Cookie dough is an un-cooked blend of
cookie
A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, n ...
ingredients. Cookie dough is normally intended to be baked into individual cookies before eating, however edible cookie dough is made to be eaten as is, and usually is made without eggs to make it safer for human consumption.
Cookie dough can be made at home or bought pre-made in packs (frozen logs, buckets, etc.). Dessert products containing cookie dough include
ice cream
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...
and
candy
Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies (Australian English
Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language an ...
. In addition, pre-made cookie dough is sold in different flavors.
When made at home, common ingredients include flour, butter,
white sugar
White sugar, also called table sugar, granulated sugar, or regular sugar, is a commonly used type of sugar, made either of beet sugar or cane sugar, which has undergone a refining process.
Description
The refining process completely removes t ...
,
salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...
,
vanilla extract
Vanilla extract is a Solution (chemistry), solution made by maceration (food), macerating and percolation, percolating vanilla, vanilla pods in a solution of ethanol and water. It is considered an essential ingredient in many Western desserts, es ...
, and
eggs
Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
. If the dough is made with the intention of baking, then
leavening agent
In cooking, a leavening agent () or raising agent, also called a leaven () or leavener, is any one of a number of substances used in doughs and batters that cause a foaming action (gas bubbles) that lightens and softens the mixture. An alterna ...
s such as
baking soda
Sodium bicarbonate (IUPAC name: sodium hydrogencarbonate), commonly known as baking soda or bicarbonate of soda, is a chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. It is a salt composed of a sodium cation ( Na+) and a bicarbonate anion ( HCO3−) ...
or
baking powder
Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid. The base and acid are prevented from reacting prematurely by the inclusion of a buffer such as cornstarch. Baking powder is used to increase ...
are added. However, these are often excluded in cookie doughs that are designed to be eaten raw.
Chocolate chip cookie
A chocolate chip cookie is a drop cookie that features chocolate chips or chocolate morsels as its distinguishing ingredient. Chocolate chip cookies originated in the United States around 1938, when Ruth Graves Wakefield chopped up a Nestl ...
dough is a popular variation that can be made by adding
chocolate chips to the mix.
History
Cookie dough is derived from the creation of cookies that dates back as far as 7th century Persia, where they were used as test cakes. Persia was one of the first countries to use sugar and soon became known for luxurious cakes and pastries. The early cookie was first labelled as a test cake before it was referred to as a "cookie" because the Persians would bake a small amount of cake batter in the oven to test the oven temperature, and it would come out looking like a mini cake.
The concept of cookies spread and became known worldwide. They evolved into Biscuits for convenience as they were easier to keep fresh for a longer period and were simple to carry for travel.
Cookies became established in Europe sometime between the 17th and 18th century, as baking gained popularity. At that time the word "cookie" was first used. The term comes from the
Dutch language
Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-Europea ...
where
Koekje means "small or little cake". During the ensuing
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, more cookie recipes became available. New forms and flavors of cookies continue to be created, one of which is the concept of edible cookie dough. Ruth Graves Wakefield and Sue Brides owned the
Toll House Inn
The Toll House Inn was an inn located in Whitman, Massachusetts, established in 1930 by Kenneth and Ruth Graves Wakefield. The ''Toll House'' chocolate chip cookies are named after the inn.[Whitman, Massachusetts
Whitman is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 15,121 at the 2020 census. It is notable as being the place where the chocolate chip cookie was invented.
History
Whitman was first settled by Europeans in ...]
where they created the eponymous chocolate chip cookie in 1938.
As cookies became more popular and people started baking them at home, people would taste the batter to ensure the sweetness of the product. The practice of eating unbaked dough came later, although it comes with potential health problems.
Health risks
Because of the presence of raw egg and raw flour, the consumption of uncooked cookie dough increases the possibility of contracting
foodborne illness
Foodborne illness (also foodborne disease and food poisoning) is any illness resulting from the spoilage of contaminated food by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites that contaminate food,
as well as prions (the agents of mad cow disease) ...
. The
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...
(FDA) strongly discourages the consumption of all food products containing raw eggs or raw flour because of the threat from disease-causing bacteria such as ''
Salmonella
''Salmonella'' is a genus of rod-shaped (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two species of ''Salmonella'' are ''Salmonella enterica'' and ''Salmonella bongori''. ''S. enterica'' is the type species and is fur ...
'' and ''
E. coli''. Two tablespoons of milk can be swapped for eggs in cookie recipes. Leavening, such as baking powder or baking soda, can be removed. Doing so ensures that the cookie dough is safely edible.
Cookie dough should be placed in the freezer, but it is considered safe to consume if left out in the open for 2–4 hours.
Several outbreaks stemmed from pathogens in flour. For example, raw flour was found to be the culprit in a June 2009 ''E. coli'' outbreak involving
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...
Toll House prepackaged cookie dough, which was recalled; more than 7,000 people fell ill, although none died. In 2010, Nestle switched to heat-treated processing for all flour used in producing cookie dough. Heat treatment for flour is a simple treatment to kill bacteria. This treatment involves heating the flour in a oven, or heating the flour in a
microwave
Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ran ...
until it gets hot.
In 2016,
General Mills
General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...
recalled flour and cake mixes because of ''E. coli'' in the raw flour. In 2015, certain
Blue Bell Ice Cream
Blue Bell Creameries is an American food company that manufactures ice cream. It was founded in 1907 in Brenham, Texas. For much of its early history, the company manufactured both ice cream and butter locally. In the mid-20th century, it abandon ...
products were recalled due to ''
Listeria monocytogenes
''Listeria monocytogenes'' is the species of pathogenic bacteria that causes the infection listeriosis. It is a facultative anaerobic bacterium, capable of surviving in the presence or absence of oxygen. It can grow and reproduce inside the host' ...
'' found in the facility that produces chocolate chip cookie dough and other cookie dough containing flavors.
Edible cookie dough
Cookie dough designed specifically for eating raw (such as that found in ice cream) is made either with
Pasteurized eggs
Pasteurized eggs are eggs that have been pasteurized in order to reduce the risk of food-borne illness in dishes that are not cooked or are only lightly cooked. They may be sold as liquid egg products or pasteurized in the shell.
Rationale
Th ...
or without eggs at all and heat-treated flour.
Companies offering edible dough include "Nestle Tollhouse Edible Cookie Dough", ''Dō'', ''Edoughable'', and ''The Cookie Dough Café''.
Doughp, a
Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
-founded cookie dough company experienced a sales boom during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
despite not getting a deal on ABC's ''Shark Tank''.
Edible cookie dough, egg-free and made with specially treated flour, became a dessert trend in the 2010s and led to the creation of several businesses. Some sweet shops sell multiple desserts with cookie dough as one option, while others solely create and sell dough.
Popular culture
The "cookie dough" flavor, originating in the United States as comfort food, has gained worldwide recognition.
References
External links
* {{Commons category-inline
Cookies
Doughs