PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for sterilizing oily confectionery dough, efficiently sterilizing so as not to detect mold and coliform group bacteria in a quality test of the oily confectionery dough, in view of the fact that occurrence of growth of mold and coliform group bacteria is rare as oily confectionery represented by chocolate has relatively low moisture, and putting flavor deterioration of oily confectionery by sterilization treatment in a permissible zone.SOLUTION: The method for sterilizing the oily confectionery dough includes dry-heat heating the oily confectionery dough to 80-110°C followed by keeping at the heating temperature for within 10 min, and rapidly cooling the product to 30-60°C so as to effectively sterilize mold and coliform group bacteria while suppressing flavor deterioration. The constituent fatty acid composition of oil and fat in the oily confectionery dough includes preferably ≤15 wt.% of linoleic acid content, and ≤1 wt.% of linolenic acid content.
