One giant chocolate chip skillet cookie topped with your favorite ice cream and best enjoyed with good company.
Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
There’s nothing better than a good old fashioned giant skillet cookie. I mean… it’s basically an excuse to make 1 giant cookie, so I’ll take that any day lol.
I can remember the first time I made a skillet cookie for Noah. He was absolutely stunned. He had never seen one or heard of one before! And that was before I added the ice cream on top… Now I will say Noah is my biggest supporter and number 1 fan, so he’s impressed by most of the things I make (except for fettuccine alfredo – but that’s a story for another time).
All that to say though, don’t just take Noah’s word for it – this dessert will absolutely stun your group of friends. We’re actually hosting a game night on Thursday with Noah’s twin John and his fiancé Sydney. I’m considering baking this up again for them – it’d be a great addition to our game night 🙂
What is a Skillet Cookie?
You’ve probably heard of them before – skillet cookies at a lot of restaurants, and for good reason. They’re perfect to share at a table among friends. Honestly the best way I can think to describe them is slightly underbaked, warm, gooey, chocolatey perfection. And the ice cream scoops on top add another layer of luscious flavor that is something you’ll definitely want to get behind.
Think of your love for a regular chocolate chip cookie, and multiply that by like 100000. That’s how much you’ll love this Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie!
Equipment you may need
I wanted to make this recipe as easy as possible, so you don’t even need a stand mixer or a hand mixer, just a large bowl and a spoon!!
- Cast iron skillet (or other oven-safe skillet) – it’s in the name, so you’ll definitely want to pick up an oven-safe skillet if you don’t already have one. For this recipe I used my Le Creuset cast-iron frying pan, but use whatever you have as long as it can go into the oven. Honestly it’s just good to have one on hand for all sorts of cooking – not just baking.
- I also love miniature cast iron skillets. I’ve made this recipe in these before so everyone can have their own mini skillet cookie (just divide the dough among the pans).
- Large mixing bowl – every baker needs a good mixing bowl – I love this stainless one from Williams-Sonoma!
- Wooden spoon – I use my wooden spoons for everythingggg. They’re such a versatile piece of equipment!
- Ice Cream Scoop – not a need for this recipe, but you can see in the reel I posted about this recipe that I use a scoop to get the dough evenly into the skillet. Makes life a lot easier 🙂
Ingredients for Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
- Unsalted butter – if you only have salted butter on hand, feel free to use that. Just reduce the added salt to about 1/2 tsp!
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Large eggs – be sure these are at room temperature
- Large egg yolks – be sure these are at room temperature
- Pure vanilla extract – you can also use vanilla bean paste, but I’m not to worried about seeing the vanilla bean specks so I went with extract here!
- All-purpose flour – I always use King Arthur flour in my recipes 🙂
- Kosher salt – I always use Diamond Crystal kosher salt so I have a standard across the board. Other brands have slightly different concentrations of flavor, so I stick with one brand so I have some consistency!
- Baking soda
- Semisweet chocolate chips – you can use milk chocolate if that’s what you prefer, but I think semisweet balances the flavor beautifully
- Pecans – the hidden ingredient that truly makes all the difference in the world. Don’t forget to toast them at the beginning though, that step makes a huge impact in the overall flavor!
- Coarse sea salt – use just regular kosher salt if you don’t have sea salt. I don’t think there’s a chocolate chip cookie that wasn’t made better with the addition of some sea salt on top
- Vanilla bean ice cream – optional, but I highlyyyy recommend topping your cookie with this!!
Tips for Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
- Whisk the butter and sugars really well. We want to incorporate a little bit of air into this chocolate chip skillet cookie. And you do that by whipping the butter and sugars for longer than you might think. We’re looking for the texture to be glossy and the color to turn a very light brown.
- Don’t forget the ice cream! You can add any flavor of ice cream on top, though my all-time favorite will always and forever be vanilla bean ice cream. You can’t beat it. I’ll also add that Breyers will forever and always be one of my favorite ice cream brands – I’ve never gone wrong with their desserts. Since I’m from the South I feel like I should love Blue Bell more than any other brand, but it’s just not my favorite (sorry mom lol).
- Don’t over mix the dough. I know it can be soooo tempting to just keep stirring and stirring, but we want to avoid that once we add the flour. As you hydrate the flour and stir, the gluten strands begin to form. And the more gluten we allow to form, the more tough our cookie will be. Not what we’re going for here (similar to my chocolate chip cookies, toffee-nut chocolate chip cookies, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies).
- UNDERBAKE. This may be a hot take, but if you want a reeeeally good chocolate chip skillet cookie, then I recommend slightly underbaking the dough. The edges will be golden brown, but the center will be gooey and delicious.
Variations of Skillet Cookies
- Salted Caramel Skillet Cookie – what would be sooo good is if you added some caramel pieces to the dough, a little bit of extra salt, topped it with salted caramel ice cream instead of vanilla, and drizzled the whole thing with some more salted caramel. Wow that sounds so amazing!!
- If you’ve never made homemade caramel before, check out this blog post for a step-by-step tutorial! I always recommend using homemade where possible, it makes such a huge difference!
- S’mores Skillet Cookie – add some mini marshmallows, chopped graham crackers, and swap out the chocolate chips for chopped bars of chocolate.
- Salted Pretzel Skillet Cookie – add some chopped pretzels and increase the salt by about 1/2 tsp.
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie – Make the dough just like I did in this recipe.
Bonus points to anyone who can spot Louie – you guys know I never leave him out!! I hope you all love this recipe as much as I do. And if you make it be sure to tag me @sarahsdayoff so I can see them!!
Love,
Sarah
“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares for you.” -1 Peter 5:7-
Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks at room temperature
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- Course sea salt optional
- Vanilla bean ice cream optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 12-inch cast-iron skillet or other oven-safe skillet with cooking spray.
- Place pecans on a small baking sheet; bake 10 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant. Set aside to cool
- Whisk butter and sugars in a large bowl 2 to 3 minutes or until light, glossy, and mixture runs off whisk in a ribbon fashion when lifted from bowl.
- Whisk in eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Whisk in vanilla.
- Add flour, baking soda, and salt, and stir using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until flour is just incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips and toasted pecans.
- Spoon batter into prepared skillet and press down into an even layer using the back of a spoon or spatula. Lightly sprinkle with desired amount of sea salt.
- Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until edges are golden brown and center is still slightly gooey. Serve warm from oven with vanilla bean ice cream.
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