Raw cookie dough can give you diarrhea
and a bunch of other things you don’t want for Christmas. Holiday cookies and other treats are a special part of the season, but eating anything uncooked is a really bad idea. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising everyone to “say no to raw dough.”
Raw cookie dough
also contains uncooked flour, which can be contaminated with E. coli — a bacteria that causes cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea.
When you prepare homemade dough for cookies, cakes, and bread, you may be tempted to taste a bite before it is fully baked. But steer clear of this temptation—
you can get sick after eating or tasting unbaked products that are intended to be baked
, such as dough or batter.
Q: What are the odds of someone getting sick after eating raw cookie dough? A:
The risk is super small
. The risk of an individual getting sick from eating raw flour or raw eggs is very low.
There isn’t a single documented case of anyone dying
from eating cookie dough. One woman, Linda Rivera, died four years after contracting E. coli from nibbling raw Nestle Toll House cookie dough that sickened 65 people in 2009. Nestle settled with her family for an undisclosed amount.
Can undercooked bread make you sick?
The short answer is
no
. Eating raw dough made with flour or eggs can make you sick. … Raw eggs may contain Salmonella bacteria, and should never be consumed raw or undercooked. Breads, cookies, cakes, biscuits, and any other baked good should always be fully cooked before it is eaten.
What happens if you eat flour?
Caution: Eating raw
flour can make you sick
. … In fact, eating raw dough or raw batter could make you sick, in part, because flour can contain bacteria that cause disease, according to a warning from the U. S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It’s not easy to resist the temptation to taste that
raw cookie dough
. But that’s not a safe thing to do. Raw cookie dough contains uncooked flour and eggs. These have the potential to cause food poisoning and bacterial infections like salmonella.
What happens if you eat undercooked flour?
What about this warning from the FDA: “Because uncooked flour can be contaminated with a variety of disease-causing germs,
including E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria
, eating uncooked dough or batter, whether for bread, cookies, pie crust, pizza and tortillas can cause illness.”
Homemade cookie dough should be stored in small containers in the refrigerator for
two to four days
or freeze for two months. Alternatively, small quantities of dough can be frozen and thawed in the refrigerator as needed.
Once it’s clear that you do have limp cookies or less-than-crispy crackers, put them back into a
preheated 300° F or 325° F oven
, regardless of the original (presumably higher) baking temperature. I tend to use 300° F for items that can’t afford to get darker, and 325° if a little extra color won’t hurt.
Chocolate chip cookies made with softened butter vs melted butter. In terms of flavor and texture,
there’s no difference
. The cookies made with melted butter spread a tad more, but this difference is even less after the dough has been chilled (for a minimum of 1 hour).
All Pillsbury refrigerated cookie and brownie dough will be safe to eat raw
, according to a statement from General Mills. The reformulated cookie dough is made with heat-treated flour and pasteurized eggs, which kills pathogens that can cause foodborne illnesses in the raw product, according to the company’s website.
Why is my quick bread raw in the middle?
The bread looks done on the outside but it’s still raw in the middle. This is one of the most common quick bread problems, and it can be caused by a few different factors.
The oven temperature could be too high
. (Use an oven thermometer to check: they’re cheap and available at most supermarkets.)
Why is my bread doughy in the middle?
Air circulating around the loaf allows the steam built up inside the bread to evaporate.
If the bread is kept in its baking pan, it will become soggy and look and taste doughy
. … To insure the correct temperature each time you bake, always use an oven thermometer. Place it in the center of the oven.
How do you know when bread is fully cooked?
Use a thermometer (I like the Thermapen) to assess the doneness of pan breads, freeform loaves, and soft rolls. A
temperature of 190°F at the center
will yield bread that’s fully baked (soft and moist) but not over-baked (tough and dry).
