Salted Caramel Filled Dark Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookie

When I posted my browned butter sage skillet cornbread a little while back, I mentioned how freakin’ excited I was to make skillet cookies and hinted that some would be coming. A lot of you got excited about that…well, the time has come. And ohmygoodness there is definitely reason to be excited.

This cookie is NO joke. I made it in a 6-inch pan. That’s relatively small, but 6 starving girls took on this cookie and we couldn’t finish it (there was valiant effort though). It’s soo rich, chocolatey, sweet, crunchy, gooey, and FILLED with salted caramel. As in, you dip you spoon in and caramel lava flows out of the cookie. It’s unreal. It’s something you need to experience with like, 8 of your closest friends.

The dough for this cookie is one of my favorite recipes, it’s super similar to the one I used for my White Chocolate Pistachio Cookies. It uses brown butter to give it an awesome, nutty, caramel-esque flavor, and brown sugar to amp up that flavor even more. A quick chill in the fridge blends all the flavors together for a seriously delicious cookie dough. It bakes up amazingly in this cookie, getting crispy on the top and bottom of the cookie and staying gooey and soft on the inside.

I added giant chocolate chunks, because that’s how I like my chocolate chip cookies. I prefer big hunks of melty chocolate over wimpy little chocolate chips that don’t stay melty very long. I highly recommend you try it and see the difference! I also added caramel bits to my cookie dough – they add a nice extra chewy element, but if you can’t find them, you can definitely leave them out.

The caramel in the middle is a key element here. Make sure you use a THICK sauce – nothing thin and runny or it’ll just seep into the cookie dough and you won’t get that caramel layer in the middle. Trader Joe’s Fleur de Sel Caramel would probably work well here! I used a homemade salted caramel…but I didn’t love the recipe so I’m not gonna share it here. Your favorite homemade salted caramel recipe will totally work. If it’s normally a thin sauce, just cook it a little bit longer to thicken it up a bit.

Of course, this cookie needs to be served up fresh out of the oven, preferably with ice cream and if you’re feeling naughty (like me!) more caramel sauce. I couldn’t resist:

My friends all said this was the best thing I ever made. Of course, their faces were covered in chocolate, caramel, and ice cream at the time, so you know they were happy. But seriously – it’s ridiculously delicious, and a Pizookie will just never compare once you’ve had a homemade one.

Grab your napkins and your spoons…enjoy!

Print Salted Caramel Filled Dark Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookie

Ingredients

• 1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 3/4 (8 oz) cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 oz. dark chocolate (cut into 1/2 inch chunks)
• 1/2 cup caramel bits
• 2/3 cup thick salted caramel sauce (or add about 1 teaspoon salt to regular caramel sauce)
• Good quality salt, for sprinkling on top before baking

Instructions

1. Grease a 6-inch or 8-inch cast iron skillet with butter. Set aside.
2. In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium-low heat, stirring nearly continuously. Butter will melt, then begin to foam. It will then begin to turn golden brown and smell nutty. As soon at the butter begins to turn brown, take the pan off the heat, and continue to stir for about 1 minute, to ensure carryover heat doesn't continue to cook and subsequently burn the already browned butter. Transfer to a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let cool to room temperature, about 1-2 hours.
3. When the butter has cooled down and started to solidify slightly, add the butter to a large mixing bowl. Add the sugars, and cream the butter and the sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium high. Scrape down the side of the bowl.
4. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until completely incorporated. Scrape down the bowl with a spatula. Combine the flour, soda and salt in another bowl with a whisk to combine. With the machine on low, slowly add the flour. Mix until just combined, taking care not to over mix. With a spatula, fold in the caramel bits and dark chocolate chunks.
5. Press about 1/3 of the dough into the bottom of prepared skillet (the entire bottom and sides of the skillet should be covered with dough). Fill with caramel sauce. Top with more dough until the top is completely covered and the caramel is sealed inside, you may have some left over - I had about 1 cup of dough remaining (see notes). Sprinkle the top of the cookie with Cover with foil and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 3 days.
6. When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 350ºF.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown on top. Serve immediately with ice cream and more caramel sauce if desired.

Notes

Use the remaining dough to make cookies! Bake for about 11 minutes at 350º or until golden brown. The dough will keep in a Ziploc bag in the fridge for 1 week, or in the freezer for 3 months.

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