Cast Iron Series: Bravetart Skillet Cookies

I say cookies but it's actually just one giant cookie. One that spans 10 inches and weighs over a kilo. If you can only have one cookie before dinner, I guess this is the cookie you should choose? 

Welcome to another wonderful recipe (link here) from the inimitable Stella Parks. 

This is the most fuss free way to serve cookies, ever. Instead of baking trays of cookies one after another for an entire afternoon, you can just pile the entire dough into a large cast iron and be done within an hour. Even better, the cookie dough can be made ahead of time, cling-wrapped, and kept in an airtight container in the fridge (up to 5 days) or in the freezer. It just has to soften up at room temperature to be pressed into the skillet before baking.

Coming off my newly-seasoned cast iron (sigh.), the cookie continues cooking in the hot pan after you pull it out of the oven. Before serving, I slid it back into an oven - pan and all - for a few quick minutes. You can slice into the cookie with a metal knife directly while still in the pan: metal utensils would not ruin your cast iron.

The cookie dough, nesting in the cast iron pan, develops more of those crispy chewy edges than cookies baked in the usual way. 

Served in thin wedges with ice cream, it was an instant hit with both adults and children. Over a kilo of cookie dough, and it disappeared in a single sitting even after all of us had a full dinner. The 10.25” pan can be sliced into 1/16th portions, while the 6.5” pan (pictured here) can be quartered. 

Did the novelty of eating such a huge cookie in an aesthetically-pleasing cookware help? Yes no doubt. But when everybody came back for seconds, I'll take my wins where I can get them.