Chocolate and salted caramel skillet cookie

If you like those amazing and gooey trays of hot, soft cookie dough you get delivered with a pizza, then you’re going to love this. We’d had a homemade meat feast and I wondered if I could follow it with a pudding that resembled the one from our local Pizza Hut, just with a few of my own tweaks. For a first time effort, I was pretty proud of this one. I use my favourite ingredient (coconut oil) and while I’m not going to try and persuade you that this recipe should be part of a calorie controlled diet, replacing the butter does mean this feels somehow less indulgent!  Best enjoyed with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients

• 3¼ ounces / 95g coconut oil
• 3 ounces / 90g caster sugar
• 2¾ ounces / 80g light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 7½ ounces / 210g plain flour
• ½ teaspoon of baking soda
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 7 ounces / 200g milk chocolate chunks
• jar of salted caramel sauce

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan) 356°F (320°F fan).

Heat the oil in an 8-inch / 20cm skillet and then add both sugars, stirring until everything is combined.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes.

Beat the egg and vanilla in a jug before adding a couple of tablespoons of the oil/sugar mixture and mixing well.  Add another couple of tablespoons of the oil/sugar and repeat (see Tips below).

Now you can pour everything in your jug into the skillet and stir until completely combined.

Sieve your flour, baking soda and salt into a small bowl, before pouring into your skillet and mixing everything with a large wooden spoon.

Add your chocolate chunks and stir to combine.

Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until it’s starting to go brown at the edges.

Drizzle with salted caramel sauce and serve with scoops of vanilla ice cream and extra sauce on the side.

Tips

Beating the eggs and vanilla process: This is called ‘tempering’ and stops the egg from scrambling by slowly bringing it up to the temperature of the contents of your skillet, rather than the shock of heat it would get if you simply poured your egg into the skillet mix.

Trivia

A skillet, otherwise known as a frying pan, has a flat bottom and slanted sides (as opposed to a sauté pan which has straight sides). The pan is measured across the top of the rim and not its bottom.