Betty Crocker Spoon & Bake Cookie Dough
Betty Crocker Spoon & Bake Cookie Dough
Straight from the cabinet and into your mouth!
In the world of baking, few names evoke a sense of nostalgia quite like Betty Crocker. For decades, it has been synonymous with delicious homemade treats and foolproof recipes. In 1975, the brand and its owner, General Mills, made a big leap forward in cookie technology when they released a ready-to-bake canned room-temperature-safe cookie dough.
Unfortunately, while many people remember the product, not a lot of information about it is available. Here is what we know. It found its way on to store shelves in March of 1975. A can would run you about 99 cents and contained 18 ounces (0.68 kg) of shelf-stable cookie dough. While chocolate chip appeared to be the most popular flavor, they also offered Peanut Butter, Sugar, and Oatmeal Raisin.
Online, I haven’t been able to find much detail about the ingredients or the process they used to make the dough. I did find assorted patents filed by General Mills Inc. between 1971 and 1975 that were related to shelf-stable dough treatments. Unfortunately, none of them were obviously pointing to use in cookies. They did include a lot of additives that preserved the dough and at least one that could be used as a substitute for egg yolk.
Perhaps it was not just one process that made the Spoon & Bake possible, but a combination of new food making innovations. Whatever the technological magic was, it sadly didn’t last very long. I might know the reason for that. Since I cannot find first-hand accounts in writing about the product, I will have to rely on what I learned from family members.
I wasn’t lucky enough to get to try it back in the day, but heard about it from my sisters. They are a bit older than me, and like most kids, they dreamed about a world where one could eat cookie dough straight from the package. Then out of the blue, their wish was granted when Spoon & Bake appeared at the local Acme Market.
I am not sure how they got a can. I am guessing my mom bought it to bake some cookies, but having spoonable cookie dough within reach was too much for my sisters to resist, and they cracked it open. Not only did they get in trouble for doing so, that is how I heard this story, but they also discovered it didn’t taste very good.
According to them, it wasn’t that is didn’t taste like cookie dough. It did, but a lot of the enjoyment of cookie dough isn’t just the taste, but the texture. Spoon & Bake might have made a decent cookie when it was baked, but straight from the can, it was a mediocre treat. Still, they did laugh after admitting they had finished the entire can. After all, it was still cookie dough.
In 1975, the baking world experienced a groundbreaking innovation with the release of ready-to-bake canned cookie dough. This game-changing product, which could be stored at room temperature, offered a convenient and enticing way to enjoy homemade cookies. While specific details about the ingredients and manufacturing process are scarce, the allure of spoonable cookie dough straight from a can still captures the imaginations of many. Despite its flaws, Spoon & Bake holds a special place in the hearts of those who fondly recall how close we came to snackable cookie dough in the mid-seventies.
I was never shy about eating raw cookie dough as a kid (or as an adult), whether it was packaged or homemade. I knew that you could get food poisoning from Salmonella in raw eggs, but since we used pasteurized eggs I always figured that the risk was minimal, thus the cookie dough was safe enough…and worth the minimal risk for the delightful eating experience.
However, I just learned that raw eggs are not the only threat. Apparently, flour is also a "raw" ingredient, though I've never really thought of it that way. Untreated flour can cause food poisoning from both E. coli and Salmonella…so riskier than the eggs that my mother warned me about. Poisonous flour, who knew? Maybe the Salem witches now that I think about ergot poisoning.
I don't know what magical process Betty Crocker used back in the day for the Spoon & Bake, which I never had the opportunity to try, but these days, companies apparently make edible cookie dough with heat-treated flour and pasteurized eggs or no eggs…although the products I've noticed are still kept refrigerated. I vote for a return to the can.
I vaguely remember this. I can recall making the cookies in a toaster oven. Didn't Pilsbury start selling cookie dough et-al in a tube around this time too? I recall that being a better product.
>I would love to get a look at a can, just to see the full ingredient list. I think I could learn a lot about what it might have been like if I could.
....all reverse engineered from a crashed flying saucer....
Say; wasn't it around this time that canned "pizza spread" came out as well? THAT I remember. Hard to forget something like that. Like forgetting the time your tastebuds were assailed by a horde of tiny, vicious wolverines....
Don C.