Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Skillet Cookie

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Toasted pecan chocolate chip peanut butter cookie in a skillet, baked to perfection so that it's warm and gooey in the center, and golden toasty on the edges.

Cast iron skillet with chocolate chunks, pecans and ice cream scoops.

Cast iron has a way of transforming everything that it touches.

It toasts the bottom and edges of the cookie, caramelizing the sugars and butter, making the most amazing, toasty bottom.

If you enjoy classic chocolate chip cookies, you will enjoy this cookie skillet. The crispy edges are perfect and the peanut butter dough really sets this skillet chocolate chip cookie recipe apart from any others.

Why Make A Skillet Cookie

This cookie recipe only takes 20 minutes of prep time
You can adjust the serving size by using a smaller cast-iron skillet or use more than one if feeding a crowd
These cookies are easy to customize and make exactly how you and your whole family like them
No need to chill the dough like you do with some traditional chocolate chip cookie recipes

Ingredients

Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, peanut butter, pecans, chocolate chunks.

Get more info on these simple ingredients for this cookie in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

pecans - use pecan halves, or chopped pecans that are raw, and unsalted.
butter- choose salted butter, and make sure the butter is completely softened before using it.
sugar- you need graunlated white sugar and brown sugar, you can use either light or dark brown sugar
eggs- this is your binding ingredient to help your cookie dough stick together
vanilla extract- adds a hint of sweetness
peanut butter- prefer smooth peanut butter, but for extra crunch you can also use chunky style peanut butter.
baking soda
flour- I used all purpose flour, if you want to use self rising flour, you will need to omit the baking soda
chocolate bar- semi sweet chocolate is the perfect sweetness to balance the peanut butter and pecans, but you can choose milk chocolate or dark chocolate if you prefer.

Instructions

Preheat the oven first, so that it it heats while you make the cookie batter.

Put the pecans in a dry skillet (rough chop if you like, or leave in halves) and toast on medium high heat until they become fragrant (photo 1).

Keep an eye on them and flip them around because they will go from toasted to burned very quickly if you're not careful.

Remove the toasted pecans from the heat and place on a plate while you make the chocolate chip cookie dough.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the "wet" ingredients, including peanut butter, as shown below (photo 2). It's ok if there are a few lumps of butter at this point.

Stir in the dry ingredients until smooth (photo 3) and sprinkle in the chunks of chocolate and toasted pecans (photo 4), giving a final stir to combine.

Grease the skillet on the bottom with butter (photo 5), and press the dough into the skillet until flat (photo 6). Place a few chocolate pieces and pecans over the top of the dough before baking to showcase the ingredients.

Chocolate chip peanut butter cookie dough spread into a cast iron skillet.

For an 8 inch skillet, cooking time is about 20 minutes.

For larger skillets, the cookie will be thinner, and therefore you'll need to reduce the cooking time by about 3 minutes per inch increase in diameter of the skillet.

For example, a 9 inch skillet is one inch wider than an 8 inch skillet; so reduce the time to 17 minutes.

Conversely, if your skillet is smaller than 8 inches, the cookie dough will be thicker and you'll likely need to increase the cooking time by about 3-4 minutes per inch.

So, a 7 inch skillet will need to bake for about 23-24 minutes.

The cookie is done when the edges are golden brown and slightly crisped and the center is still slightly gooey. It will continue to set as it cools.

Let it cool for a few minutes before digging in. It really is the most delicious thing even when served warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

You can store it right in the skillet, at room temperature, covered with foil for next time.

The giant cookie can be warmed up in the oven in the skillet, uncovered at 250 degrees for 5-10 minutes.

You can also just cut the individual portion out and warm it up on a plate or bowl on high for 30-60 seconds, or until warmed through.

However you warm it back up, just don't forget that scoop of ice cream!

Enjoy.

Cookie in a cast iron skillet with chunks of chocolate and pecans.

Storage

The peanut butter chocolate chip giant skillet cookie can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days. It's best stored in the same skillet that it was cooked in, covered with foil.

To reheat, you can warm it up in the oven or microwave as described above. Enjoy your giant warm cookie!

How should I serve this?

This cookie can be served by itself, or with a few scoops of ice cream. I think this cookie pairs perfectly with vanilla ice cream.

You can drizzle chocolate syrup or caramel sauce over each serving of cookie or while the entire cookie is still in the cast iron pan.

How do I make clean cut cookies?

Waiting until the cast iron skillet is completely cool to the touch helps make it easier and cleaner to cut the big cookie into individual cookies.

What if I don't have a cast iron skillet?

You can still make this delicious large cookie even if you don't have a cast iron skillet. Just make sure you have any oven-safe skillet to bake it in.

Can I make this as a plain chocolate chip cookie skillet?

Sure, if you aren't wanting a peanut butter cookie base, you can omit the peanut butter. You can also omit the nuts if you don't care for pecans.

If pecans are not your thing, you can swap them out for other nut options.

Tips

You can use mini chocolate chips, regular baking chips or chocolate chunks for this chocolate chip skillet cookie recipe.
If you want more peanut butter flavor, try adding some peanut butter chips to the gooey cookie batter.
This recipe is written for a 8 inch cast iron skillet. For other sizes, the recipe is the same, but the bake time will be adjusted as noted above or in the recipe card.
When getting your brown sugar, make sure it's fresh and moist. Hard brown sugar won't give you the same texture or flavor for this giant chocolate chip cookie with peanut butter.
Don't overbake your gooey chocolate chip skillet cookie. The oven-safe skillet will continue to bake the cookie a bit more even after you've removed the skillet from the oven because of the residual heat in the skillet.
Sprinkle some flaky sea salt or kosher salt with a few extra chocolate chips on top when you're serving this cookie.
If desired, reserve a little of the chocolate pieces and pecans to scatter on top of the cookie dough before baking, so that they pop out and make the cookie more appetizing.

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