I want to bake a variety of cookies and baked goods for christmas this year. Do I need to bake them all the few days before I give them or can I space it out over a longer period of time? Will they go bad if I make them too far in advance? I'm not much of a baker so it will probably take me longer to do each thing so I would prefer to not try and cram it all into a couple of days. If I can make them ahead, how do I store them? Do I need to freeze them or put them in the fridge? Does anyone have guidelines they wouldn't mind sharing on how long different baked goods will stay fresh?
Thanks so much for your help!
I just planned the schedule out today actually ....
I picked out the cookies I wanted to make, then listed them in order of best "freezers" to worst "freezers", or ones that should be in the fridge. Some I know from past experience, some I just guess on. I've frozen my christmas cookies for the past few years and it's worked out great on almost every cookie.
So I bake or assemble the cookies. Let them cool or set. Stack gently in large freezer bags, don't pack too tight. Zip almost all the way and suck the air out of the last corner. Seal the bag. Pop in the freezer and make sure they're not being crunched or crammed by anything else. More fragile cookies I might put the bag on a flat surface in the freezer, either a plastic cutting board or a frozen lunch if there's one in there.
So I keep baking until they're done (sometimes takes several weekends for 10 types of cookies for 14 cookie trays). Keep freezing. I pack up the finished cookie trays usually a day before I need the first batch. Each type of cookie gets wrapped in those fold-over sandwich bags and tied with ribbon. Sometimes cello bags. Put the finished trays I need soonest in the fridge, others in the freezer if it's going to be more than 2 days. Pull them out of the fridge a few hours before they'll be given, because some people dive right in.
Good luck!
I think it depends on what type of cookies/treats you'll be baking. I break mine down so that I can get the bulk of it done by Saturday. This schedule makes it still fun for me and not so tiring and I can still get everyone out the door and to friends while everything is still fresh. For example, here's my schedule:
Thursday evening: assemble my slice cookies & defrost bananas
Friday night: cook slice cookies, prepare/cook banana bread & prepare/cook linzer bars
Saturday morning: bake 2 more batches of cookies (forgot which ones)
I dont have a lot of freezer or cabinet space to store for several weeks, so this works really well for me. Good luck and have fun baking!
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