Making edible cookie dough without milk isn’t hard to do; in fact, it’s pretty easy! Using only a few simple ingredients, you can whip up deliciously effortless edible cookie dough without needing to add any dairy at all. In this post, I’ll detail how to do it, along with a few suggestions on how you can swap ingredients in traditional edible cookie dough recipes to make them dairy free.

Table of Contents
- Edible Cookie Dough Without Milk or Butter
- How to Make Dairy Free Cookie Dough
- How to Heat Treat Flour For Edible Cookie Dough Without Milk
- Dairy Free Edible Cookie Dough (Two Ways!)
- Does Edible Cookie Dough Contain Milk?
- Making Edible Cookie Dough Without Milk: It’s Easy!
- FAQs

Coconut Oil Dairy Free Edible Cookie Dough
Description
Making edible cookie dough without milk or butter can be accomplished in several ways. This one’s an edible cookie dough that’s totally safe for a dairy free diet.
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
- dash of salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1–2 tablespoons almond milk
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil (or melted vegan butter if you’d prefer)
- ¼ cup dairy free chocolate chips
Instructions
- Begin by mixing your almond flour, salt, and cinnamon (if using) together in a bowl.
- To this mixture, add your vanilla, melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and almond milk. Stir until well combined, adding more milk if needed until it reaches the desired consistency.
- Carefully fold in dairy free chocolate chips.
- Chill at least 30 minutes, or serve immediately.
- Enjoy!
- Category: dessert
Keywords: coconut oil cookie dough
Edible Cookie Dough Without Milk or Butter
At this point, you may be wondering what other ingredients in edible cookie dough might contain dairy. As you probably already know, most traditional cookie dough recipes utilize butter and lots of it. Using salted or unsalted butter in an edible cookie dough recipe is delicious, no doubt, but it is just as much dairy as milk.
So, what can you do? Using vegan butter is your safest bet. And while you could also use oil, we don’t recommend that you do so unless a recipe specifically calls for it. By substituting butter with oil in a typical edible cookie dough without milk recipe, you’ll risk making your dough too oily.
Instead, choose a recipe, like the one I’ve got listed below, that specifically calls for oil. This will ensure that there is the correct ratio of dry to wet ingredients to keep your edible cookie dough without milk from becoming greasy.
How to Make Dairy Free Cookie Dough
Making a dairy free cookie dough isn’t as hard as you might think.
In most cases, you can take an ordinary edible cookie dough recipe and swap a few ingredients to make it dairy free.
In most cases, the following swaps work well:
- Use vegan butter in lieu of regular butter
- Use water or plant-based milk instead of dairy milk
- Use dairy free chocolate chips instead of traditional chocolate chips
Remember that if you’d rather use coconut oil instead of butter, you’ll need to find a recipe already tailored for utilizing oil rather than butter to make a delicious cookie dough recipe. But don’t worry; I’ve got one for you on the way!
Other Important Notes For Making Edible Cookie Dough Safe
While making edible cookie dough without milk sounds like a delicious way to satisfy cookie dough cravings, the truth is that you must exercise precaution when making an edible cookie dough of any sort.
The reason? Making edible cookie dough the wrong way can actually lead to devastating health effects due to improper use of ingredients. Besides avoiding butter or milk in accordance with a dairy free lifestyle, you’ll also need to ensure that you heat treat flour you use in the cookie dough.
Regular cookie dough typically has eggs and raw flour in it. This is fine as the cookie dough will get baked which works to kill bacteria. The issue when consuming raw cookie dough, however, is that the flour and egg in the dough isn’t going to be cooked, meaning the bacteria from the flour and egg will still remain.
To deal with this problem, it is important that you forgo adding eggs to edible cookie dough, and also, that you use only heat-treated flour when making your edible dough recipes. Heat treating flour is very easy to do and only requires a few simple steps prior to mixing the rest of your ingredients in. I’ve included the steps for heat treating flour below, so be sure to stay tuned.
How to Heat Treat Flour For Edible Cookie Dough Without Milk
Before diving into these yummy edible cookie dough recipes, let’s first review how to heat treat flour. Note that almond flour does not need to be heat treated. However, it is important that raw flour containing wheat first be heat treated before using.
- To heat treat flour, spread it thinly over a baking sheet.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake the flour for 7-10 minutes.
- Allow the flour to cool before using.
Alternatively, you can microwave your flour by placing it in a microwave-safe bowl and nuking it for 30 seconds. Test the flour with a food thermometer. If the flour hasn’t yet reached 165 degrees Fahrenheit, continue to warm the flour at 10 second intervals until it does.

