Cookie Dough Frosting Recipe

This cookie dough frosting is a brown sugar buttercream made with butter, light brown sugar, powdered sugar, heat-treated flour, heavy cream, vanilla, salt, and mini chocolate chips. It takes about 15 minutes, plus 5 to 7 minutes to toast the flour, and it frosts 12 cupcakes or a 9×13 inch cake.

It tastes like the chocolate chip cookie dough you used to sneak from the bowl, and it is safe to eat because there are no eggs and the flour is baked first. The flour is also what makes it different from a plain buttercream: it gives the frosting that thick, soft, dough-like body.

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Is Cookie Dough Frosting Safe to Eat?

Yes. This frosting has no eggs, and the flour is baked at 350°F (175°C) for 5 to 7 minutes until it reaches 165°F, which is the temperature that makes raw flour safe to eat.

Spread the flour in a thin layer on a baking sheet so it heats evenly. I check it with an instant-read thermometer pushed into the middle of the pile. It should smell faintly toasty, not browned. Stir it once if the edges color faster than the center.

Let it cool completely, then sift it. Heat can press flour into small hard clumps, and those clumps stay as white specks in the frosting. Use all-purpose flour. Almond flour, even toasted, changes the texture too much.

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Light Brown Sugar and Butter Set the Flavor

Softened butter and ¾ cup of packed light brown sugar are the base, and they are where the cookie taste comes from. Brown sugar brings a caramel warmth and that soft golden color.

I have used both light and dark brown sugar. Light brown gives a milder, rounder sweetness. Dark brown carries more molasses and can bury the vanilla. I keep to light.

Beat the butter and brown sugar for 2 to 3 minutes, until the mixture looks paler and fluffy. Before you start, press any hard lumps out of the brown sugar with your fingers. Brown sugar never fully dissolves in butter, so a lump that goes in hard stays as a sandy bit in every swirl.

If you want a simpler frosting to learn on first, my vanilla buttercream frosting uses the same creaming method with no flour to toast.

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Mixing the Dough-Thick Buttercream

Beat in the vanilla and salt. Do not skip the salt. That ½ teaspoon is what makes the frosting taste like cookie dough and not like sweet butter. Use real vanilla extract, since artificial vanilla fades under this much sugar.

Add the powdered sugar and the cooled flour gradually on low speed. It will look thick, almost like a stiff dough. Good.

Now pour in the heavy cream one tablespoon at a time. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons, and that is usually enough to make it light and pipeable. Only add more, a teaspoon at a time, if it still feels stiff. It is ready when a spoonful holds a soft peak and spreads without tearing.

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Mini Chocolate Chips and Piping Tips

Fold in ½ cup of mini chips at the end. I usually do. They give a small chocolate bite without weighing the frosting down, and because they are so light they stay suspended in the buttercream where regular chips would slowly sink to the bottom of the bowl.

For piping, use a large open star or a large round tip. Mini chips jam small tips and tear the swirl. If you want very neat ridges, leave the chips out of the bag and scatter a few on top of each cupcake instead.

Skip the chips for a layer cake filling. They make it hard to slice clean layers, and the brown sugar flavor carries the frosting fine on its own.

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Gritty, Stiff, or Soupy Cookie Dough Frosting

• Sandy or gritty: brown sugar lumps went in, or the butter and sugar were not creamed long enough. A faint graininess is part of the cookie dough texture; a sandy one is not. Beat for another 2 minutes before adding the cream.
• Soupy or greasy: the flour was still warm, or the butter was too soft. Chill the bowl for 10 to 15 minutes, then beat again briefly.
• Too stiff to pipe: flour soaks up liquid. Add cream one teaspoon at a time.
• White specks: clumps from the toasted flour. Sift it after cooling next time.
• Tastes flat: a small pinch more salt usually fixes it.

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How It Compares to Brown Sugar Frosting and Ermine

Cookie dough frosting is basically a brown sugar buttercream with flour added. Leave the flour out and you get something close to my brown sugar frosting: same caramel taste, softer and smoother, but without the dough-like body.

A plain American buttercream uses only powdered sugar, so it is whiter, sweeter, and crusts more. My ermine frosting sits at the other end. It uses a cooked milk base, it is silkier and less sweet, and I have used both for cupcake orders. For something delicate like a chiffon cake, I pick ermine. For bold flavor, this one wins. You taste brown sugar first, then vanilla, then chocolate.

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Cupcakes, Brownies, and Cookie Cakes

Swirl it tall on vanilla cupcakes, or bake the batter from my vanilla cake as cupcakes and finish each one with a few mini chips. It is thick enough to pipe and soft enough to spread over a 9×13 sheet cake.

For cookie dough brownies, spread a thick layer over a pan of cocoa powder brownies once they are fully cool, then chill until set. It also works as a border on a giant cookie made from my chocolate chip cookie dough, or sandwiched between two soft cookies.

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Making It Ahead and Storing Leftovers

Cookie dough frosting is best piped fresh, but it keeps well. Store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. It firms up a lot when cold. Let it sit at room temperature until soft, then re-whip for a minute to bring back the volume.

To freeze, flatten it in a zip-top bag and freeze for up to a month. Thaw in the fridge overnight and re-whip the next day. Frosted cupcakes can be made the night before and kept in a cool room. The frosting does not crust like sugar cookie frosting, but it holds its shape.

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Cookie Dough Buttercream Questions

Can I make cookie dough frosting with no flour?

You can, but it stops tasting and feeling like dough. Without flour it becomes a softer brown sugar buttercream. The flour is what gives the thick, slightly chewy body.

Is this a good buttercream for a cookie cake?

Yes. Pipe it around the edge of a cooled cookie cake with a large open star tip, and sprinkle the mini chips on top instead of mixing them in.

Does cookie dough frosting crust?

Not much. It firms up in the fridge and holds piped swirls at room temperature, but it stays soft to the touch.

Can I use it as a filling between cake layers?

Yes. Leave the chips out so the layers slice cleanly, and chill the filled cake for 20 to 30 minutes before frosting the outside.

If you like this one, my sugar cookie frosting is the firmer option for decorated cookies, and the brownie frosting is a fudgy chocolate topping for the same pan of brownies.