Nostalgia Series, Recipe #3: The Ultimate Skillet Cookie

Growing up, Sundays at my house were pretty predictable. The last day of the week — one of the few where I didn’t have ballet class — was usually spent catching up on the homework due Monday, or paying a visit to my nonni. My parents and brother would pass the afternoon watching the baseball or football game on TV, while I settled for reading a book on the couch (to this day, the NFL theme still has the tendency to put me to sleep). In short, Sunday would stretch leisurely and uneventfully towards Monday as my family and I prepared for a new week. With the exception of one spontaeous shake-up, that is: dinner at Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse with my aunt Laura (affectionately called “T,” an abbreviated version of Auntie) and my cousin Dylan.

In hindsight, Bugabook — conveniently located at the halfway point between T’s town of Pawtucket, and our town of East Greenwich — was the adults’ go-to when they didn’t feel like cooking at the end of the week. For me, however, it was much more. A dinner date with my aunt and cousin at Bugaboo had the power to transform a hum-drum Sunday into an exciting event, one where my parents, siblings and I would meet up with two of my favorite people at one of my favorite places to eat. The rustic, wilderness-themed steakhouse boasted a talking pine tree named Timber who would greet diners as they entered the restaurant, and a similarly chatty moose to boot. Bugaboo offered kid-friendly staples like cheeseburgers, chicken fingers, and french fries, plus salmon, salads, and steaks for the adults (a win-win!) There was brown bread served warm with butter to nosh on while ordering, and a crispy coconut fried shrimp appetizer that was downright grown-up, in my 11 year old opinion.

And then there was dessert.

In true American steakhouse style, Bugaboo’s desserts were not subtle. There was their signature towering, triple layer chocolate cake, plus a toffee-infused bananas foster, and a wild-berry cheesecake, among others. For me, however, nothing beat the Big Foot Chocolate Cookie, or rather: a single, oversized chocolate chip cookie baked in a small skillet, served warm with vanilla ice cream, and garnished with a single strawberry. It was over-the-top, underbaked and gooey — worlds away from the simple, subdued dolci that a grown-up Francesca would one day appreciate in Rome — and for me, it was the dessert to end all other desserts. I never did manage to finish the whole Cookie by myself, but my mom and aunt would without fail, and however briefly, abandon their diets and have a few bites, too. The B.F.C.C was the icing on the cake of a perfect evening with my family.

Nowadays, my aunt and parents are still in Rhode Island, and us “kids” are far away, living in Dallas, D.C., and Rome. My cousin Dylan has two small children of his own. Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse no longer exists — a quick Google search showed me that it filed for bankruptcy in 2016 — and while our days of spontaneous Sunday night dinners are now in the distant past, the Big Foot Chocolate Cookie of yesteryear is back.

So! This Skillet Cookie is far bigger than the ones I enjoyed at Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse, meaning it can be cut into slices and serve a group. I’ve used semi-sweet chocolate instead of milk chocolate, to suit my more grown-up tastebuds, and I’ve sprinkled it with sea salt (a trend that did not yet exist in 1999). But never fear: this Skillet Cookie harks back to the Bugaboo one of my youth, in all its buttery, brown sugar-y glory. There are puddles of melted chocolate throughout the Cookie, the center is soft and vaguely under-baked, and the vanilla ice cream melts steadily and spectacularly over the warm cookie. Bottom line: this is nostalgia, baked in a skillet and meant to be shared. I hope you love it as much as I do.

A couple of notes: You can use chocolate chips here instead of chunks if you want, but know that chopping your own chocolate into chunks will produce larger pockets of chocolate throughout the cookie. I think serving this with vanilla ice cream is ideal, but feel free to serve it with whatever flavor you’d like. If you don’t have a skillet that can go in the oven you can always use a round cake pan.

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THE ULTIMATE SKILLET COOKIE

Serves 8-10. Recipe adapted from How Sweet Eats.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups (325 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (224 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup (200 grams) packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
10 ounces (280 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 10 or 12 inch oven-safe skillet and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, sugars, egg/egg yolks, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt.

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips/chunks, and sprinkle the top of the Cookie with sea salt.

Scrape your Skillet Cookie batter into the prepared skillet, and bake for 25-35 minutes, or until it’s mostly set in the center but still a bit gooey. Let cool slightly, and then serve warm with vanilla ice cream.