Delicious and time-saving!

Slice and bake cookies are useful year-round, but I find them especially helpful for summer entertaining. Make the dough, refrigerate or freeze it and it will be ready whenever you need it. When ready to use, slice the cylindrical dough into as many cookie slices you need, and bake. The recipes can be versatile – just a few changes and additions can give you a completely different cookie. What could be easier? Please note that while these might be frozen before you use them, they are still homemade, and will taste much better than anything similar you might buy at the supermarket!

Find a base dough you like. Most of them are either similar to a sugar cookie dough, or chocolate chip cookie dough without the chips. Add the ingredients to give the cookie its identity.

A basic dough from the Smitten Kitchen:

2 sticks (8 ounces; 230 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (80 grams) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla or almond extract
2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour

See full recipe for additional instructions.

A base dough variation on the above:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (2 sticks)
• 2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
• Pinch of salt
• Add-ins as desired (see below for suggestions)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• See full recipe for additional instructions

A basic dough with brown sugar (like chocolate chip dough minus the chips):

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• See full recipe for additional instructions

Possible additions to your basic dough:

Chocolate Chips

Nuts

Nutella

Peanut Butter

M&Ms

Dried fruit

Citrus Zest

Sprinkles

Additional recipes:

Crispy Almond Cookies

Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

Oatmeal Macadamia Nut Cookies

Pioneer Woman Yummy Slice and Bake Cookies

Chocolate Chip slice and Bake Cookies

Slice and Bake Chocolate Almond Cookies

Gingersnap Slice ‘N’ Bakes

See our earlier article on Frozen Cookie Dough.