Kristin the beautiful and ultra kind blogger behind Baker in Recovery. I first fell in love with her original blog, Baker Bettie, but as she has transformed her health over the past few months, I have loved seeing what this girl does to accomodate a more healthy baking experience. It’s almost ridiculous how talented she is with baking–I am always reading up on her posts to understand more of the science behind it all. As if that wasn’t enough, she even cooks too (don’t you hate it when a girl gets all the talent in the kitchen?!) Try her Cauliflower Rice recipe–it sent me to a non-grain heaven.
I believe Cara and I first became blogging friends at the beginning of my Cookies Are The New Cupcake Series. I have always been really fascinated with the science of baking and at the time I was doing a lot of teaching on my blog about baking science. I remember her asking me to do some teaching about the science of vegan and gluten free baking. Upon further inspection of her blog I soon realized that this girl needed no teaching. In fact I had so much to learn from her!
At the time I was doing traditional baking. But little did I know, in a few months I would have a revolution about food and my health that would take me down a path into the intimidating world of non-traditional baking. I have to say that Cara has been a huge inspiration during this whole process. Her blog filled with fun and fearless recipes has been comforting and inspirational. And her open heart to exchange emails and words of encouragement really helped keep me going down this scary, and at times frustrating, path. I am so honored to be guest posting here on her amazing blog!
I guess you can say I am known for cookies. Well, as much as someone who isn’t really known by anyone can be known for something. I just really love how versatile they are. The possibilities of flavor combinations, textures, and presentations are endless. When Cara asked me to do a guest post, I felt a cookie recipe would be most appropriate.
Those of you who are experienced in the non-traditional baking world know all too well how frustrating it can be to get the texture you are aiming for. I need for you to trust me on this one, the texture of this skillet cookie is the most gooey and chewy cookie you have ever encountered. It really is quite incredible.
The secret to the texture? A gooey salted caramel sauce as the base of the recipe. Once you make the caramel this cookie is a snap to put together. And you probably want to just have a batch of this sauce around at all times anyway. Let’s be honest.
You should also know that this recipe could easily be used to make individual cookies if eating out of a large skillet like me isn’t your thing.
I think it would be so comforting to serve a cast iron skillet filled with a warm gooey cookie at a brunch or dinner party. And if you are awesome enough to have those tiny individual cast iron skillets, well I’m jealous of you and you should totally use those instead!
Salted Caramel and Dark Chocolate Skillet Cookie
grain free, vegan, refined sugar free
Serves 10-12
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup raw almond butter
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 1/2 cups to 3 cups blanched almond flour, measured after sifting
- 4 oz chopped dark chocolate
- Combine coconut oil, almond butter, maple syrup, salt, and vanilla in a blender or food processor.
- Blend for 4-6 minutes until a sticky caramel texture. You may have to scape sides down several times.
- Pour 1 cup of the caramel sauce into the skillet. Save the rest for serving.
- Add the baking soda and mix until incorporated.
- Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the almond flour 1/2 cup at a time. If the mixture needs more flour add 1 TBSP at a time more until it becomes the consistency of thick cookie dough. (I use Bob’s Red Mills almond flour, and I need 3 cups. But almond flours vary in coarseness and less flour may be needed. Elevation and humidity can also contribute to needing more or less flour)
- Stir in chopped chocolate.
- Spread the dough evenly in the skillet. I find that clean hands works best for this.
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-14 minutes until set.
- Serve with your favorite ice cream (I love coconut milk ice cream) and a drizzle of the left over caramel.
Hi there! If I wanted to make this and then store part it, how would you go about doing that? And how would you reheat it to get it to its original ooey gooey texture again? Thanks!
Hi Kristin,
We love your site.
Can we have permission to use your pic for this recipe in our format (awnings, no type on pic) on our Bosco Chocolate Syrup FB page to drive traffic to your recipe?
Please let me know and if you have questions.
Thank you,
Marj
This was amazing and a huge hit in our kitchen tonight. I would live to follow her newer blog, but the link said it’ s private. Is there another link? Anyway, this was delish and decaden, not to mention vegan gluten free!
I made this last night but used regular flour instead of almond flour – I haven’t read through all the comments so someone may have mentioned this but I used 1/2 the amount of flour that was called for and ended up needing my entire jar of caramel! That made the cookie darker but man was it divine! Surely can only make this when everyone can eat up the cookie right away but we could have squeezed about 8 portions out of this skillet! Thanks!!
Awesome Thank you so much for your prompt response!!! I will try it out and let ya know how if goes 🙂
I came across this recipe after searching in the internet for vegan desserts. This recipe looks amazing! I am going to bake this tonight, but am wondering if I can switch the skillet to a cupcake pan. Do you think it will work out if I pour the caramel sauce with the baking soda into each cupcake and then add the dry mixture?
