Do you ever wonder where our obsession with eating cookie dough came from? Is it a sense of nostalgia from our early days baking cookies at home with mom? Or is it the fact that the sweet combination of sugar, eggs and flour is just too hard to resist?
Most likely, both reasons, right? Despite our love for cookie dough, it may surprise you to know that there are a lot of things about cookie dough that you probably aren’t aware of.
Check out these 13 little known cookie dough facts you never knew:
1. Commercial cookie dough products not included in FDA warning
The FDA has put out several warnings about the bacteria lurking in raw cookie dough that could cause gastrointestinal illnesses, but commercial cookie dough products where the dough is specially prepared to be eaten uncooked are not included in these warnings. Most manufacturers of pre-made commercial cookie dough use a heat treatment for flour and a pasteurization process for eggs which are known source of Salmonella.
2. Yes, people have died from eating raw cookie dough
The big concern with eating raw cookie dough is the raw flour and raw eggs. When you make cookie dough at home, you have no idea if the flour and eggs you purchased at your local supermarket has been contaminated or not with bacteria. And if the strain of bacteria is particularly virulent and/or someone has a weak immune system, the consequences could be deadly.
While a lot of people treat the warning about eating raw cookie dough as an old wives’ tale, there have been reports of fatalities related to eating raw cookie dough.
3. There are safety precautions you should always follow
Do not eat any uncooked dough, cake batter, or other uncooked flour products (think tortillas) or eggs at home. Do not make or let your children play with play dough made of uncooked dough. And do not touch uncooked dough at restaurants either.
4. Cookie dough is very versatile
If you love being creative in the kitchen then you will love how versatile cookie dough really is. Besides baking cookies with it, you can also add it as filling to cupcakes, cakes and other desserts to add some extra sweetness.
Edible cookie dough also goes great with ice cream and as a topping on other sweet treats.
5. Edible cookie dough is a hot trend
Unless you have been living underneath a rug, you have probably noticed a lot of edible cookie dough businesses popping up. It is a hot trend right now that many entrepreneurs are trying to capitalize on.
6. History of Cookie Dough
Did you know that the earliest cookie-style cake was invented in 7th century A.D. Persia? Historians say that the first cookies were used as “test cakes” to test out the batter.
7. An Accidental Invention
Chocolate chip cookies are probably the most popular type of cookies out there today, but did you know that they were first created by accident?
It happened in 1930 when Ruth Graves Wakefield was baking cookies for the guests at the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts. She was trying to bake Chocolate Butter Drop Do cookies, an old colonial recipe, but had run out of baker’s chocolate.
To improvise, she decided to use a block of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate that Andrew Nestle of the Nestle company had given her instead. And to her surprise the chocolate didn’t just melt into the cookie dough but formed soft, gooey pieces of chocolate.
8. Refrigerated Cookie Cough
Have you ever wondered when the genius idea of commercially selling cookie dough started? It might surprise you to know that it goes all the way back to the 1950s, a time when women were still mostly making all food from scratch.
9. Allergy-Friendly Cookie Dough
While cookie dough typically has eggs and flour in it, it doesn’t necessarily have to. For people with food allergies you can whip up cookie dough without them. Check out this recipe.
10. Weather Vein
The weather doesn’t just affect your hair and sinuses. It can actually affect your baking too. Experts say that you shouldn’t bake on rainy days when the air is really humid. If you do, the cookies will come out flat and mushy because the dough won’t rise.
11. Properly Storing Cookie Dough
To properly store cookie dough, you should use an airtight container and place dough in the freezer or refrigerator. Cookie dough should only be left out in the open for 2 to 4 hours.
12. Freezing Cookie Dough
Did you know that if you freeze raw cookie dough it can last up to 9 or 12 months?
13. Great Business Idea
Edible cookie dough makes a great concept for a franchise business. Edible cookie dough franchises are not just cookie cutter shops. There is so much room for creativity and fun as you get to create different flavors of edible cookie dough and combine it with ice cream and other sweet treats. Get your customers involved in choosing new flavors and everyone will feel invested in your edible cookie dough franchise.
Another thing that makes an edible cookie dough shop franchise unique is that it is generally an affordable business venture. While some franchises will run you in the millions to get up and running, edible cookie dough franchises tend to have more manageable franchise fees and overall costs.
One popular treat shop is DoDo Edible Cookie Dough & Ice Cream, which has two locations in Ocean City, Maryland. They have many cookie dough franchise opportunities available.
DoDo’s specialty is mixing ice cream and edible cookie dough to create the ultimate sweet treat. They make fresh cookie dough daily and use a special pasteurization process that makes the cookie dough safe to consume uncooked. DoDo is known for their variety of fun cookie dough flavors including chocolate chip, snicker doodle, sugar cookie, oatmeal, M&M, peanut butter, cake batter, naked and brownie batter.
DoDo also offers 16 daily flavors of ice cream that can be combined with the cookie dough or enjoyed on their own. The simple, streamlined menu is easy to manage, but also leaves room for you to experiment with different creations and to offer a special dough of the day.
DoDo has franchising opportunities available so don’t miss your opportunity to become a part of one of the coolest new trends in sweet treats.
Who knew your sweet tooth could help your dreams of being a business owner come true? For more cookie dough faces and information about DoDo, click here.
Wow! I have to make a tri-fold for a computer fair…this was so helpful. Thank you!!! :o)
[…] 1997, the chocolate chip cookie became of the official cookie of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The origin of the Fig Newton […]
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I grew up in the 1950s and always ate cookie dough and cake batter (cleaning the bowl and licking the beaters) In the 1980 I let my daughter do the same. Also in the mid-1980s I tried to gain weight by adding sugar and a raw egg to Carnation’s Instant Breakfast.
I didn’t hear about it being dangerous until the mid 2000s. I still eat eggs over easy.