Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

We have some cooler days right now, perfect weather for a treat from the oven, in this case cookie, as in one big one.

There are all kinds of recipes and methods out there for skillet cookies, but to me, the point of baking a cookie in a frying pan is to keep it simple and fast with a very minimum of prep work and clean up. The trick is to let the butter soften and begin to melt over very low heat, but not let it get hot. You want to be able to get on with it quickly, and not have to wait while the butter cools off before you stir in the egg (nobody wants scrambled egg in their cookie!) plus if the dough is too hot all the chocolate chips melt. Then it becomes chocolate skillet cookie (no chips!).

The other thing about this recipe is that you need an oven-proof skillet/frying pan. Lots of you probably have a cast-iron pan, and that works great. If you don’t, as you can see in the picture above, I used my ordinary non-stick skillet, but wrapped the handle in a couple of layers of aluminum foil. At 350° F, the foil is enough to keep the handle from getting damaged.

So that sounds a bit complicated, but it isn’t really. Once through the process and you’ll be a dab hand next time:)

Skillet Cookie

Preheat oven to 350° F.

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla paste or extract

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt, if desired

1 cup chocolate chips

In a small bowl, stir together flour, soda and salt (if using). Set aside. Using an 8″ ovenproof skillet, soften butter on lowest heat of stove-top burner. When butter is softened and beginning to melt, remove pan from heat. Stir in sugar and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Incorporate beaten egg quickly. Then add flour and chocolate chips, mixing well. Smooth the dough to the edges of the pan. Bake at 350° F for about 20 minutes, until cookie is just set and golden brown. Cool 10-15 minutes and then gently loosen cookie from pan and slip out onto cutting board to slice into wedges.