How to Make Flour Safe

I learned a new thing the other day. A reader responded to my post on edible peanut butter cookie dough with the warning that raw flour can be somewhat dangerous – at least as much as raw eggs. I looked it up, and the commenter was right! The FDA actually issued a warning about 2 years ago (I’m so behind) that raw flour can be contaminated with E. Coli bacteria, and rarely, but sometimes, can make people sick.

And so, it looked like my very favorite fast snack might be out of the running, especially since I feed it to my littles on the regular, until I reached the end of the article. Turns out, the flour only needs to go through a “kill step” (so called because it kills all those nasty little E. Coli beasties). So the solution is pretty easy – just bake your flour for 5 minutes on 350°. You can then let it cool, put it in an airtight container, and use it whenever you want. So the good news is: