I'm so perplexed. I've always been afraid of the freezer. It seems to me that fresh is always best, but I want to make a ton of cookies this Christmas and with a baby at home, marathon baking is not likely to happen. Does a frozen cookie taste the same and still have the same softness that a fresh baked cookie will have? Can I freeze cookies that have granulated sugar or powdered sugar on them?

Any thoughts, opinions, or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks1

In my opinion.........No they do not taste the same. Again, my opinion, I would never freeze a cookie that has powdered sugar on it. Granulated sugar, maybe, but not powdered.

Not knowing what kind of cookies you are planning to make I don't know if it will work for you or not. I make my cookies in steps. I found this to be very helpful when I was a single Mom, working full time with 2 teenagers that had schedules to keep too. Sort thru your recipes and figure out how much of certain ingredients you need, i.e. nuts, coconut, chocolate chips. Get these items ready to go making sure you have EVERYTHING you need for every recipe. I only chop nuts once during my Christmas baking. Chop coarse, medium and fine, bag it and label it with amount per bag.

Every night after work I would mix up a couple of batches of cookie dough. Most doughs will keep very well in the fridge or freezer (ziploc bags with all the air removed) so by the end of the week I had all the different kinds made. Your mess is much more limited if you are either mixing or baking versus doing both at the same time.

If you are doing cut out cookies - roll them all out and cut them all at once, get them lined up and ready to go on parchment paper. It's easier to bake them one sheet after another while cleaning up the mess than to try and cut out more and have to stop and swap them in/out of the oven. Once they are all baked, bag 'em up in gallon size ziploc bags, suck the air out and seal 'em up. Decorate another day.

If you have cookies that have to be rolled into balls before baking, pull them out of the fridge/freezer and roll them all at once. Put them back in the fridge until the next night if you have to.

I'm not saying that previously frozen cookies taste the same as fresh baked.

I'm just saying the opposite of fresh is stale.
The opposite of frozen is boiled or heated.
Frozen and fresh are not opposing qualities.

I just say that so you can maybe wrap your head around a great concept and a worthy tool in the pastry chef's, cake decorator's toolbox.

I always freeze cookies! I think they are still just as good. Not sure about powdered sugar but I have done granulated. Never froze a decorated cookie either, but I will cut them out, bake, freeze until ready to flood or decorate.

I have frozen doughs and baked cookies. I prefer freezing the dough, but both methods are good...and much better than store-bought cookies.