This easy edible cookie dough recipe is the perfect sweet treat! Eggless cookie dough with heat-treated flour makes it safe for everyone to eat!
It’s pretty much been all cakes around here lately, because they are truly my fave to make and share, but I would be remiss not to share with you my very favourite (and easy to make) indulgence — Edible Cookie Dough!
I used to buy the Pilsbury logs of cookie dough in an effort to get my fix, but there is really nothing better than a homemade version. Plus my version is completely safe to eat, so you don’t have to worry about any potential risks in eating the dough.
This Edible Cookie Dough post is your one stop shop for everything you need to know about:
- How to make cookie dough safe to eat
- How to convert any cookie dough recipe into an edible cookie dough
- How to store and serve edible cookie dough for best results
Plus, I’ll share my favourite flavour pairings for various types of cookie dough. Read on!
Is Raw Flour Safe to Eat?
Let’s be honest here, who hasn’t indulged in a bite of raw cookie dough or a lick of raw cake batter? Heck, I still do it with every single cake and cookie I make. I bet most of you do the same, and haven’t had any ill effects (that you’ve noticed, anyhow). Are the chances high that you’ll get sick from eating raw dough or batter? Probably not, but why take the chance??
Do as I say, not as I do, people.
The reality is that eating raw flour is just as risky as eating raw eggs. Raw flour can carry E. coli, and that’s just not something you want to risk having in your system.
So, how do we make raw cookie dough safe to eat??
How to Make Raw Cookie Dough Safe to Eat
- Don’t use eggs
- Heat-treat the flour
Raw eggs can carry salmonella, and raw flour can carry E. coli. You can read more about the dangers of them here.
Both salmonella and E.coli can be deadly, and at the very least could make you very sick. Why risk it when it’s so easy to make a safe, edible version?
Now, you could use pasteurized eggs that have been treated to kill bacteria, but unless you’re ingesting eggs for some kind of health benefit, I don’t see why you’d bother. Seeing as how this is a recipe for raw cookie dough, I’m gonna guess health is not super high on your radar.
In place of the eggs, because the cookie dough may need some moisture in there, we add a bit of milk. That is pretty self explanatory, so let’s talk about heat-treating the flour.
How to Heat-Treat Flour
Heat-treating the flour helps to kill any residual bacteria that may be present. It’s fairly easy to do, albeit a tad messy. I suggest lining a baking sheet with parchment paper that overhangs slightly to help with the process.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Spread flour evenly on baking sheet.
- Bake for 5-10mins.*
- Remove from oven and cool before use.**
* I say 5-10 mins because ovens vary. You don’t want the flour to start turning brown, but you want to cook it long enough to kill the bacteria. You’re looking to get the flour to 160F. I use my favourite Thermapen instant-read thermometer to check this, but there are plenty of other good options.
** If the flour clumps a bit, be sure to sift it before use in the recipe.
How to Make Edible Cookie Dough
Now that your flour is safe to eat, it’s time to make Edible Cookie Dough!
Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
- flour (heat-treated)
- butter (room temperature, very soft)
- light brown sugar
- granulated sugar
- sea salt
- milk (room temperature)
- vanilla
- mini chocolate chips (or other additions)
Fairly standard ingredients for a chocolate chip cookie recipe, except for one key element that I think makes all the difference: flakey sea salt.
All cookie recipes have some salt in them to help cut the sweetness. I prefer to use flakey sea salt vs regular table salt, as I LOVE the contrast of those sea salt flakes with the sweet chocolate chips. It’s literally mouth-watering. Feel free to use regular salt if you don’t have any sea salt on hand, but use less of it (see recipe for info).
I generally recommend spooning and levelling your flour rather than scooping it, as this can greatly affect the quantity of flour you get, which can adversely affect the end result (thick, dry cookies).
The good news is that since we’re not baking this cookie dough, you don’t need to be as precise, but you still don’t want the dough to be overly flour heavy (for flavour and texture). I recommend only adding milk as needed to get it to the consistency you like — you might not even need to add any.
