Making homemade slime was the activity of choice among grandchildren recently. It was messy and disgusting, but that goes in grandma’s house. Take a look at this previous post, “Being Cool Slime . . . ing with Grandchildren Might Not Be Without Its Messes But is As Simple As You Want To Make It.”
Now, making slime has been replaced among our grandchildren. What seems to be in vogue for the moment is making homemade cookie dough. Of course, our grandchildren love cookie dough, sometimes more than the baked cookies, but not only do we have to worry about raw eggs in the cookie dough, we have to worry about raw flour too.
In the New York Times, November 22, 2017 in the article, “Thanks a Lot! New Reasons Not to Eat Cookie Dough,” the author, Jan Hoffman, reports that “[T]asting uncooked foods made with flour can make you dangerously ill, according to a study published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. The report, which recounts the detective work that led to a recall of more than 10 million pounds of flour in the summer of 2016, confirms that a type of E. coli bacteria previously discovered lurking in wet environments like hamburger meat and leafy vegetables can also thrive in arid hosts.
E Coli! Just during the holiday season when we cook with flour, we cannot taste uncooked foods with raw eggs, and now with uncooked flour. We are told to now wash our hands with soap and water after handling uncooked flour, even after breading chicken or fish or the like, or making raw dough. We are told to bake flour at high temperatures to kill the bacteria. Read all about the study, the problem, and potential solutions in the article.
So, how can we have our grandchildren partake in homemade cookie dough? Leave out eggs. To eliminate any bacteria, toast the flour at least 350 degrees for several minutes, at least five minutes before using to make the cookie dough. Some recipes on line for homemade cookie dough tell you to do this. If they do not or the ones your grandchildren bring to you do not tell you to leave out raw eggs and to toast the flour in a hot oven first, discard the recipe.
Our granddaughter found a perfect recipe, “Edible Cookie Dough For Two” on the website called Family Fresh Meals. It includes ingredients we grandmas always keep in our kitchen: brown sugar, butter, salt, vanilla, milk, flour, and, of course, chocolate chips. On the website, there are step by step directions and pictures to illustrate what to do, making it an easy and perfect recipe to do with young grandchildren too.
Again, for those bakers among us, do not eat anything made with raw flour until fully cooked and wash thoroughly when handling raw eggs or uncooked flour!
My son-in-law found a great healthy, dairy free, vegan, and gluten free “2-Ingredient Strawberry Banana Ice Cream’ recipe on a website called Two Peas and Their Pod.
All you need to do is freeze four large very ripe bananas and 1 pound of strawberries, washed and hulled. Take a look at the website for this recipe and other easy and great healthy ice cream recipes. Now we can offer our grandchildren strawberry banana ice cream for breakfast with their parents’ approval!
Yes, mix in the cookie dough, more chocolate chips, and other toppings such as rainbow sprinkles. We do have to be more careful to keep and feed ourselves and our precious grandchildren healthy, but we do not have to keep away from treats, just do a little more research for safety first.
Happy Holidays!
Joy,
Mema
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