How Long Does Cookie Dough Stay In The Fridge
Once opened, the cookie dough will last 1-2 weeks if properly wrapped in plastic and stored in the refrigerator. You can also freeze your cookie dough for up to three months. Frozen cookie dough can last up to a year. It is important to store the dough in an airtight container.
If you keep a new, regular freezer cookie dough in the refrigerator, you can generally expect that this cookie dough will keep for around 1-2 weeks beyond its Best By Date. As a rule of thumb, any cookie dough left on the counter at room temperature will be fine for 2-4 hours, but after that, you can run the risk of it going bad, particularly if it is past the best by date. Another technique that some bakers use is to keep cookie dough in the refrigerator as long as individual ingredient expiration dates are good for (i.e., if eggs are 4 days past their best before date while cookie dough is in the refrigerator, your cookie dough should not be used). Keeping your cookie dough in the refrigerator also extends the shelf life of it, not quite as long as freezing it, but certainly longer than just leaving it on the counter.
Most cookie dough has a 12 month shelf life in the freezer, and it is likely to still be safe to eat even up to one to two months after it is best-by date. To be safe, eating expired cookie dough is probably not strongly recommended, however, you may be able to eat up to 1 or 2 months past the best by date as long as you make sure that you stored it correctly. Edible cookie dough will keep about 5 days after it is made in the refrigerator, and 1 -2 weeks past its best-by date in its packaging, if purchased at a store. You only get about three to five days of refrigerator life out of homemade cookie dough, but the dough can last 6-12 months if frozen.
Shortbread cookies only last a max of five days in the refrigerator, but the dough for a shortbread can be frozen beautifully. Drop cookies will last 3-5 days in the refrigerator, and are also the ideal candidate cookies to freeze. Homemade cookie dough only stays fresh for 3-5 days in the refrigerator, and it can stay in the freezer for anywhere from as little as 2 months to up to 12 months depending on how perishable your ingredients are.
For instance, a homemade dough that is made from scratch will last for 2-4 days if kept in the refrigerator. For instance, if you leave a cookie dough at room temperature for four hours, whereas you have freshly made dough for cookies which goes straight to the refrigerator once made, the latter will be able to stay fresh for much longer, simply because it has had better preservation conditions which did not expose it to surrounding bacteria from its surroundings. As a general rule, any cookie dough left on the counter at room temperature is likely going to be fine for 2-4 hours, and after that, it may risk going bad, especially if it is past the best-by date.
It is always best to use your dough within one to two days, as going past this time would cause your dough to lose quality. After kneading the dough, you should leave it in the refrigerator to rest at least 30 minutes up to 24 hours. For best results, and for the dough to come out nearly the same after making the dough, try using it out of the refrigerator within 2-3 days.
If you need to keep this dough even longer, you will be well served knowing it will keep up to 3 weeks in the freezer. I mean, there is certainly the possibility of the dough getting a bit mouldy or going bad — but if you keep it properly, you will be enjoying some tasty cookies for months.
If you are wondering whether refrigeration is going to spoil your dough – no, it is going to make it more flavorful, plus it gives it better consistency. If you have got a batch of dough ready in the fridge, it is a lot easier to scoop out while it is cold compared to room temperature.
The ingredients used in making the dough have no preservatives in them, or they have gone through no process of preserving them, and are fairly fresh. It is fairly easy to work with, and you can find it at almost any supermarket, or a any grocery store, with the dough itself usually coming pre-portioned.
Eggs bind together the ingredients in the dough, and they are an excellent binding agent, but they are very perishable. Since eggs play a crucial role in baking cookies, people tend to use large quantities of eggs more often than not. Raw eggs, along with the sugar, butter, and other ingredients, may turn sour over time, making both the dough and the resulting cookies unhealthy for you.
A couple cookie recipes do not contain eggs, so depending on what else is in the recipe, this may be safe if left out on the counter, but it is still recommended that you stay safe and keep them refrigerated. In many cookie recipes, you should refrigerate dough for an extended time, but shaky dough, or a bit too much extra chilling time, could lead to a rock-hard dough and an almost impossible to work with. Some recipes, such as sugar cookies and lingzer cookies, always require the dough to be refrigerated, whereas others, like chocolate chip cookies, usually do not.
It is best to refrigerate dough, rather than cookies, because the effects of that will be felt in the end flavor and look of your cookies. If you are planning to bake cookies later, you should store the dough in a small, sealed container in the fridge or freezer. You can consider freeing up leftover dough immediately, rather than letting it sit in the fridge.
Waiting 30 extra minutes to chill your dough might not sound like a great deal when you are in a pinch for cookies, but two baking experts said that this is an absolutely worthwhile step to add to your baking routine. Of course, a lot of cookie recipes really call for chilling the dough overnight or 24 hours, so if so, you might want to start counting days from the 24-hour mark of the day you put it in the first place. This type of cookie dough has an added ingredient in the form of chocolate chips, which still needs to stay fresh up to 5 days for homemade chocolate chip dough, and up to 2 weeks after the expiration date of a store-bought chocolate chip cookie dough.
Is it Okay to eat expired cookie dough?
To be on the safe side, it is definitely better to avoid eating old cookie dough. However, if you make sure to store it correctly, you can use it up to one or two months beyond its best-by date, but if you freeze it, the dough can last anywhere from 6 to 12 months.
How can you tell if cookie dough is bad?
Looking at your cookie dough is the easiest method to determine if it has gone bad. You can safely toss the dough and start working on another batch if any mold has developed. The edges will also begin to darken and change color as they deteriorate; they may also become rigid rather than doughy.
How do you store cookie dough to bake later?
For a full hour, put the cookie dough balls in the fridge. Depending on how much dough you have, place the solid, cold cookie dough balls into a large or small, labeled, zipped-top bag. The month and baking temperature should be written on the bag, which should then be put in the freezer. During the first three months, freeze cookie dough.