Details on the method are in the recipe below, but you pretty much follow a standard cookie recipe:
- Cream butter & sugars
- Add dry ingredients
- Fold in chocolate chips
I find it easiest to do this with a stand mixer (or hand mixer), but you could totally do this by hand. I recommend that the butter be very soft so it’s easier to incorporate, regardless of whether you use a mixer or not.
If mixing by hand, you won’t be able to get the butter and sugars light and fluffy, but it doesn’t really matter all that much.
Cookie Dough for Two
I realize that not everyone wants/needs 18 servings of cookie dough around, so you can easily adjust the Servings in the recipe below to get smaller proportions.
However, if you get too small a portion, the numbers can be a bit funny and hard to figure out, so I thought I’d include the amounts if you just wanted to make enough for two:
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (heat-treated)
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature, very soft)
- 2 Tbsp light brown sugar (packed)
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 cups mini chocolate chips (or other additions)
- 1 tsp milk (as needed)
Follow the instructions in the recipe below.
Can You Make Any Cookie Dough Edible?
As long as you replace the eggs with milk (or use pasteurized eggs) and heat-treat your flour, it should work for all recipes (unless there is some other questionable ingredient in there!). Here are some great ones to try as edible cookie dough versions:
Of course, there is nothing better than traditional chocolate chip cookie dough (or so I thought, but read on). If you like, you can easily replace (or add to) the mini chocolate chips. Here are some fun ideas!
- Mini m&m’s – for an added candy crunch
- Unicorn Morsels – super fun for kids or birthdays – great with a sugar cookie dough
- Semi-Sweet Chunks – for serious chocolate lovers
- Espresso Morsels – for coffee addicts – sign me up for some of these!
- S’mores Chips – I must try to find these!! Where can I get them in Canada??
- Cinnamon Chips – would go so well with a gingerbread cookie dough!
- Mint Chips – also perfect for a dark chocolate cookie dough
I could go on, but I’ve clearly gone down rabbit hole of cookie dough additions, and have added more to my cart than I care to admit. All are likely to gather dust in my pantry until I stumble across them one day, just like the poor peanut butter chips.
In this edible cookie dough recipe here today, I used:
Surprisingly (to me), the ones with the Reese’s Pieces were my favourite by far. Like, landslide. They well surpassed the regular old mini chocolate chips. SO good! In my next batch, I’m using these only.
Can You Bake It?
Technically, you can (I tried it), but the cookies will not turn out right, since there is no leavening agent (baking soda) or eggs. I baked one cookie just to test it out and see — I baked it at 350 using a chilled ball of cookie dough.
The cookie didn’t spread as much as I expected, but also didn’t really puff up at all. It turned out a bit greasy, dense, and flat.
So, basically, I don’t recommend it.
If you’re desperate for some freshly baked cookies instead of edible cookie dough, you’d be much better off just making a proper batch of cookie dough and storing that in the freezer in case of cookie emergencies.
How do you store leftovers?
The recipe below makes a large amount of cookie dough. I like it this way, because I can portion it up and store it for later. I like to use a small cookie scoop (2 tsp) to portion the dough.
I then place all the little cookie dough balls on a sheet pan, and pop them into the fridge or freezer to firm up. Once firm, I transfer them all to a large Ziploc freezer bag and keep them in the freezer. That way, I limit the amount that I eat. Or so I thought.
Turns out my favourite way to eat these is actually straight out of the freezer! I find room temperature cookie dough to be a little bit too sweet, and chilling it helps cut that down a bit. They are such a perfect texture, too. Firm enough to bite into, but not something you’ll break your teeth on.
If you haven’t tried frozen cookie dough, do not miss out!!
I hope you found this post helpful, and will experiment with delicious options of edible cookie dough.
Recipes that use Edible Cookie Dough:
Tips for making this Edible Cookie Dough Recipe
- You must heat-treat your flour before use. See recipe and blog post for details.
- If you want to use eggs, be sure they are pasteurized. Use two eggs per recipe below, and leave out the milk.
- If you don’t want to use sea salt, use 1 tsp regular salt instead.
- See post above for details on how to make edible cookie dough for two.
- I recommend portioning the cookie dough before freezing for ease of snacking/thawing. A cookie scoop will work well for this.
- The lack of eggs and baking soda will cause this dough to bake poorly. If you want baked cookies, I recommend using my favourite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe instead.
