If you are a baker or someone who cooks regularly, you know that a lot of recipes include flour. It is a very important ingredient and can often make or break your dish.
When a recipe calls for flour, but the dish does not get baked in the oven or microwave, the flour should always be heat treated. The main purpose of heat treating flour is to kill all the bad bacteria and germs that could be in it. If you are cooking something in the oven or microwave, the flour does not need to be heat treated separately.
When you use flour that is not heat treated it is referred to as “raw flour”, and like anything else that is raw, it has the potential to make you sick. Heat treating flour takes less than five minutes, so the process is not time consuming. This quick and easy step can prevent you from ingesting bad bacteria into your body.
To heat treat flour, all you need to do is start by spreading some out on a pan. Then you bake it in the oven for two minute intervals at 300 degrees. I usually do it about twice, making sure to stir the flour between intervals.
Another way to heat treat flour is by heating it in the microwave. To do this, you add the flour into a bowl and microwave it for 30 second intervals, stirring each time. In order for the flour to be fully treated, the flour must be at around 165 degrees.
To test out the flour heat treating process, you can try making yourself a bowl of edible cookie dough. This is the perfect late night snack and only includes a few ingredients. It is eggless and if you heat treat the flour, it is perfectly safe to eat.
Leave a comment below or on my social media if you want me to post my recipe for edible cookie dough!
The Baker's Manual 