Edible Cookie Dough

By Melissa Knific

Published May 30, 2024

Edible Cookie Dough
Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards.
Total Time
50 minutes
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes, plus 20 minutes’ cooling
Rating
4(183)
Comments
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The tasty practice of sneaking a couple bites of cookie dough before baking has likely been around as long as cookies themselves, but making and tucking into a full bowl of raw dough — made expressly to eat — is relatively novel. Perhaps it was the success of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, a flavor that popped up some time in the mid-1980s, that started the mass love affair, but the concept stuck, and brands and businesses have fully embraced it. This at-home version is safely edible; it’s made without eggs and the flour is heat-treated, or baked to a temperature of 165 degrees, to rid it of harmful bacteria. (And without the eggs, as well as a few other ingredients, this dough cannot be baked.) Regular or mini semi-sweet chocolate chips are a classic mix-in, but feel free to replace them with equal amounts of white chocolate chips, M&M’s or chopped nuts.

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Ingredients

Yield:6 to 8 servings (about 2 cups)
  • 1cup/125 grams all-purpose flour
  • ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), softened
  • ⅓cup/73 grams packed light brown sugar
  • 2tablespoons/25 grams granulated sugar
  • 2tablespoons milk, dairy or nondairy
  • 1teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
  • ¾cup/130 grams regular or mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, or a combination
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

287 calories; 17 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 35 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 21 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 126 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat-treat the flour: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment, add the flour and spread it into a thin layer. Bake flour for 5 minutes (see Tip). Cool flour completely.

  2. Step 2

    In a large bowl, combine butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat on medium-high with a hand mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in milk and vanilla until combined.

  3. Step 3

    Add the salt, then sift in the flour. Beat on medium-low until well combined and no white streaks remain. Fold in the chocolate chips by hand with a spatula or wooden spoon. Serve immediately, using a cookie scoop or spoon to transfer to small bowls, or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. (The cookie dough will be very soft if served right away; if you’d like it a bit firmer, refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes and check the firmness, adding more time to increase firmness if desired. If refrigerated for several hours or overnight, bring it to room temperature about 30 minutes before serving to soften.)

Tip
  • A quarter sheet pan or 9-by-13 baking pan is ideal for heat-treating the flour because of the small amount used in the recipe; if a standard-size sheet pan is used, double or triple the amount of flour and store leftovers in an airtight container. Once the flour is baked, use the parchment to quickly but carefully transfer it to a small bowl and use an instant-read thermometer to take the temperature. It should read at least 165 degrees.

Ratings

4 out of 5
183 user ratings
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Comments

Laura

I’ve never found a cookie dough that wasn’t edible… going to be 69 in June.

Ellen

I once made a batch up chocolate chip cookie dough (with eggs and regular flour) that never got baked. I was at the apex of planning a large conference and for a solid week my nightly dinner consisted of chocolate chip cookie dough eaten with a spoon, a small bowl of Trader Joe's baked cheese curls, a gin and tonic, and a hard boiled egg. The hard boiled egg was a nod to nutrition that made it OK, in my max-stressed state, and I survived a week of eating raw cookie dough just fine.

kathleen

I think your numbers for how many it serves are off. Forget 6-8 servings. It makes ONE serving for a very happy person.

Hedgehog

This cookie dough recipe is awesome and my brother always asks for it all the time

Allison

I’d be inclined to slip a half-teaspoon of baking soda in there, just to give it more of the real raw cookie dough flavour.

M R-C

This looks based on a recipe written by Shirley O. Courier in her James Beard award winning cookbook, "CookWise". That recipe, a variation (one of three), is for crisp chocolate chip cookies and has been a family favorite for the past 15 years. It doesn't use eggs, calls for slightly more sugar and freezes well for spur of the moment baking.

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