By Jill Gattens
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Cookie dough may have been a forbidden pleasure for most kids, but now it’s the center of one of the most popular dessert trends in America.
That trend recently made its way to the Baltimore region, when Holy Cow Edible Cookie Dough & Ice Cream opened in November 2018.
Located in Uptown Towson, the cookie dough shop sells not only the classic chocolate chip flavored dough, but other sweet flavors, such as Birthday Cake, Holy Cow, Sugar Cookie, Red Velvet and S’mores.
“Cookie dough is in high demand,” said Holy Cow owner Paul Rizas. “It’s new, it’s exciting, it’s fun. Shops are going to be popping up everywhere.”
Cookie dough shops first came into the national spotlight when Kristen Tomlan opened Dō in New York City in January 2017, according to eater.com. Since the opening of the first shop, other shops have found homes in various locations, such as Bethesda, Washington and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
“Before I opened, there wasn’t a cookie dough shop in Baltimore,” Rizas said. “It was something to give Towson. It hasn’t reached us yet in Baltimore, so we’re excited to bring it to the area.”
Holy Cow prides itself with making their cookie dough in-house.
After tasting Holy Cow’s cookie dough, Jess Pipher, 19, felt the cookie dough didn’t taste as sweet and good as raw cookie dough.
“I’m a huge fan of actual cookie dough,” Pipher said. “They did have this option where you can get both cookie dough and ice-cream and toppings, which made it a lot better, honestly.”
The concern with eating raw cookie dough is that the dough contains raw eggs or untreated flour. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend eating raw cookie dough because of the bacteria that may lead to food-borne illnesses, such as salmonella and E. coli.
Dr. Kathleen Gould, a Towson University Health Science professor who specializes in nutrition, stressed the importance of distinguishing between cookie dough that may contain raw eggs or untreated flower.
“The average person is not going to identify that there’s a difference between this and just mixing up a batch at home and eating it raw,” Gould said.
Cookie dough becomes edible when it does not contain raw eggs. Holy Cow uses pasteurized eggs and heat-treated flour and emphasizes that its cookie dough is edible when marketing its products.
“I think it’s an indulgence and like any indulgence, you need to do it in moderation,” Gould said. “You need to make sure that you understand that this [cookie dough] that they’re selling at the shops is different from what you might make in your own home.”
According to Google Trends, the Google search interest for “edible cookie dough near me” reached a peak in June 2018. The trend has reached a steady back-and-forth and the interest continues to rise. The most searches are coming from the Mid-Atlantic region, such as Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York.
A once forbidden pleasure is now right around the corner for instant enjoyment.
“You could never really have too much of it and now you can,” Rizas said. “It was once a forbidden pleasure. Growing up, licking the spoon of cookie dough was a treat. Now you can have the whole bowl.”