The Secret To Making Edible Cookie Dough

If you are someone who just cannot resist sneaking a pinch of cookie dough while baking, then you might be among those who will make a batch of edible cookie dough just for the sake of devouring it. Not to mention you can mix edible cookie dough into so many other recipes, like an add-in for homemade ice cream. But before you can take the first bite, there are two health issues that have to be addressed. 

Most people think about eliminating the eggs when making edible cookie dough. While it is true that uncooked or undercooked eggs can harbor salmonella bacteria and cause food poisoning, eggs are not the only ingredient to be concerned with (via CDC). Raw flour or uncooked flour can also contain harmful, food-poisoning bacteria such as E. coli, per CDC guidelines. Since bad bacteria is not killed during the processing of flour, it's important to kill any bacteria that might be lurking in the bag. By treating your flour by exposing it to a high enough temperature to kill the bacteria, it becomes safe to use for edible dough.

So, to kill the bacteria that could be in your bag of flour, you need to bake it by itself. For easy, no-fuss edible cookie dough, both Baking a Moment and Cooking Classy explain how you can "heat-treat" your flour so that it can be safely incorporated and eaten. You need only place the flour on a lined baking sheet, which makes the transfer to the mixing bowl easier, and heat it in the oven at 350 degree Fahrenheit. Time suggestions vary from five minutes to seven or 10 minutes. But, if you want to be sure that the flour is safe to eat, Cooking Classy suggests using an instant-read thermometer to check the flour. It should read 160 degrees Fahrenheit before coming out of the oven.

Once the flour has been cooked and cooled, all you have to do is mix it up with the other ingredients, which does not include eggs, either. Most edible cookie dough recipes, such as those by Baking a Moment and Cooking Classy, call for some amount of butter, at least one kind of sugar, vanilla extract, and milk, at the very least. But you can always add additional ingredients or mix-ins to amp up the flavor, such as sprinkles, butterscotch chips, cinnamon, chocolate chips, raisins, cocoa powder, and so much more. 

That's the fun of edible cookie dough, though. It's highly customizable once you have the basic recipe down!