The best skillet chocolate chip cookie is baking made simple. This ingenious recipe takes your favorite cookies and makes one spectacular, sharable dessert.
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If milk’s best friend is a cookie, then ice cream’s best friend is this skillet cookie. Made gooey and chewy right in one pan, it’s a decadent, family-style dessert you can wrap your spoon around.
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I turned my Best Chocolate Chip Cookies into a one-pan wonder. You’ve heard of the Pizookie, seen skillet cookies, but you’ve never tasted one this good. The perfect balance of butter, caramely brown sugar and chocolate.
Before the skillet cookie craze, many years ago, I found out about this wonder-of-a-dessert at a sports restaurant, of all places. Right on the south corner of Times Square in NY was ESPN Zone. I’m telling you, there is no place I’d rather NOT be than a sports bar. But, they had skillet cookies! How could I stay away?
The cookies were made in small cast iron skillets, piping hot when brought to the table and topped with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, hot fudge and whipped cream. Pretty dreamy. And digging in made all the noise and blasts of the games on screens fade away. Ah, a happy place.
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There’s no place I’d rather NOT be than a sports bar. But, they had skillet cookies! How could I stay away?
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The dessert caused a craze with my friends. We wanted our own collections of small cast iron skillets and spent hours searching flea markets. Skillet chocolate chip cookies were our thing! And no more having to go to a sports bar!
The best skillet chocolate chip cookie is made in a family-size 10-inch pan. Oven-proof of course, so it can bake right in the pan it’s mixed in. My technique calls for melting the butter in the skillet on the stove top. Unconventional for a chocolate chip cookie. Usually you want to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl to create those lovely microscopic air bubbles that help with structure and leavening. I use this method in my Black Sesame Chocolate Chip Cookies and Pecan Crispies.
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The best skillet chocolate chip cookie is served warm, slightly gooey and with a dollop of ice cream. Let the whole crowd dig in.
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Melting the butter creates a more dense cookie, but it’s great for this one served hot, and scooped out of the pan with some ice cream. Once you mix in the sugars and vanilla I suggest letting the mixture cool for just a minute so the egg doesn’t get cooked, before it gets cooked! In goes the egg, flour and other dry ingredients and finally those chocolate chunks.
Chips work well too, but I love a good bite of chocolate with every bite of this dessert so I used bigger pieces. Make sure to stir the chocolate in quickly and spread the batter into the pan evenly. Mixing it too much will allow the chocolate to melt and you’ll end up with chocolate marbled cookies!
Check out the easy recipe below. Make it gluten free by swapping the all-purpose flour with Cup 4 Cup all-purpose gluten-free flour. It’s that simple!
- 10 tbsp unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ cup chocolate chunks
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Heat oven to 350°F. In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet melt butter over medium-low heat and remove pan from stove. Stir in granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla and cool about 5 min.
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Whisk egg into pan until blended. Add flour, baking soda and salt and stir until smooth. Quickly stir in chocolate chunks and press dough into an even layer. Bake until surface is golden but center is still soft, 18 to 22 min.
Mix up a decadent cookie dough in an ovenproof skillet, bake it - and dessert is served, with only one dish to wash.
I used a non-stick, oven-proof skillet for this recipe, but a cast-iron skillet like this one works perfectly as well:
I love all things skillet! Here are a few other recipes to use with your oven-proof skillet, including some more cookies!
Green Beans with Artichokes and Capers
Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Skillet Scone
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Recipe Tara Teaspoon. Photography William Brinson. Props Penelope Bouklas. Originally published in LHJ 03/14.
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What a great idea! When you need a cookie, this will do the trick in a hurry!
Skillet cookies are the best!! Especially with some yummy vanilla ice cream