In this episode of The Bread Winner Podcast, we’re diving into one of the best time-saving hacks for busy bakers—freezing your dough! After crowdsourcing ideas from my amazing Instagram community, I’m sharing a treasure trove of baked goods that freeze beautifully and can be baked straight from frozen. From cookies to scones, cinnamon rolls, and even bagels, I’ve gathered all your best tips for prepping ahead and making your baking days easier. Plus, I’ll share some of my own experiments that have worked wonders in my bakery.

If you’re looking to save time during the holiday rush or just want to streamline your microbakery’s workflow, you won’t want to miss this episode. Whether you’re prepping for a busy market or just want to bake smarter, this episode is packed with practical, actionable tips that will help you make the most of your time. Grab your notepad—these ideas will definitely inspire you to get freezing and baking!

Links to things we talked about:

Book a 1:1 Call with Caroline: https://calendar.app.google/DMTtsD62F56K247s7

Download the FREE Guide and Checklist, Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery at https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist to begin building YOUR thriving microbakery! 

Caroline Bower Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolinebower_sourdough

Mentioned in this episode:

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Episode 28

Welcome to The Bread Winner Podcast! This is the show for sourdough micro bakery owners who are building a sustainable, successful, profitable business from their home. If you are already in business or if you're dreaming of starting one, this is the place for you. I'm your host, Caroline Bower. I own a successful in home sourdough bakery, and I am here to share everything I've learned that works and that doesn't, plus everything that I'm researching along the way so we can build thriving businesses together.

Hello, and welcome to today's episode of The Bread Winner Podcast. This is where we dive into all things sourdough, micro bakery business.

I am really excited about today's episode.

The heart of today's episode is all about saving time by preparing ahead of time. So one of my Instagram followers actually gave me this idea. She asked for an episode about things that we can freeze ahead of time. I thought that was a brilliant idea, but I knew that there had to be a lot more ideas out there.

Then I personally have tried. So I crowdsourced this one. I asked on Instagram. What are the things that you freeze ahead of time and bake from frozen? And y'all showed up. I got so many great responses, so I'm going to be sharing them all here. And I am excited to put some of these to use myself.

I specifically want to give myself a boost on Thanksgiving and Christmas pre-orders so I'll be doing things. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. I won't give away all of the ideas that are coming just around the corner. In this episode.

Personally, investing in a coach has been the number one biggest driver of growth for my business. Honestly, I probably would never have watched this podcast if I had not invested in a coach. And here we are. Almost 30 episodes in and the financial and the time investment in [00:04:00] coaching has kept me moving forward in a way that I have never done before in my life. I am a huge believer in coaching. And if you feel like you need some accountability or someone to just kind of light a fire under you, or you need to put a financial investment behind your goals to give you some skin in the game. I am here for that. So you'll find that link to book a call with me down in the show notes. And without further ado, let's talk about freezing things.

So the top two things that were suggested over and over were cookies and scones. I lost count of how many of you suggested freezing cookie dough and for such good reasons, cookies are just so easy to prep ahead of time and freeze so that you are ready to bake them from frozen whenever you need them.

Next up @humbleprovisionsbakery and @evengrow_sourdough also swear by freezing cookie dough, balls and baking them straight from frozen. If you haven't already tried this, take this as your sign to freeze your cookie dough. I often mix up a batch of 10 times my regular batch, like 200 cookies. And have the freezer stock for a couple of weeks. So I don't have to worry about mixing them up during the [00:06:00] week of market, or pickup.

@laura.dawn.cartmell said she's been putting her sourdough chocolate chip cookie dough. Into large sheep, hands in the freezer. And then when she's ready to bake, she just cuts the squares rounds at the edges and bigs. That is a great idea. I have tried that and I've found that if I line the sheet pan with parchment paper, That makes it easier to pull out the squares of cut dough rather than just pressing them into the sheet pan.

@sarah.miller.TX recommended freezing bagels and cookies With her bagels, she said she boils her bagels. And then freezes them after boiling for later baking. And of course scones are superstar.

@onepillarfarm and @humbleprovisionsbakery, both highlighted that scones freeze perfectly. They said they cut them, freeze them and bake them straight from frozen when you're ready. I do the same thing. I pull out the triangles. I brushed them with an egg glaze and add whatever usually I'll sprinkle with turbinado sugar lemon desk, depending on my flavor. And they bake up beautifully. Having them frozen rather than refrigerated helps them maintain their structure too.