Actually if you want to try it in a cupcake pan, I would mix everything together in a large bowl and then use a spoon or scoop to put some in each tin. I haven’t made it this way, so not sure how well it will work, but definitely reduce the baking time and check on them for doneness!
How do you prepare the pan?
Help! How do I store the caramel sauce for later use? It gets hard in the fridge and. Been I tried melting it by putting the mason jar in warm water it separated. Tips?
Does it remain un-separated when you mix it after you warm it back up?
I made this tonight and WOW! We love it! The salted caramel sauce is about the most amazing thing ever.
I’m looking through this and I’m thinking “Mmmmm, perfect use for those birthday skillets hubby got me”…
Just a quick question: The caramel sauce goes in the skillet, then I make the cookie dough (almond butter etc then add in the almond meal etc) separately in a food processor then spread cookie dough on top of caramel sauce?
Or is it, caramel sauce in the skillet, baking soda, almond meal etc in the skillet?
Sorry, just a little confused especially after reading one comment from Andrea.
I agree, instructions need a little adjusting as to what almond flour gets added to….it needs something to bind it but if we “save caramel for topping” then flour has no binder. Does it go in processor? Then what?
Thanks. The sauce is amazing.
Hello! I’m sorry, you are right. The wording isn’t very clear. You put 1 cup of the caramel sauce in the skillet then mix in the baking soda and almond flour into the skillet with the caramel sauce. You can definitely do this all in a bowl then transfer to a skillet but I was trying to keep it simple with only dirtying minimal pans.
Aha! Now that makes more sense. This is not the way I tried, which led to more of a dry crumble. I will give it another go. Delicious for a vegan treat!
We made your skillet cookie last night and followed the recipe pretty much exactly with the exception of subbing out sunflower butter for the almond butter – we were out of the almond. It was pretty tasty, however, the whole thing turned blue! Seriously, bright cerulean blue, and no there are no crazy people running around with food dyes here. I’m not sure what would cause that kind of reaction in cast iron and have never seen it before.
Oh my goodness. Weird! I’m guessing a similar thing happened here: http://www.ochef.com/1267.htm
i dont have ovven
Wait… did I miss something? When do you add the chocolate? Making it now and I’m a bit confused!
AH! We edited the instructions a while back and I guess I forgot to put that part in. Hopefully, you figured it out! Miss Cara, would you mind adding “stir in the chopped chocolate” as step 6? Sorry, such a silly mistake.
Done 🙂
I stumbled onto your blog from tumblr and this cookie recipe looks delicious I can’t wait to try it out when I get back home in Vancouver.
The problem with blog comments is that almost none of them have made the recipe in question. Now that I’ve made it, I think it’s a silly recipe. That caramel sauce was great, but using it as the liquid for a cookie recipe, which is then mixed in a shallow skillet, makes no sense. What a mess, and I had to add several Tbsp of almond milk to get it all together. So in the end it just tastes like an almondy cookie that someone over-salted.
Hi Andrea,
I am so sorry to hear that you were not pleased with this recipe. That is just too bad because it is one of my favorites! But “different strokes”
Did you throw all the almond flour in at once? Maybe that is what made it messy. If you add it slowly and mix it in a little at a time that helps. And I’m really surprised you thought it was messy. I always think that is the beauty of it, it only dirties one pan! But you know, you could always mix it up in a bowl and put it into the skillet. Just more dishes to wash.
As far as needing more liquid: When working with almond flour it is best to sift it before measuring and then lightly spoon it into the measuring cups otherwise you might have too much flour. But elevation and humidity could play a role in this too. What a great idea to add some almond milk! That is perfect when needing a little more moisture.
Again, I’m sorry you didn’t like it. We all have different taste buds and if you don’t eat a lot of salt in your baked goods I guess I could see how it might taste too salty. Though “almondly salty cookie” tastes amazing to me and a lot of people I have shared it with.
I hope you have a wonderful holiday! xoxo~Baker Bettie
I LOVE almondy salty cookies 🙂 This is such a great recipe, Kristin! Thank you again for sharing it with us and for being the wonderful baker that you are! xo
I just made a halved recipe. Although I really don’t taste the caramel now that it has been baked (there was plenty of tasting done beforehand!), this recipe is quick and delicious and will be my go-to recipe when I get a hankering for chocolate chip cookies!
Do you think this would work if I leave out the chocolate???
My husbands favorite cookie is chocolate chip cookies with no chocolate chips- lol. I usually have made have with and half without in the past… But now breastfeeding an allergic baby, and a health revolution for us is leaving me … Confused! Lol.
I know tweaking any gf recipe is tricky bc they’re so sensitive … So wondering if leaving out the chocolate will hurt the dough!