Edible Cookie Dough
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour heat-treated
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature (very soft)
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 tsp sea salt or 1 tsp regular salt
- 2 cups mini chocolate chips or other favourite addition
- 3 Tbsp milk as needed
Instructions
Heat-Treat the Flour:
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Spread flour evenly on baking sheet and bake for 5-10mins or until the flour reaches 160F. Cool completely, sift if needed.
Edible Cookie Dough:
- Beat butter until creamy, add sugars and beat on high until pale and fluffy (2-3mins). Add vanilla and mix until combined.
- Reduce speed to low and slowly add in flour and salt. Mix until well combined. Slowly add in milk, 1 Tbsp at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Fold in chocolate chips or other additions.
- Portion with a cookie scoop if desired and chill or freeze. Serve room temperature or chilled.
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Cassandra garrison says
Is this enough for a two tier cake? For the filling.
Olivia says
Hi Cassandra! What size cake?
Sydney says
My cookie dough turned out as a frosting! It was still so good though! 😋 It is a good recipe to make during quarantine! My fam loved it also!
Olivia says
Hi Sydney! So happy you liked it 🙂 Did you use any of the milk? You can leave that out for a thicker dough 🙂
Gabriel says
I made the chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough and it was the best cookie dough I’ve ever had! I used 3/4 cup of sugar instead of a full cup and it came out amazing.
Olivia says
Hi Gabriel! So happy you loved it 🙂
yana says
Hi!! Wonderful recipe. Can I put the dough into balls and put them in the oven? Will they turn out to be cookies?
Olivia says
Hi Yana! No, it won’t’ work. I talk about that in the post.
Jess says
Firm favourite treat in this house! I roll them into little balls and store in the freezer, breaking them off as I crave them.
Olivia says
That’s my favourite way to eat it too! So good. Glad you love it 🙂
kenx john says
This is so good
Olivia says
So happy you like it! 🙂
Gio says
The recipe was great!
Olivia says
So glad you liked it Gio!
Rhi says
Just made these. OH MY DAYS. They are amazing! After freezing we rolled some in cooled, melted chocolate and refrigerated. Waaaaay better than shop bought cookie dough. Thanks for the recipe.
Olivia says
Hi Rhi! So happy you loved this recipe. Thank you for your feedback!
Roger says
That sounds delicious! Thanks! 🙂
Olivia says
Thank you!
Ishana Chaudhary says
Hi,
By vanilla do you mean vanilla essence or extract?
Olivia says
Hi Ishana! I use extract, but you can use essence as well.
Donda says
Great treat and very easy to make! My family loved it!
Olivia says
So happy you liked it! 🙂
Aisha says
I really want to make this cookie dough its all ive been craving this quarintine. i have all the ingridients except butter i would say i only have about 80g could i still make it by adding normal butter or more milk?
Olivia says
Hi Aisha! By normal butter do you mean salted butter? If so I would use that and skip the salt from the recipe. Taste it at the end and add more salt if you like 🙂
Leah billington says
I recommend this recipe to anyone looking for a sweet treat! I’m 14 years old and I easily prepared 3 batches without parental supervision. It’s super tasty and super easy to make 🙂
Olivia says
Hi Leah! Amazing! Thank you so much for your comment. I’m so glad you liked it 🙂
Katarina says
Hi ,
This recipe is amazing! It’s the best one i’ve found on the internet. Great job , it was delicious 🙂
Olivia says
Hi Katarina! Thanks so much! 🙂
harshia says
hi, i wondering how many calories the serving of two would be?
Olivia says
Hi Harshia! It’s about 320 calories per serving (3 Tbsp), so the “COOKIE DOUGH FOR TWO” two serving would be 640 calories total.
Eddie says
I some how made frosting still satisfied
Olivia says
Lol!! Maybe too much milk? Glad you liked it 😀
Grace Golladay says
Ummm I have a family of 6, how can I make this recipe bigger?
Olivia says
Hi Grace! Haha! I love that and don’t blame you one bit. You can easily increase the recipe just by changing the Servings amount. For example, if you want to double it, change the Servings from 18 to 36 and it will increase all of the amounts in the recipe.