@trackwithme_ said, scones. And @motherlovecompany, @ohsourdoughbakery, @kenmontbreadandblooms, @giasbatch, and @enjoysourdoughco all said cookies and scones. Those are the winners for sure. If you're not doing those. Definitely give them a try. They're so easy to stock your freezer.

@heritagehearthbakery shared cookies, of course, and dinner rolls. For her dinner rolls. She does it after the first rise and then thought in the fridge and give them a second rise on the counter before baking. This is a great idea. This is the method that I will be trying. I'm gonna tested out just to make sure. And then I will do it for thanksgiving and possibly Christmas for sure.

I've heard a couple other people suggest it. So I would suggest that you experiment on it with just one loaf before you freeze a whole batch.

Next up,. I loved these ideas from @desertmamasourdough. She freezes a lot of things. She said her scone dough, her pizza dough. But also she freezes shredded cheese. Jalapenos, bananas., And precut fruit and veggies like blueberries and even lemon zest. I think this is brilliant to freeze your inclusions too.

next up @this.little.farms.kitchen has an awesome tip for freezing brownies. I'm excited to try this one. She said, I under bake them a tad and freeze. And then on market days, I reheat them and finish baking and the customer gets warm. Brownie bites this is so creative and such a good idea. Such a great way to keep that fresh from the oven feel without having to bake from scratch on your busy days. @maddiegreen said she freezes her scones and cookies, of course, but she also freezes her pie crust, her apple turnovers, her buttercream, her cake layers and unbaked choux dough that has already been piped for cream puffs and eclairs these are all great ideas.

@sourdoughandmoreofficial said she freezes her biscuits. She prepares the dough and cuts it or drops the biscuits onto the baking sheet, then freezes, transfers into Ziplocs, and bakes from there.

@hoppyloaf said she freezes her cookie dough. But she also has some really creative ideas that I'm excited to try out. She said she bakes her brownies as well as her banana bread.

And freezes the individual slices and packages them like normal individual servings. And then she lays them out the day before the market to come to room temperature and adds the labels once they're thawed.

@hoppyloaf also said Her cinnamon rolls freeze really well as long as she's rolled them and let them rise in the pan prior to freezing. So she freezes after her second rise. And didn't prefer her results when she froze them Before the second rise.

Two options that are not freezer, but also great things that can be prepared ahead of time. Come from @honestsourdoughco Who recommends prepping pancake mix and dehydrated sourdough starter. As well as her savory olive oil dip. I love those ideas. And @thebreadladyco said she does her granola.

She prepares it ahead at the beginning of the week and then stores it in airtight container or in its actual packaging. And it keeps really nicely for the week.

All right. I was so thrilled by how many of you shared your freezer tips with me! I hope this episode is super helpful for so many of us.

I definitely always do my cookies and scones. I roll my cookie dough balls. Let them ferment in the fridge overnight anywhere from 24 to 36 hours. And then I pop them in the freezer once they're fully frozen. I stick them in a bag and they are good to go in there and totally ready to bake.

And then I bake straight from frozen. I don't let them warm up at all and they come up beautifully. Scones I also do straight from frozen, so I press my scones, a big batch into a sheet pan. Lined with parchment paper. Cut it with the bench scraper into portions. Fridge it for an overnight ferment and then freeze it.

And then once it's frozen. I break it up into sections of eight. And transferring to a Ziploc bag, and I bake those straight from frozen.

So they get nice and fluffy, and then I bake them as normal from there. They come out really nicely. They don't come out quite as fluffy as if they hadn't been frozen. But surprisingly, the crumb was so much better with the freezing method, the nooks and crannies were insane. I was so thrilled and excited with the way they came out.

But I am so excited about being able to prep muffins ahead of time so that I can just bake for markets and not have to worry about scooping the batter on the day of.

If you try any of these tips, let me know how they work for you. Take a screenshot of this episode, tag me, @carolinebower_sourdough and let me know how your freezing experiment worked. And as always, if you have not followed the show yet, make sure that you followed that you never miss an episode. They drop every Monday and Thursday. And I am always here with practical, tangible micro bakery business tips. I'll be back very soon with another episode. And until then happy baking.