The Microwave Method To Make Raw Flour Safe To Eat

There are a few reasons why you'd want to make raw flour safe to eat — the most common one being edible cookie dough. While many fear the raw eggs in cookie dough, an equally big threat to your health actually lies in the raw flour. Of course, raw flour doesn't exactly look raw, like meat or eggs, but it still comes with its own set of dangers.

The best way to eliminate these dangers is to microwave your raw flour on its own for short intervals — around one minute at a time — until it reaches a temperature that will kill bacteria. You could even whip out a pan and toast the flour, but using a microwave will be much easier. By doing so, you're essentially cooking the flour or heat-treating it, and the strong heat of the microwave will destroy any bacteria present in its raw form, making it not so raw, even though to the naked eye it will look pretty much the same.

Depending on what kind of microwave you own or how old it is, the power levels can be spotty or too strong. For this very reason, you should microwave your flour in intervals of one minute, stirring in between to ensure that the flour is evenly heated. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, raw flour can contain traces of Salmonella and E.coli, since it comes from fields that aren't chemically treated. These harmful strains of bacteria can be killed at high temperatures. So, you should heat your flour to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit to make it safe for consumption.

By microwaving your flour in short increments, you'll also help ensure it doesn't burn or clump together. If you microwave your flour for a long time without any breaks to stir it, there's a good chance that only certain spots will be heated through while other spots never reach the crucial 165 degrees Fahrenheit. These heat spots could result in the flour burning altogether. 

If you are trying to make edible cookie dough, once you properly heat-treat your raw flour to make it safe for consumption, you can combine it with the standard cookie dough ingredients. But here's where you want to give your microwave a rest otherwise you'll end up with cookies instead of delicious, edible cookie dough.