Storing Cookies

When stored, crisp cookies tend to go soft, and soft ones harden and dry out. Some cookies—for example, French croquants and Italian cantucci—are deliberately baked very dry so that they can be dipped in beverages. Except for wafers, limp cookies can be revived by drying briefly in the oven. Rich cookies keep well if layered with wax paper in an airtight container, while bar cookies can be stored in the pan, tightly wrapped. Cookies such as German pfeffern¼sse (peppery nuts), and others that contain honey, nuts and spices, mellow when stored and can be kept for months. Before or after baking, most cookies freeze well, although spicy flavors tend to fade and wafers will disintegrate.