Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie
Giant cast iron cookie served warm with a mountain of vanilla ice cream — dessert doesn't get better.
Prep: 10 min · Cook: 20 min · Total: 30 min · Serves: 8 · Difficulty: Easy · Rating: 5/5 (874 reviews)
INSPIRED BY
Found on menus from coast to coast — the skillet cookie is the ultimate shareable dessert. Crispy edges, gooey center, melting ice cream pooling in the middle.
Story
My 7-year-old lost his first tooth on a Friday and decided this called for a celebration dessert, so I made a giant skillet chocolate chip cookie in my 10-inch cast iron while he wiggled the gap with his tongue at the counter. It's one bowl, no chilling, no scooping, and it's done before the kids lose patience, which is the entire reason it's in my rotation. The thing I learned the hard way is to pull it out while the center still looks underdone. The first time I made it I waited for the middle to look set like a normal cookie, and it kept baking in the residual heat of the cast iron and turned into a hockey puck. Eighteen to twenty-two minutes, golden edges, jiggly middle. The pan finishes the job after it comes out. Melted butter, not softened, is what gives it that chewy, almost brownie-like density. I use half brown sugar and half white, because the brown sugar brings the chew and a little molasses flavor. A half teaspoon of flaky sea salt on top right when it comes out is the difference between fine and the thing my kids fight over. Budget and substitution notes: I've made this with whatever chocolate is in the cupboard, chopped-up candy bars, the dregs of a bag of chips plus some butterscotch ones, and it always works. It is not precious. If you don't have a cast iron, a cake pan works but you lose the crispy edge that the cast iron gives you. Honest assessment: it is enormous and rich and you should eat it warm with vanilla ice cream melting into the center, with spoons, straight from the skillet. Cold the next day it's dense and a little greasy, still good but not the same. My 4-year-old ate mostly the melted ice cream and a fistful of chocolate chips she'd picked out, and the gap-toothed birthday boy ate his share plus half of hers. We didn't even cut it into proper slices. Four spoons, one pan, on the trivet in the middle of the table. That's how it's meant to go.
By Casey
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 tsp flaky sea salt
- Vanilla ice cream for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix melted butter and both sugars until smooth.
- Beat in egg and vanilla extract.
- Stir in flour, baking soda, and a pinch of salt until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Press dough into a greased 10-inch cast iron skillet. Sprinkle extra chocolate chips on top.
- Bake 18-22 minutes until edges are golden but center is still slightly underdone.
- Sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Top with scoops of vanilla ice cream and serve immediately — dig in with spoons straight from the skillet.
Chef Tips
- Pull it out when it still looks slightly underdone in the center — carryover heat from the cast iron will continue cooking it. The gooey center is the whole point. The flaky sea salt on top is the secret weapon.
Cook's Notes
- **Brown butter tip:** Cook butter over medium heat until the foam subsides and brown specks appear on the bottom of the pan (4-5 minutes). The nutty, caramel flavor it adds is significant. Don't substitute with melted regular butter.
- **Chocolate tip:** Chop a bar of bittersweet chocolate rather than using chips. Chips contain stabilizers that prevent full melting — chopped chocolate creates better pools and pockets.
- **Make-ahead:** The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. Cold dough baked from the fridge produces a thicker cookie with deeper flavor.
- **Storage:** Room temperature in the skillet (covered with foil) for 2 days. Slices reheat in a 300°F oven for 5 minutes or in the microwave for 20 seconds.
- **Equipment:** A 10- or 12-inch cast-iron skillet is the right tool — it heats evenly and retains heat to continue cooking after the skillet is removed from the oven.
- **Common mistake:** Overbaking. The cookie should look underdone when you remove it from the oven — the center will look glossy and slightly underset. It firms up completely as it cools.
- **Doneness cue:** The edges should be set and pulling away from the sides of the skillet. The center should still jiggle slightly when the pan is shaken. Pull it at this stage — not when the center looks fully set.