One of my favorite guilty pleasures is oatmeal/chocolate-chip cookie dough.  YUM!!!

I don't eat the store-bought, unsafe cookie-dough, though.  I make my own...that is made for the express purpose of being frozen and pulled out eaten as dough. While some of these have made it through to baking, my favorite way to eat them is as cookie dough!

We all know that the reason cookie dough is bad to eat is that the raw egg in it poses a risk of salmonella.  I avoid this risk by eliminating the egg.  Who wants to waste an egg on cookie dough that's never going to be cooked, anyway?  An egg substitute added to your favorite recipe is the easiest way to make any recipe cookie-dough safe.

You know I won't leave you hanging there, though.  I've got my favorite recipe along with my usual substitutions for you!

My favorite oatmeal, chocolate-chip recipe is on All Recipes.  I typically make some alterations to almost everything we bake.  Back when I first wanted a raw cookie dough recipe that was healthier to eat, though, I was vegan which meant a good bit of substitutions.  What I created, though, was an excellent frozen cookie dough without any danger of salmonella.

Below, you will find the recipe with the substitutions I use right beside each ingredient in italics:

• 1 cup butter, softened (I almost always use coconut oil for oil or butter when baking.  You should know, though, that this is not a great substitution in the hottest parts of summer in Vegas.  The coconut oil will become liquid even in baked cookies.)
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar (If I'm baking these, I will put the full amount of brown sugar in.  If I'm not, however, then I'll usually cut it in half.  I also like to use my homemade brown sugar.  I thought I had already told you guys about that, but evidently I haven't.  Now you know what Thursday's MomSaver will be!  It's incredibly easy!)
• 1/2 cup sugar  (Even if I'm baking these, I cut the "regular" sugar in half.  I use evaporated cane juice which you can find at most health food stores.)
• 2 eggs (I will use an egg substitute (which you can find linked above) when I'm baking just about anything but brownies. Brownies just don't seem to come out right without at least one egg.)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I haven't made my own yet, but would love to!  It's SO easy!  In the meantime, we use a gluten-free real (or pure) vanilla extract as opposed to a fake extract.  You can find the real stuff in just about any store now.)
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (We use spelt berries which we grind into flour ourselves because of our daughter's gluten-intolerance.  Anyone can make any flour-based food healthier by buying the wheat and grinding it into flour yourself.  You can find wheat at Wal-Mart, Costco, & Sam's locally in many areas.  However, it will be far cheaper through a co-op such as Azure Standard where they have 50lbs of wheat for under $20.  No, this isn't officially "all-purpose" flour which is actually a combination of red & white wheat.  However, you can create that mix yourself by grinding half of each.  I don't usually bother, though, since I don't usually cook these.)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon salt (I always use sea salt for cooking.)
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats (Here again, you can get the oat groats and roll your own oats.  However, I usually just buy the oats themselves.  We go through a TON of oats!  "Quick-cooking" oats are just rolled oats that have been chopped after being rolled to make them smaller and therefore quicker to cook.  I just use regular oats because I'm a rule-breaker like that.)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (I don't like nuts in my cookies, but it was part of the recipe so I included it here.  I'd save my walnuts for fudge or eating plain.)
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (Enjoy Life is my favorite brand of vegan, gluten, and soy-free chocolate chips.  They are now available in pretty much every store, but are expensive.  They're one of our few guilty pleasures.)

When I make my cookie dough to freeze, I'll roll it into a log, freeze it for 1/2 an hour to make it easier to slice straight and then slice it about 1/4 inch thick.  I'll freeze those on wax paper on a cookie sheet before throwing the slices into a freezer bag.  This way, I can indulge in one of my favorite snacks, but still easily control my portion size.

In case you didn't notice, I have a bit of a problem being told what to do.  Hence my never following a recipe verbatim.  Ever.  In my entire life.  What can I say?  I have issues.