Dairy Free Edible Cookie Dough (Two Ways!)
Making edible cookie dough without milk or butter can be accomplished in several ways, however, these two are my favorite. One utilizes no butter or milk, while the other uses dairy free cookie dough ingredient swaps to make traditional edible cookie dough totally safe for a dairy free diet.
So, if you’re ready, let’s get into the details.
Coconut Oil Dairy Free Edible Cookie Dough
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
- dash of salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoons almond milk
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil (or melted vegan butter if you’d prefer)
- ¼ cup dairy free chocolate chips
Directions
- Begin by mixing your almond flour, salt, and cinnamon (if using) together in a bowl.
- To this mixture, add your vanilla, melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and almond milk. Stir until well combined, adding more milk if needed until it reaches the desired consistency.
- Carefully fold in dairy free chocolate chips.
- Chill at least 30 minutes, or serve immediately.
- Enjoy!
Vegan Dairy Free Edible Cookie Dough
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup vegan butter melted
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup heat treated all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup vegan dairy free chocolate chips
Directions
- Begin by heat treating your flour according to the directions previously stated in the post.
- Once the flour has cooled, set it aside.
- To a mixing bowl, add your brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vegan butter. With a hand mixer, beat the sugar and butter until fluffy.
- Stir in your vanilla extract.
- To this, sift in your heat treated flour until combined.
- Carefully fold in your dairy free chocolate chips.
- Chill at least 30 minutes, or serve immediately.
- Enjoy!
Does Edible Cookie Dough Contain Milk?
Yes. Unlike traditional cookie dough, edible cookie dough typically involves milk. Milk is needed to make edible cookie dough the right consistency without becoming too dry and crumbly.
When making edible cookie dough, you’ll notice that most edible chocolate chip cookie dough, sugar cookie dough, or other edible dough types only require 1-2 tablespoons of milk. While this isn’t a lot, those that are sensitive to dairy may still experience negative symptoms associated with consuming even this minimal amount.
How Does Milk Affect Cookie Dough?
Milk affects cookie dough by making it pliable enough to scoop up with a spoon to eat. However, you need to be careful about how much milk you add to your edible cookie dough. Adding too much liquid will make your cookie dough too soft and soupy, while adding too little may make your dough thick, hard, and potentially crumbly.
What Can I Use Instead of Milk in Cookie Dough?
Instead of using milk in cookie dough, you can just as easily use almond milk, oat milk, soy milk, or, yep, plain water. Although using water won’t yield as rich of a taste as using non-dairy milk, you’ll likely not notice much difference since only 1-2 tablespoons isn’t likely to change the edible cookie dough’s taste.
Making Edible Cookie Dough Without Milk: It’s Easy!
Making edible cookie dough without milk is as easy as substituting the milk with water or a plant-based dairy free milk option. However, replacing the butter isn’t always as easy.
While it’s best to substitute regular butter in an edible cookie dough recipe for vegan butter, those wishing to use coconut or other types of oil should only use recipes that specifically call for oil in the ingredients. This will keep the cookie dough from becoming too greasy.
I hope you enjoy these dairy free edible cookie dough recipes the next time cookie dough cravings strike! Until next time!
FAQs
Does a cookie need milk?
Traditional cookie dough doesn’t normally require milk in the ingredients. However, it can help to make cookie dough less dry if you find the recipe you’ve used to yield a crumbly dough (INTERNAL). When making edible cookie dough, however, milk is almost always used. Simply use water instead if you aren’t able to use milk.
What happens when you add milk to dough?
Adding milk to cookie dough unnecessarily may make it too thin. This can cause your cookies to become flat, oddly textured, and not as sweet. Only add milk a little at a time to improve a cookie dough’s consistency when needed. Adding too much may yield unsavory results.
Why does milk make cookies better?
Milk can help with the consistency of cookie dough but it isn’t always required. Milk is most commonly used in edible cookie dough recipes rather than traditional ones.
What happens if you use milk instead of water in dough?
You’ll usually end up with richer and more flavorful results. Just be sure to substitute at a 1:1 ratio since using too much milk can ruin your cookie dough.
Can I use water instead of milk for cookie dough?
Yes, you can. Just note that the results may or may not be as rich.