What size skillet did you use? Is 10″ too big?
What can I use to replace almond product
Regular flour can be used but I would suspect you wouldn’t need quite as much. I have never made the recipe without almond flour, so I couldn’t tell you how much exactly.
This looks completely MOUTH WATERING! And I LOVE salted caramel! Am definatley going to give this recipe ago! I cannot wait, thanks so much for sharing!
My mouth is drooling! I plan on making this as soon as humanly possible. I love salted anything and this looks positively heavenly!
The caramel sauce is so good….the skillets in oven I did half almond half whole wheat pastry..since that’s what I had (not gluten free) ….smells great
I’m pretty sure I started drooling as soon as I saw this! Could you use agave instead of maple syrup? I always have agave on hand, but not so much with the maple syrup.
You could use agave. I think the maple syrup gives it a more caramely taste, but agave would work. It just won’t have as warm of a flavor to it.
This looks so amazing….now, I am not vegan, GF or anything really but I can’t wait to try this!! Do you think peanut butter would work in place of the almond butter? An also, would a regular/GF AP flour work as well? (just hoping what’s in my pantry now will work as I want to make this ASAP!!) thank you and can’t wait to try this!!
Hi Megan,
I think peanut butter will definitely work, it will just have a more nutty flavor. I find that almond butter is a bit more neutral of a flavor, but if you like the peanut butter chocolate combo I’m sure it would be delicious!
As far as the GF all purpose flour, give it a try! I really don’t know how it will work because I haven’t tried it. I would suggest starting out with 2 cups of the flour and adding more until you get a cooking dough consistency. The flours have different weights and react to absorbing liquid differently so I wouldn’t go throwing in 3 cups right away. My guess is you will probably need less.
What a wonderful idea! It looks amazing and original, it’s something reaaly new! Thanks a lot for a recipe 🙂
Uhm, oh mah gah! I want this in my mouth…right…now!!!
(I know, I know…”That’s what she said” but I am a she and I did just said it)
Open up and I’ll stick it in there… Ok sorry. I couldn’t resist.
They look great, but I’m not sure about the coconut oil. I don’t like coconut. If it doesn’t actually affect the taste I might try them. I’m very fussy, but I have a serious sweet tooth. Little Debbie used to be a huge part of my life – http://feedyourfussyeater.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/the-other-woman-in-my-life-9-2/.
I don’t like coconut either but don’t find the coconut oil to add coconutty where it’s not wanted.
If you use a refined coconut oil (I use Spectrum Organic refined) you won’t get a coconut flavor… coconut oil is awesome for so many things… you can use it sparingly in your hair for shine, as a skin/body lotion, or my favorite – toss in some herbs and use it instead of butter when roasting potatoes!
Can you use enjoy life chips instead of the dark chocolate? Not sure where I’d find the dark choc that we could have. I imagine tho that it would melt and not stay together like yours did, so if I want it to look like yours, I’d have to dig up that recipe for making my own choc and right now, I’m not sure i have that much energy but dang it, I want to make this today lol
And that cauliflower rice recipe looks amazing but I think my cast iron skillet will be occupied 🙂
Oh, btw, I have TWO individual cast irons. I’ll give you both if you move next door to me 🙂 Or, I’ll send you one if you send me a full size one of these premade lol
I don’t see why not Delta! I’m sure those chips would work great!
I am seriously jealous of your individual skillets! I NEED some of those stat!
Oh, my gosh! This looks amazing. The pizookie from BJ’s used to be a favorite of mine. Can’t wait to try this one!
I can see that I will be visiting often. I am gluten free, dairy free, soy free….and more. I do eat meat and tons of veggies from my garden…plus eggs from my own chickens, but I am thinking of dumping eggs for awhile, so your blog is going to come in handy. I rarely make desserts because of the high carb content, but I like how you have worked the kinks out of recipes for special diets. Great job relating your experiences in life!
Beautiful!
Wow, Kristin! That skillet cookie looks absolutely sinful! I seriously feel like curling up with it, a fork, and Sex and the City reruns. So indulgent!
Your new blog is gorgeous! Can’t wait to see what more beautiful creations come down the pike! Thank you, Cara, for introducing me to Kristin!
Thanks sounds like the perfect combination! And you don’t have to feel as guilty about this indulgence since it isn’t packed with refined sugar!
A skillet cookie? Oh wow – it looks so yummy! Laughed so hard at the inquiry…”one pan is a single serving, right?” Oh and btw Cara, so of all those things you want me to get rid of before I croak…my wrought iron skillet isn’t one of them………hmmm? 🙂
XOXOX
Uh, we can make an arrangement to keep the iron skillet on the side just for me. Wink wink, nudge nudge. None of the siblings will ever have to know. It’ll be our little secret 😉
OMG this looks incredible!
