You can bake one or a dozen straight from frozen or after a quick thaw in the refrigerator overnight! Who doesn’t want warm, fresh-baked cookies within reach at all times? Here’s everything you need to know about how to freeze every kind of cookie, from classic chocolate chip to buttery shortbread and everything in-between.

The dough for just about every type of cookie can be frozen successfully, with a few exceptions. Delicate, thin cookies, such as florentine, lace, and tuile cookies are made with a liquid-y batter that doesn’t freeze well unbaked or baked. Aside from these, pretty much any cookie goes. The very best cookie doughs to freeze are those that are shaped into balls for drop cookies like chocolate chip, oatmeal, or peanut butter; cut-out cookies like sugar; and slice-and-bake cookies like shortbread or pinwheels.

Thick, dense, and chunky cookie dough for your favorite chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies is perhaps the very easiest dough to freeze. To bake: What’s great about frozen cookie dough balls is they can be baked directly from the freezer. While the oven preheats, take out as many cookies as you’d like to make and place them on a parchment paper- or Silpat-lined baking sheet a few inches apart, or as far apart as the recipe instructs. Transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake per the recipe, adding a few extra minutes onto the baking time to account for the balls being frozen, to ensure they’re cooked through. 3 favorite drop cookies to freeze:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Grandma’s Oatmeal Cookies White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Cookies like shortbread and icebox are made by forming the dough into logs and slicing it into rounds to bake. This type of cookie dough also freezes exceptionally well. To bake: Transfer the cookie dough logs to the refrigerator to thaw slowly overnight. The next day, unwrap the logs, slice them into rounds, and bake as directed. Since the dough will be thawed when baked, you won’t need to tack on extra minutes to the baking time. 3 favorite slice-and-bake cookies to freeze:

Slice-and-Bake Pistachio Butter Cookies Lime Icebox Cookies Cream Cheese Pecan Cookies

Finally, there’s cut-out cookie dough. This is the dough you use to make gingerbread men and frosted sugar cookies with at the holidays. To bake: Frozen cut-out cookie dough also needs to be thawed in the refrigerator overnight. Once thawed, unwrap the dough, roll and cut it out with cookie cutters, and bake per recipe instructions. Like slice-and-bake cookies, you also won’t need to add minutes onto the baking time since the dough is fully thawed.  3 favorite cut-out cookies to freeze:

Best Sugar Cookies Thin and Crispy Chocolate Cookies Gingerbread Cookies