Ready-to-Eat Cookie Dough Invades Boston-Area Malls and Beyond

Greater Boston’s options are slowly growing for ready-to-eat cookie dough, a sweet treat that brings back memories of licking the spoon while baking cookies at home — albeit in giant ice cream scoop-sized portions and without the raw egg. (Raw flour can also be a cause for concern when sneaking a bite of cookie dough at home, but shops that sell ready-to-eat cookie dough use heat-treated flour.)

The newest addition to the local scene is a location of the Dough Life chain, now open within the Cambridgeside (100 Cambridgeside Pl., East Cambridge) and delivering around the area.

With major players like the New York-based Dō (which has hinted at the possibility of Boston expansion in the past), ready-to-eat cookie dough has been a slow-growing trend that’s resisted the ubiquity of, say, froyo or juice bars, but it’s still making inroads.

Here’s the rundown on current options — and potential future options — in the Boston area.

Dough Life

The new Cambridgeside Dough Life brings the total in Massachusetts up to three for this chain, which operates 53 total, many out of malls, in a swath across the Northeast and into Texas. There is one Dough Life at the South Shore Plaza in Braintree and a second at the Holyoke Mall. The menu consists of various flavors of cookie dough, from red velvet and classic chip to brownie batter and cinnamon bun.

Treat Cupcake Bar

This Needham bakery (1450 Highland Ave.) specializes in cupcakes, as the name implies, but last summer it added a dessert “raw bar” to its menu. The bakery’s lineup of ready-to-eat cookie dough includes an assortment of flavors like chocolate chip and peanut butter fudge, available in four-ounce portions or “flights” of four flavors.

Little Donkey

The Central Square restaurant (505 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge) from Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette serves chocolate chip cookie dough for dessert; it’s been a fixture on the menu since the restaurant opened. The heaping scoop of dough is presented on a mixing beater alongside milk foam and cacao nibs.

By Chloe (not currently available)

New York’s vegan chain now operates three locations in Boston (in the Seaport District, Fenway, and Back Bay), and in the past it has offered a version of edible vegan cookie dough in collaboration with Dō. The By Chloe/Dō doughs included cinnamon espresso cookie, old-fashioned chocolate chip cookie, and matcha chocolate babka and were offered as a special summer treat last year. There’s no dough on the menu at the moment, but keep an eye out for any returning collaborations.

Dō (no Boston location...yet)

Meanwhile, Dō has been slinking on the edge of a foray into Boston for a couple years now — it was once a vendor at the Boston Calling music festival and even locked down social media handles back in 2017 in the event of an expansion to this area. Yet Boston has remained Dō-less, with no recent word on whether the shop will eventually expand. In the meantime, its dough can be purchased online. (Dō is also a confirmed vendor for Brooklyn’s forthcoming Time Out Market; might Bostonians see a location at the forthcoming Fenway location of Time Out Market? Stay tuned.)