Holy $#%@! This looks amazing. Naughty, naughty!
Dude, that is the shizzle. I have been looking for a healthied up chocolate chip cookie recipe. IN LOVE!
doesn’t it just sound so incredible? :D. She makes the most wonderful desserts – particularly those based around cookies! Lovely to see another entry in the series, Cara!
Thanks Nick! I am quite partial to cookies. I just can’t quit thinking up new creations.
Ohhhh myyyyy !!!! that skillet is so gorgeous! I did know know of Kristin’s blog.. yay for finding another delicious place to drool on!
I have a baby skillet and a big skillet. We all know which one i will use and I cannot guarantee that there will be anything left for hubbs to try.
Did i happen to mention that i already have 2 jars of salted caramel ready!
Oh no! I guess I know what you are making this weekend 😉
What a fantastic ingredient list!
LOVE’ing this 😉
xo
this looks absolute awesome! And I can make it peanut free for my daughter (we make our own almond butter and flour)! Now I have new blog to follow. 🙂 Thanks, Cara, for sharing another blogger, I look forward to checking more of Bettie’s blog!
Oh, honey. Can I just say here how much I love almond flour? I’m not even close to gluten free and that stuff may just convert me out of pure awesomeness. Also, I’d also like to clearly state for the record that I am very glad I have not had breakfast yet so that I can eat this instead… One pan is a serving, right?
Wow, this looks amazing! Thanks for introducing me to a new blog – I’ve already become a new subscriber and I can’t wait to see what else you come up with next!
This looks absolutely to die for ladies! I am so impressed with Kristin’s yummy new blog too – and excited to see what she puts out in the coming months! This looks so very good. Wow! 🙂
I think I’ve just died and gone to cookie heaven! And I love Baker Bettie too!
Now *that’s* what I call a cookie! I want, I want, I want. Nom! 😀
Also, I wanted to let you know (Cara) that I nominated you for an award! Check out my latest post to find it. Thanks for being awesome!
Oh my gosh, that skillet cookie is making my mouth water! it’s not even 11am and i’m now in serious cookie-crave mode! haha….this could be a lonnnnng day! thanks for sharing!
Cookies could totally be breakfast food… Right?! I mean I think so.
This looks ridiculously decedent and delicious! I almost started munching on my screen! I see this in my future!
Oh my, insanely incredible!
….wait that whole skillet doesn’t count as a single serving?
I love the ingredients in the salted caramel, so YUM!
No, I’m pretty sure it DOES count for one person Heather. Yeah, actually I think the 10-12 servings is a typo. It should read: serves your face and your face only 😉
Yeah it was totally a slip of the fingers on my part. Stuff your face and stab anyone with your fork who comes near…
This is just wrong…in a good way!! 🙂 must make
Right?!! Er, I mean, wrong! No, I am pretty sure I meant right! hehe. I cannot WAIT to make this eaither, Danielle. We should have a skillet cookie party or something…
Am I invited to this skillet cookie party? Pretty please…?
Yum. That’s all that needs to be said. 🙂
I could not agree with this comment any more!
After a new cookie/brownie recipe fail at my house yesterday, this beautiful post almost brought tears to my eyes!! Hope for my husband and I to have an ooey-gooey cookie. What an incredibly decadent-looking treat! And so simple. Thank you so much!
Oh! I hope you do try this and it works out for you Pixie! It is amazingly simple to put together. Let me know if you do try it and what you think!
Uh YUMMMMMMMMMMMM Sorry I screamed. But honestly, I’m concerned about folks who don’t scream when faced with something that looks THIS GOOD. Seriously. So Cara, I’ve found so many blogs to follow through you. It’s like Christmas every morning when I see all the posts that I can read. : ). I’ll be making this, very soon.
Scream away my dear!
How innovative. Not to mention dangerous. I can totally see myself sitting down with the skillet on a hot pan armed only with a fork, probably hiding in the closet too so I don’t have to share. As Abby says, totally have to check out the blog.
HAHA! I guess you can only make this when you have at least 10 friends coming over.
You know what, you could totally make an individual cookie with 1 TBSP of the caramel and 3 TBSP of almond flour and a pinch of baking soda. Just add in a few choc chips and bake it off. Then you don’t have to worry so much about self control. However, you would have to make the caramel first and trust me, that is difficult to resist too!
You are an evil genius. I love it!
Wow. I’m not familiar with your blog or your situation, but that picture alone and your eloquence in this post are enough to MAKE me familiarize myself with your blog and your situation. While I’m not much for dessert, that looks incredible (and vegan-yay!)
Thanks so muh Abby! This dessert will even real in those without much of a sweet tooth. Isn’t it so inviting?!
i dont have oven