Amanda Stone: Eggs not the only risk in raw cookie dough

astone@joplinglobe.com or mail her, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·4 min read

May 11—I'm not dead yet, and I've never missed a chance to eat cookie dough. Not one time.

I've spent my entire life thinking raw eggs were the problem with eating cookie dough, what with the possibility of contracting salmonella and all. It's always been a risk I was willing to take.

But I've recently learned that cookie dough packs a double whammy of death and despair, so I'm considering laying off the dough.

It all unfolded over Mother's Day weekend. My darling daughter made edible cookie dough a few months ago, and I've been missing its presence in the fridge ever since. I remember her following the recipe just so, which meant heat-treating the flour in the microwave.

I have never heat-treated flour and assumed she was being a stickler for the rules of the recipe. I didn't give it another thought.

I made my Mother's Day request of her, but to my dismay she balked.

"But we don't have a microwave!" she howled.

Ah, yes. The trusty microwave, which was used when it was given more than a decade ago, had finally bit the dust, taking the power from the entire kitchen with it. How could I forget?

Because she already knew the dangers lurking in raw flour, I offered to heat-treat it in the oven. My mental notes from stirring a sheet pan of flour every two minutes in a 300-degree oven for an eternity: What a mess. Never again. Flour everywhere. Must get microwave.

I mentioned this heat-treating of flour to my illustrious cousin who writes for All Recipes, and she didn't hesitate to back up the necessity of heat-treating flour. I did some quick research and found all kinds of information from the Food and Drug Administration. Yikes.

It comes down to this: Flours most commonly used in home baking and cooking are made directly from raw grains (animals live in these fields). Processing raw grains into flour does not kill harmful bacteria (from animal poo).

Many foods made with flour also contain raw eggs, which may contain harmful bacteria (double whammy of death and despair). Most often, there are "kill steps" involved when using flour, such as baking, frying and boiling.

But cookie dough involves no kill steps.

So when eating anything with raw flour, use the kill steps if you want to make sure not to ingest harmful bacteria. This includes those bites of all raw dough, bread, noodles, pizza and otherwise. Lay off the dough or heat-treat the flour. Being an adult is living these cold, hard truths.

How to heat-treat flour

Place flour in a microwave-safe bowl and heat on high for 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each interval. Use an instant-read thermometer to test the flour in several places to make sure it has reached 165 degrees throughout.

If you get a lower reading in one area, just stir and heat for an additional 30 seconds — 165 degrees is the magic number.

Edible cookie dough (three flavors)

* 1 cup all-purpose flour, heat treated

* 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

* 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

* 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

* 1/4 teaspoon salt

* 1 1/2 tablespoons milk, then more as needed

* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

* 1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Add butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar to a medium mixing bowl, sprinkle salt evenly over. Using an electric hand mixer whip together until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Mix in milk and vanilla. Add flour, mixing just until combined, while adding milk 1/2 tablespoon at a time to thin if needed. Fold in chocolate chips. Store cookie dough in refrigerator.

FOR CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIE DOUGH: Replace 1/3 cup of the all-purpose flour with 1/3 cup cocoa powder. Mix cocoa in with the flour. Replace mini chocolate chips with 2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped into small bits.

FOR FUNFETTI SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH: Omit brown sugar, use 2/3 cup granulated sugar (total). Add 1/4 teaspoon almond extract to the vanilla extract. Replace chocolate chips with 1/3 cup white chocolate chips. Fold in 3 tablespoons rainbow jimmies sprinkles with white chocolate chips, serve with more sprinkles on top.

Recipe adapted from www.cookingclassy.com

Amanda Stone is a food and gardening columnist for The Joplin Globe. Email questions to astone@joplinglobe.com or mail her c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, MO 64802.