Okay so im not much of a cookie person im more into baking cakes BUT I was asked by someone I know to make 3 dozen cookies for this weekend. These are my questions

How far ahead can I bake them? Today and then maybe ice weds and Thursday??

Will they go stale if I leave them out?

Also how long for the icing to completely dry so I can place them in bags?

Thanks for any help you can give me!!

For Saturday, I would bake on Wenesday, decorate on Thrusday, bag on Friday. If I knew about the order in advance, I would bake on the Saturday before and freeze the "naked" cookies. Defrost on Wednesday, then start decorating Wednesday night. I like the freshness of the sugar cookies until about the 5th day. They're still okay, but I can start to notice a drop in how they taste once you get beyond 5 days. Properly bagged or sealed, you can add a couple days to that.

How quickly you can bag or stack will depend on the icing that you use. I use a glace that sets up pretty firm overnight, but it still stays soft underneath. Good luck!

I am currently working on a big wedding shower order that is due Friday also.

Here's what I'm doing.

I always have some dough in the freezer, so I took it out last week, rolled my cookies, put them back in the freezer on sheets ready for baking and baked them the next day.

Then I also froze them"naked".

I took them out yesterday and last night flooded 75 of them. I use a fan to dry them and it took about 5 hours for them to dry completely. They are covered with foil now waiting for me to do details.
Later today, I will be stenciling them with details and such. Again back on racks to dry with the fan. They will dry very quickly, and I will probably bag them early tonight. I use cello bags and my Foodsaver.

I wish this was it, but it's not. I have cookies to bake for a bouquet in the freezer that I will bake while the stenciling is drying. Then I will hopefully get the sticks in them(I do it while they are hot) let them cool, and hopefully get the base coat on these and add the details, and hopefully finish late Thursday night or early Friday.

Pick up will be Friday night around 9pm. Whew!

It's a good thing I have a very helpful DH cause I watch my 2year old grandson MTW. I am counting on his help, especially today so I can finish the big batch!

Oh and if you made it this far, I use NFSC recipe, with Antonia's Icing for all my cookies that I am doing for this order.

Thank you Cc's cookie bakers I know I could rely on you guys to help me out when in a jam.

Cookies here I come!!!!