There’s a trend lately, everyone is making all kinds of “edible cookie dough” but in none of the videos or recipes I’ve seen they state that you NEED to heat treat the flour. This is VERY important or else it isn’t really edible since eating raw flour is a potential health hazard.
Yeah, I know about liking the spoon and all those bad habits we have when baking but this is no joke specially when you plan on eating a whole bowl of it. Some recipes just use any kind of box cake mix which is raw flour, it’s not treated because it’s meant to be baked not eaten raw. It’s not safe to eat raw dough made of wheat flour because raw wheat flour can contain salmonella or E. coli. However, raw cookie dough made of grain-free flour, like nut flour, including almond flour or organic coconut flour, is safe to eat raw.
According to the FDA, the grains from which flour is ground are grown in fields that may be exposed to harmful bacteria like salmonella and E. coli. Heating flour to at least 160 degrees kills off any nasty bacteria that might be lurking in your flour bag. Unlike eggs, which are heat-sterilized to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination, flour is not treated to kill pathogens. Any bacteria present in flour are typically killed during cooking. Therefore, eating raw flour may cause you to get sick if it’s contaminated with harmful bacteria and you don’t want to be the guinea pig for this because it could be fatal. Remember that this kind of contamination mostly comes from handling, it gets packaged and you buy it leaving all the responsibility to you as a consumer, they won’t know about it until the reports come out of all the people getting sick. Better safe than sorry!
Please, if you are reading this and make cooking videos or plan on hopping on the bandwagon of edible cookie doughs at least let’s be responsible about informing people about this. I know most of the people doing this kind of video and food blogs don’t know jack about food safety but as a professional chef with more than a decade of experience I feel this needs to be publicly addressed since is a matter of public health safety. If you “show” people how to cook something at least be responsible enough to educate about what you’re doing and do it right! I wouldn’t want to be the one responsible for showing people how to get sick because of my ignorance. Let’s do our part!
Heat treating flour might sound complicated but it is a very quick and simple procedure that you can even do in the microwave. Here’s how to do it:
How to Heat Treat Flour in Microwave:
- Place the flour in a microwave safe bowl.
- Heat in microwave (on high heat) in 30 second intervals, stirring in between.
- After 1-2 minutes in microwave, use a thermometer to ensure flour has reach 165F.
How to heat treat flour in the oven:
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread a thing layer of flour on the cookies sheet (or the exact amount you need for your recipe).
Bake flour for about 5 minutes and use a food thermometer to check the temperature. It should read 160 degrees.
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