I'm Into the Coldest of Comforts

An occasional series in which staff members share a recipe that we turn to time and again:

Some folks love eating food right out of the oven. I prefer the freezer.

Fruit, candy, raw almonds and other nuts, chocolate chip (and lots of other kinds of) cookies, cake with buttercream frosting, rich brownies, even peas: All of them taste delicious frozen. In fact, I often like them better that way.

I was a kid when I picked up the habit. We lived in Miami; we had no air conditioning. Lots of things got thrown into the freezer -- eventually, two freezers -- to prevent them from rotting. That included some of the candy my sisters and I collected on Halloween. My dad hoarded the frozen Milky Way bars.

My mom was a purist when it came to chocolate, as am I. She liked to pinch nibbles of the finest chocolate bars straight from the freezer. I would not infrequently find her noshing on nuts, brownies or cookies that she had made and frozen, including mandelbrot, a Jewish cookie similar to biscotti.

These days, my kids find me doing the very same thing: "That's gross, Mom." They'll learn.

Eating frozen solid food requires commitment. Because it is hard, chewing becomes a slower, more deliberate effort. You find yourself enjoying the texture and tastes more than you might if, say, you were wolfing down brownies still warm from the oven. In fact, one of my two favorite all-time frozen treats is a brownie recipe of my mother's. The brownies are thin, super-rich and chewy, with pops of the crunchy chocolate chips.

I'm not saying that the straight-out-of-the-oven thing is bad; I'm just saying there is something better.

It's only to the good if we can slow down when we eat. We'll eat less and enjoy it more. That's the point about frozen buttercream frosting. Put it in your mouth at room temperature, and it's gone in a flash. But when it's frozen, you can enjoy the taste and texture so much longer as it melts in your mouth. Ditto for frozen cheesecake.

Crunch plays a big role for me. That's why I prefer biting down on a chocolate chip in a frozen cookie or a brownie. For Girl Scout Thin Mints and sugar cookies, frozen is the way to go. In fact, sometimes I don't bother baking; a spoonful of frozen cookie dough does the trick when I am craving something sweet. (Uncooked eggs stir fears of food-borne illness in some people, but not in me.) That means I may be getting my sweet-tooth fix with fewer calories. (I've proved that: Tests show that two frozen Double-Stuff Oreos do the same job for me as six consumed at room temperature.)

Surprisingly, many foods I thought might harden into rocks just don't. That includes my second-all-time-favorite frozen treat, peanut M&Ms. Regular M&Ms are better straight from the freezer, too, to my taste, as are many candy items. Some can get really firm, however, so be careful. One of my sisters says she cracked a tooth while eating a frozen Rollo.

I'm loath to blame the Rollo, frankly.

The freezer treats a lot of fruits kindly. Take frozen grapes: I became addicted to them a few years ago at a Miami Beach hotel, where skewers of frozen green and red grapes were passed out poolside. Now I keep a bowl of grapes in my freezer. They become slightly icy, and somehow their sweetness is enhanced. A perfect and healthful dessert.

Frozen blueberries are divine. Eat them by the fistful, or toss them over a huge bowl of ice cream, thus minimizing your guilt. Bonus: I've kept blueberries for up to a year in the freezer as opposed to a week in the refrigerator.

Strawberries, peaches, bananas . . . . You might think bananas would get super-hard when frozen. Wrong. They become cold, creamy and less cloyingly sweet. If you have wisely covered some or all of the banana with melted chocolate before putting it into the freezer, a double taste treat awaits.

There are vegetables to be considered. I know people who use frozen string beans for dipping, as an appetizer. I like frozen peas on a salad.

Some folks are into eating still-frozen waffles and pizzas, which are not necessarily my favorites. As long as you aren't eating something that truly has to be cooked, go ahead and experiment.

Clarence Birdseye, the inventor of frozen foods, would be proud.

Valerie Strauss is an education reporter.