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By Becky Krystal

Edible Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. (Scott Suchman/For The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky)

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Good Saturday morning, everyone. Hope your weekend is going well and that you have some great meals planned. Maybe some baking is on the agenda?

If you’re thinking about making cookies, there’s a good chance you may be looking forward to that moment when you steal a bite of the raw dough before it’s baked. So good, but also not particularly safe, because there’s a chance the flour could be contaminated with both salmonella and E. coli.

This may sound like a problem not worth solving. Still, the risk is real, and so is the joy of eating cooking dough. That’s why I was excited when cookbook author and blogger Kathryn Pauline reached out to me with a solution to the dilemma: Edible Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, this week’s featured recipe. Pauline begins by making a roux. This cooked paste of flour and butter is the thickening agent for many types of sauces and dishes, and here it serves a crucial role: Heating the ingredients until they’ve reached a high enough temperature to drastically reduce the bacterial risks of raw flour. (There are no eggs in this recipe either.)

Also, perhaps even more importantly, it tastes great. Both the butter and flour take on a golden color and toasty, nutty flavors, and once the mixture is combined with two types of sugar and vanilla, the overall effect is one of toffee-like goodness. Let the dough sit in the fridge until cool but still malleable, add chocolate chips, and prepare to be wowed. I ate this by the spoonful, though you could crumble it into or on top of ice cream; dip in melted chocolate for cookie dough truffles; or press into a pan to use as the crust for other desserts.

This delightful treat is worth the effort, so if you’re game to invest the time in it (or another dessert!), maybe you need something that’s a slightly lighter lift for dinner. Allow me to recommend Ellie Krieger’s Curried Chicken Salad With Grapes and Almonds. Because it uses a rotisserie chicken, there’s very little cooking involved, though Ellie does suggest you toast the nuts for the best flavor. There’s an enticing mix of textures (juicy grapes, crunchy almonds, creamy yogurt) and flavors (sharp lemon, fragrant curry powder, grassy cilantro) here that is anything but dull. Ellie likes to serve the salad in lettuce leaves. Of course, it would be just as good in a sandwich or wrap. I can hardly think of a better easy summer meal, which is why I’m sharing links to a few other chicken salad recipes below.

While we have cookie dough on the mind, I loved the question a reader submitted in this week’s live cooking chat about how to add more chips to the classic Nestlé Toll House recipe — or at least how to increase the appearance of them. What other food queries are on your mind? I’ll be back to answer them Thursday at 11 a.m. Eastern. Submit your questions now, then be sure to return when I start the conversation.

Until next week, happy cooking.

Curried Chicken Salad With Grapes and Almonds

(Scott Suchman/For The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky)

This luscious chicken salad is golden and fragrant with curry powder, and features bites of juicy, sweet grapes, crunchy almonds, celery and red onion.

By Ellie Krieger

Edible Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Lemony Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwiches

Chicken Salad Tartines

Ranch Chicken Salad Wraps

Double Mango Curry Chicken Salad Sandwich

Recipe of the week

(Scott Suchman/For The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky)

Edible Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Find substitution suggestions and other tips below the recipe.

Save or print the recipe

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. For both fridge and freezer storage, scoop the dough into balls or crumbles while it is still malleable (right after adding the chocolate chips), freeze or refrigerate on a sheet pan, then transfer to a zip-top bag or jar. It stays soft enough that you can enjoy it straight from the fridge or freezer. Like any cookie dough, it will not freeze completely solid.

Servings: 12 to 16 (makes about 2 cups)

Active time: 30 mins

Total time: 1 hour 10 mins

Ingredients

10 tablespoons (140 grams) unsalted butter (see tips, below)
1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (60 milliliters) whole milk, plus more as needed
1/3 cup (65 grams) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (75 grams) packed light or dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fine salt, plus more as needed
1/2 cup (85 grams) chocolate chips (any type)

Steps

1. In a medium (3-quart/3-liter) saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter, stirring occasionally. Keep a close eye on it and reduce the heat as needed to prevent burning. It will start out very loud, and after a few minutes will suddenly get a bit quieter as the water in the butter cooks out and evaporates. As soon as that happens, add the flour and cook, still over medium heat, stirring constantly and reducing the heat as needed to keep it from scorching, until the mixture reaches 300 degrees on an instant-read thermometer and you start to see a few golden-brown flecks, 5 to 7 minutes. The mixture will smell nutty and almost toffee-like.

2. Immediately remove from the heat, add the milk (the mixture will bubble up and thicken), and stir until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds. Stir in the sugars, vanilla and salt.

3. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and refrigerate for 30 to 60 minutes. (Set a timer, because if you leave it too long, it will solidify and it will be difficult to stir in the chocolate chips. It will take closer to 30 minutes in a steel bowl and 60 minutes in a glass container.) Check on it after 30 minutes, then check again every 10 minutes or so. If during chilling you notice the dough is too crumbly and dry, stir in 1 teaspoon of milk at a time until it reaches your desired consistency.

4. Once the dough is still soft enough to stir (and no longer warm to the touch, so it will not melt the chocolate), stir in the chocolate chips. Taste, and season with more salt, if desired. Serve right away, or scoop or crumble into your desired portions before refrigerating or freezing.

From cookbook author and food blogger Kathryn Pauline. Tested by Becky Krystal.

Nutrition information per serving (2 tablespoons), based on 16: Calories: 154; Total Fat: 9 g; Saturated Fat: 6 g; Cholesterol: 19 mg; Sodium: 75 mg; Carbohydrates: 18 g; Dietary Fiber: 1 g; Sugar: 12 g; Protein: 1 g.

Substitution suggestions + other tips and ideas:

To make this vegan or dairy-free >> use nondairy butter in place of the regular butter; soy milk or almond milk in place of the dairy milk; and vegan chocolate chips.
If you strictly avoid all alcohol >> use 1 teaspoon vanilla powder or nonalcoholic vanilla flavoring instead of vanilla extract.
If using a higher-fat European butter, reduce the amount to 8 tablespoons (1 stick/113 grams).
To make snickerdoodle dough: Skip the chocolate chips. Omit the brown sugar and use all granulated sugar for a total of 140 grams. After molding into your desired shape (balls, crumbles or a sheet), dust with cinnamon sugar (two parts sugar to one part cinnamon, or your preferred ratio) before chilling.
To make rainbow sprinkle dough: Omit the brown sugar and use all granulated sugar for a total of 140 grams. Increase the vanilla to 2 teaspoons. At the point where you would stir in the chocolate chips, instead stir in 1/2 cup (80 grams) rainbow sprinkles.
To make monster cookie dough: Add 1/3 cup (35 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats, 1/4 cup (65 grams) natural creamy peanut butter and 2 tablespoons more milk when you add the sugars, and replace half or all of the chocolate chips with mini M&Ms.If you’re gluten-free, you can make this recipe with a cup-for-cup replacement blend. We used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour in our testing. It will look much thinner during the roux stage, but it will thicken once you add the milk. With a gluten-free flour blend, the mixture will start browning earlier, so you will need to pour in the milk around 260 to 270 degrees to make sure it doesn’t scorch. This gluten-free alternative will turn out crumblier than the standard version, so we don’t recommend using it in applications where it must hold a distinct shape.