(Photo courtesy of The Dough Jar)

Bending the rules is part of growing up, and in the kitchen, few childhood transgressions are as satisfying as licking a spoonful of raw cookie dough. This year, D.C. is seeing a spike in openings that aim to cash in on that nostalgia, while mitigating the health risks. And shops are putting their own twists on the treat. Think cookie dough in a cup, in a cone, in a milkshake, or even sandwiched between two baked cookies.

Why all this cookie dough now? It’s hard to say. Cookie dough mania arguably got its start when a 2014 episode of Shark Tank propelled an Illinois-based shop to fame. This summer’s openings may simply be timed to coincide with the higher foot traffic common in warmer months. It doesn’t hurt that cookie dough won’t melt like ice cream on a scorching afternoon.

So what makes raw cookie dough risky? Recipes typically contain flour, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. “Most of us know that raw eggs have a risk of Salmonella,” says Captain Cookie and the Milkman co-owner Kirk Francis. Fewer folks realize that raw flour can be unsafe to eat, too, because it can harbor bacteria such as E. coli.

Different shops take different approaches to solving those two problems.

“After experimenting with many egg substitutes, we finally realized that eggs are a big part of what makes cookie dough delicious, and we found a supplier for safe, pasteurized eggs,” Francis says. Every cookie dough-maker must obtain special heat-treated flour, but Captain Cookie toasts their own. The toasted flour made the edible cookie dough taste even better: “richer and more caramelly, like a baked cookie,” Francis says. At Tastemakers food hall in Brookland (2800 10th St. NE) Captain Cookie’s dough parlor serves eight flavors ($3 per serving) with toppings, along with ice cream and milkshakes. A summer flavor called Buttery Lemon Dough arrives this month, or you can indulge in flavors like cookies and cream or Monster, which contains peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips, and M&Ms. Captain Cookie’s food trucks don’t serve dough, but jars of dough are available at the Foggy Bottom location (2000 Pennsylvania Ave. NW).

Like Captain Cookie, New York City’s DŌ Cookie Dough Confections also uses pasteurized eggs. The buzzed-about purveyor (the wait in New York can take hours) has popped up at Top of the Gate at the Watergate Hotel (2650 Virginia Ave. NW). Now through Labor Day, customers can enjoy the store’s bestselling chocolate chip and cake batter flavors ($5 per cup) sold from a bicycle cart. “We are going to see how the summer goes and can possibly add more flavors along the way,” says founder Kristen Tomlan. If raw cookie dough isn’t your thing, the product can be baked into regular cookies, too.

Edible cookie dough at Captain Cookie and the Milkman (Photo by Feifan Wang)

At The Dough Jar‘s pop-up inside Rise Bakery in Adams Morgan (2409 18th St. NW) the gooey goods are eggless.
“When it’s hot outside, our refrigerated dough is cold and refreshing,” says founder Lindsay Goldin. The pop-up offers two sizes of dough jars ($5 and $9) and has concocted lighter flavors for summer, including blueberry lemon and strawberry shortcake. The business, which launched out of the Union Kitchen accelerator, will open its first brick-and-mortar location in Georgetown (1332 Wisconsin Ave. NW) on August 1. The expanded menu will feature dough by the scoop ($4 for 1, $7 for 2), sundaes, and cookie sandwiches with cookie dough filling.

Cookie Dough & Co. has outposts at Westfield Montgomery and Tyson’s Corner malls (7101 Democracy Blvd. and 1961 Chain Bridge Rd.) Yelpers go crazy for the Unicorn flavor, a bright teal concoction with sugar cookie dough, white chocolate chips, sprinkles, and “unicorn blessings.” The business specifies a proprietary flaxseed mix as the egg substitute in their cookie dough scoops ($4.50 for 1, $8 for 2).

At Sophie’s Dough at the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City (1100 S. Hayes St.), owner Sophia Fellers also omits eggs. Her store sells scoops of dough ($4 for 1, $7 for 2, $9 for 3), sandwiches, milkshakes, cookie-dough-stuffed cannoli, and dough pops. Don’t miss Gimmie S’mores, which contains real s’mores and Nutella in the batter. Fellers plans to open a store in the District in 2019.

Have we reached peak cookie dough? Time will tell, but Fellers has a pretty simple assessment of what’s going on for now. “Cookie dough is the new cupcake,” she says, “and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.”