Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie with Caramel

Good morning loves. I hope this finds you well, rested and happy. If not, I hope we’re working on it with some tea…maybe morning stretches or binge-watching your favorite shows. It all works. You’ll get there.

I want you to think about this: melty ice cream and glossy pools of chocolate encased in a giant, chewy, slightly undercooked chocolate chip skillet cookie. Did I mention the brown butter situation? It’s the stuff of dreams, really.

In case you’re new to the skillet cookie scene (like I was…what took me so long?), let me lay out some of the advantages of this most baller of desserts. First, and frankly, it’s basically a cookie recipe that’s made giant. No special formulas or additives. I picked my brown butter chocolate chip cookie because I thought maybe it was feeling left out with all of my olive oil cookie fawning. Second, it’s sooo much easier than making cookies because you shove everything into the skillet and bake once. None of this set-the-timer-for-11-minutes-let-the-cookies-cool-and-transfer-to-a-cooling-rack shit. I like that.

This first half of the year has been filled with lots of highs, some lows, some really excellent tv viewing, exciting changes and uncertainty. We put one foot in front of the other, believe in ourselves and hope for the best. We’ve got this. We know we can weather the storms. And cookies help. We know this much to be true.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie Tips

• Bring Dessert. This is what you bring the next time someone wants you to bring dessert. The skillet cookie comes together quickly (lightening speed), bakes just a hair longer than a single sheet of cookies and looks pretty dazzling and seductive in that there cast iron skillet if I do say so myself.
• Skillet Size. The bake time recommended is perfect for a 10-inch cast iron skillet. If you use another vessel of a different size, you’ll need to adjust the bake time up or down accordingly.
• Browning Butter. Browning butter in a cast iron is dicey. I always urge you to brown your butter in a light-colored pan, especially if browning butter is new to your cooking repertoire. You need to see the milk solids turning into golden magic on the bottom of the pan and cast iron makes this process more intuitive than visual. However, if you’re feeling ballsy or browning butter is old hat, then brown your butter in the skillet that you’re baking the cookie in. End of story. As always, stand watch while your butter browns and give it your upmost attention. You can do it.
• Caramel Sauce. Use my super easy Quick Homemade Brown Sugar Caramel recipe. You’ll have extra to drizzle over the top when serving.
• Cook Time. I undercook this skillet cookie. Non-negotiable in my house. I like things ooey, gooey. If you like your cookies a little firmer with a little more crunch, then feel free to go a few extra minutes but nothing more. She’ll cook + firm up a bit whilst sitting on the counter cooling. Have faith.
• Waiting to Serve. I hate doing this to you, but you’re going to have to wait 45 minutes (minimum!) to cut into the skillet cookie. You’ll serve her warm, but if she doesn’t have time to cool down, she’ll be a hot mess when you try to cut into her.
• Ice Cream. It’s not even optional to eat this without vanilla ice cream. End of story.

Let’s bake a brown butter chocolate chip skillet cookie, shall we?

The Magic of Browning Butter

My number one (only?) reason for browning butter is that the flavor it imparts on baked goods is next level. Think of flavors like toffee and caramel being added to your cookie without actually adding toffee and caramel.

Browning butter only takes about 5 minutes, with an additional 5-ish minutes more for it to cool before using. It’s literally the only element keeping this from being a true, one-bowl recipe (because we need the saucepan for browning).

When browning butter, moisture in the butter evaporates. This is why I like to get in and brown my butter quick as the longer your saucepan is on the hot burner the more moisture will evaporate.

In this recipe, we start with 8 tablespoons (113 g) of butter. You’ll end up with around 83 g of butter once browned. I have you add 2 tablespoons (26 g) of water to the cookie dough to compensate for this moisture loss.

If you start with 8 tablespoons (113 g) of butter and follow my browning butter instructions below, I don’t think you need to then, again, weigh your brown butter (unless out of curiosity). But this is a good baking fact to stash away for all of your brown butter baking.

I have a full brown butter tutorial here!

More Chocolate Chip Cookie Vibes

As I mentioned, I love chocolate chip cookies! And if you love brown butter *and* chocolate chip cookies like I do, check out these Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies, Brown Butter Muscovado Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars and these Brown Butter Muscovado Chocolate Chip Cookie.

You can find all of my cookie recipes right here; make sure to check out these Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies (they’re so good, one-bowl and ready in under 25 minutes!)!

If you’re digging small batch baking (love), then look at my favorite small-batch, one-bowl mega vanilla chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are minimal fuss and mega fabulous.

Enjoy your Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie with Caramel!