Many people love it: cookie dough. Not because it makes delicious cookies, but because you can eat so extensively from the dough. But is it safe to eat cookie dough or are there any risks involved? Is there any difference between different types of cookie dough you can make?
What types of cookie dough are there?
You have cookie dough that you make yourself, including butter and egg, and you have ready-made packages that only require water (or another ingredient, such as butter) to be added. You can bake cookies from both types of dough, and you can snack on both types of dough beforehand. Because of the popularity of eating cookie dough, brands like Ben & Jerry’s even have an ice cream variant with cookie dough as a flavor in it. One example is ‘Half Baked’. As the name suggests, the ‘cookie dough’ from this ice cream variant is partly baked.
What are the ingredients of cookie dough?
There are of course countless recipes for cookies. What these recipes have in common are the following ingredients:
- Flower
- Sugar (sometimes brown sugar, sometimes white sugar, sometimes brown sugar)
- Vanilla or vanilla sugar
- Egg
- salt
Ready
Do you prepare cookie dough from a package? Then there are often several sugars (sugar and dextrose and fructose syrup) in the mix. Rising agent and (wheat) flour are also included in the mix. Some mixes also contain egg powder.
What Are the Dangers of Raw Cookie Dough?
Which ingredients make it better to bake raw cookie dough first?
Flower
Unbaked flour can contain harmful bacteria, such as the EHEC bacteria. In 2009, there was an EHEC outbreak in the United States and it could be traced back to eating ready-to-eat cookie dough. You wouldn’t expect the processed ingredients from cookie dough packages to be harmful, but unlike eggs and butter, the flour is not processed to kill bacteria. Raw flour can therefore contain harmful bacteria. This is also the case when you make fresh dough yourself. You can opt for a healthy version of flour, such as rice flour.
Eggs
You process raw eggs in the batter. The common warning with raw eggs is that you run the risk of salmonella contamination. However, with that logic, you wouldn’t be able to eat fresh mayonnaise, Tiramisu, or other dishes and sauces prepared with raw eggs.
Egg in cookie dough can make you sick:
- Preferably buy organic (free-range) eggs, or directly from the farmer. Chickens that lay these eggs are themselves better protected against diseases, and therefore protect their eggs better against Salmonella.
- Do not use products with egg powder (such as ready-to-eat mix) to make and eat raw biscuit dough.
Quantity
Eating way too much raw cookie dough is likely to cause an upset stomach. This isn’t necessarily related to eating cookie dough – you could get sick of anything if you eat too much of it. So enjoy, but in moderation!
Is there also safe cookie dough?
There are cookie dough you can eat without getting sick – unless of course you eat too much of it:
- +/- 200 grams (brown) sugar
- 60 grams of butter
- little vanilla (extract) or vanilla sugar
- 250 grams of flour substitute, such as amaranth flour, almond flour, soy flour, buckwheat flour or quinoa flour
- Possibly chocolate (pieces)
- Possibly a biological egg
You can play around with the ingredients until you find what you like best.
Oatmeal cookies
If you really go for healthy, then you choose cookie dough with only healthy ingredients. It may not taste quite like traditional cookie dough, but it’s nice and sweet!
Mix the following for a cookie dough that you can bake and eat right away:
- Banana
- Oatmeal
- Possibly some cinnamon