in foil and then I put in a freezer bag. The advantage to pre-slicing is that you can grab just a slice or 2 to defrost or toast or whatever without having to take out the whole loaf at once.

Sometimes the texture changes a bit and getscrumbly, but I also use whole grain flours and make other changes, so that may contribute to some of the texture issues. You can freeze for a long time. I've frozen loaves in the deep freezer for at least a year without a problem but YMMV.

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cristeen

· #3 · Jun 21, 2007

I always freeze loaves whole. They're less likely to be seriously affected by freezer-burn that way. But you're mostly restricted to using the whole thing at once.

Muffins and breads usually do fine. They might be a bit more dry after freezing, or they might be a bite more wet. It all depends on how they were wrapped and the ingredients used. I believe conventional wisdom says to freeze for 6 months. Beyond that you're sacrificing a bit of texture and risking freezer-burn, but it doesn't actually go "bad".

As for freezing cookies, I'd imagine you could, but why would you want to? Freezing the dough ready-to-bake is easier and tastes better.

And I'm with the pp on wrapping. Plastic, foil, bag. Don't put foil against the food, or it'll take on a metallic flavor. Cover all surfaces with plastic to prevent the flavoring, then the foil helps prevent formation of ice-crystals (freezer-burn), and the bag gives you one more layer of protection from the loose odors/flavors in the freezer, as it is usually air-tight.

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icxcnika

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jun 25, 2007

Thank you, mamas!

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nina_yyc

· #5 · Jun 25, 2007

Sorry to hijack here, but how DO you freeze cookie dough and compensate for frozen while baking? Can you PM me? I'm trying to up the convenience factor of baking from scratch.

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cristeen

· #6 · Jun 25, 2007

You can either freeze it in logs (like the store-bought) and do a slice-and-bake, or you can preform your "balls" (for drop cookie) and freeze those then drop them all into a ziploc.

To compensate for frozen, usually I start by adding 1 minute to baking time and then checking for doneness. It really depends on the recipe, and the size of your cookies.

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