Cookie dough has graduated from childhood pleasure to an official food group. Travel and Leisure magazine calls it "all the rage," with shops in big cities like New York and Los Angeles that are dedicated to it entirely. Of course, people stand and wait in line.

Dallas joins the trend via a new company called The Dough Dough, launched by Gina Ginsburg, a familiar name in Dallas society circles who has a long track record as an entrepreneur.

A graduate of Southern Methodist University, Ginsburg's previous startups include Diamond Affairs, a luxury invitation/stationery boutique, and The Hair Bar. She's also a commercial pilot.

The Dough Dough will be the city's first edible cookie dough confectionery. She'll have a dozen staple flavors available every day, including the classic chocolate chip, plain cookie dough, brownie batter with chocolate chips and Oreo pieces, cake batter dough with confetti sprinkles, oatmeal raisin, salted caramel, S'mores, and more. She'll cycle in additional seasonal flavors, as well as gluten-free and vegan options.

"We'll also offer custom flavors," she says. "If someone comes in and says they want pretzel cranberry cookie dough for a party, we'll do that."

You can buy it by the scoop, $4 each, or cookie dough ice cream sandwiches, with flat, cookie-sized slabs of cookie dough enclosing ice cream filling. Cookie dough ice cream pie goes for $5 per slice or $35 for the whole pie.

For now, she'll concentrate on online orders, but she's also close to signing a lease on a location where she'll set up a retail shop.

Cookie dough made at home is one thing; but as a commercial enterprise, recipes modifications are a must, and she worked with consultants to get it right and, importantly, make sure it was safe.

"I felt that it was important to keep the consistency and texture similar to what you have at home," she says. "It has pasteurized eggs, which is key to making sure you can safely eat it raw. It can be stored at room temperature for two hours. But it does have perishable ingredients, including the eggs and butter, so it's best to store it in the refrigerator, where it keeps for 3-4 weeks, and in the freezer for 3-4 months."

Ginsburg was inspired when she saw concepts such as the famed DŌ in New York, but it really all goes back to the days when she would help bake cookies with her grandmother.

"If I followed the recipe, my reward was a little bite of cookie dough," she says. "That's one of my fondest memories from childhood."