Amanda Furnell says
I’d love to try this as a gift for my sister as she loves cookie dough but she also loves cadburys creme eggs, is there a way I could incorporate these into it?
Thank you
Amanda
Olivia says
Hi Amanda! You can try to chop some up and fold them in gently at the very end. Maybe reduce the amount of chocolate chips if you plan to do that for a better balance of flavours and sweetness.
Dali says
Hi. I made this recipe (minus using a mixer and heat-treating the flour) and it came out not so good. It was very grainy and salty and when you ate it there would be grains and chunks of salt and sugar and the flavours did not mix well. Any ideas of how to help or fix this? Thanks
Olivia says
Hi Dali! I think it’s the lack of mixer :\ Having one would allow you to really cream the butter and sugar and get rid of the graininess. It would also allow for better incorporation of all of the ingredients.
faith k says
i made this vegan and gluten free. i used almond milk instead and used coconut flour to add extra flavor and a little kick to it (my second option would have been almond flour if i didn’t want the extra taste). i had to use more milk and sugar to make it taste right, and instead of milk chocolate i used dark chocolate chips- which i would have done anyway considering it ties better with coconut. it tasted wonderful! thanks for the recipe:)
also, I’ve never baked before in my life and im surprised this turned out well considering i freestyled it lol
Olivia says
Hi Faith! Thanks so much for your feedback and your V & GF tips! So happy you liked it 🙂
adrienen says
mine came out A little dry and flaky. Any suggestions?
Olivia says
Hi Adrienen! It shouldn’t come out that way but can easily be saved by adding some more milk 🙂 Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature, and when you’re measuring your flour, be sure you’re spooning the flour into the cup and levelling it off rather than using the cup to scoop it. The latter can add too much flour to a recipe which can make it dry.
Salem Horne says
Tastes great, but I think too much butter.
Olivia says
Hi Salem! Glad you liked it 🙂 You could add more flour if you feel like it’s too buttery, or chill the cookie dough first.
Dianne says
That sounds delicious! Thanks! 🙂
Olivia says
Thank you!
abby says
This is literally the best edible cookie dough recipe I have ever tried!!!!
Olivia says
Yay!! I’m so happy to hear you love it Abby!
Bianca Flavelson says
Absolutely amazing
Olivia says
So glad you loved it! 🙂
Melissa says
Do you have any tips on making this recipe vegan? I’m having some friends over and they’re vegans. I don’t use butter or milk alternatives, but do you have any favorites or suggestions? This recipe is delicious when I’ve made it before so I don’t want to ruin the flavors.
Olivia says
Hi Melissa! I haven’t used vegan butter myself, but I know the one from Earth Balance is highly recommended for vegan baking. I would give that a try first if you can find it 🙂 Skip the milk altogether — I don’t think you’ll need it, especially if the vegan butter is softer than normal butter. And I guess try and find some vegan chocolate chips? Let me know what you try and how it turns out 🙂
Sara says
I made this recipe and it was so delicious! Tasted way better than store made dough and I love that it’s safe for my kids to eat.
Olivia says
Thank you Sara! I’m so happy to hear you liked it 🙂
Kenna says
Can I use this as a cake filling as well? I’m excited to try this.
Olivia says
Hi Kenna! Yes, I have a few cake recipes on my site that I’ve linked to above that I’ve used this as a filling in 🙂
Erin says
I’m having a ridiculously hard time deciding whether I prefer this recipe or the White Chocolate Cake or Caramel Gingerbread Cake better! They’re all so good! I love sampling cookie dough when I make cookies. I have made edible cookie dough before, but it always seems to have a wierd texture to it. Kind of…chewy, almost. Not creamy and smooth like regular cookie dough. Maybe because of the milk? I was thinking that perhaps cream in place of milk would yield a creamier result? Also, all those different chocolate chips!!!! I have got to get the Unicorn, S’mores, Cookies ‘N’ Cream, Caramel, and Mint verisons!!:D
Olivia says
Hi Erin! I was thinking of trying cream too instead of milk, I think it would be fine! But honestly, I didn’t feel like I really needed to add any milk at all, it was the perfect texture (to me), but I added a bit just to lighten it up. If you try it with cream, let me know!