Edible Cookie Dough

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.

Ingredients

• 1 cup/125 grams all-purpose flour
• 0.5 cup/113 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), softened
• 0.3333333333333333 cup/73 grams packed light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons/25 grams granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk, dairy or nondairy
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 0.5 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
• 0.75 cup/130 grams regular or mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, or a combination

Steps

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. 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. 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.)