Vegan Gluten-Free Skillet Cookie

About six years ago when I was home from the University of Florida one weekend, my youngest brother Shawn asked me to bake a fresh skillet at 9 pm at night. As the wonderful sister I am, I whipped up a quick batch and placed it in my parents’ industrial oven to bake. Once it was golden brown, I placed the oven mitt on my right hand and took the heavy cast iron skillet out of the oven before I lost my grip on the handle and it came crashing to the ground. Or should I specify, it came crashing down onto my foot. Ouch. As I stood there in utter shock, pain and sadness, watching not only the destroyed cookie but the cracked pan shattered on my foot, Shawn came downstairs crying — not out of concern for my poor foot, but because he really wanted the cookie skillet.

Priorities, am I right?

Well, this is a new take on Shawn’s favorite cookie skillet (which I will post in the near future). It’s gluten-free and vegan; so, if you are like me and can only tolerate so much wheat and dairy in a given day, this recipe is for you.

As always, tweak as you like. Want more chocolate? Add an extra cup. Like the richness of olive oil? Swap some of the coconut oil for olive oil. Make it yours.

You can see that I didn’t mix it completely, resulting in little pockets of brown and white sugar clumps. If you want your skillet to be cohesive, mix it a bit more to get everything mixed evenly.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups of gluten-free flour with xanthan gum

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup coconut oil

• olive oil (eye ball it - sorry!)

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 1 egg

• 2 egg yolks

• 3 teaspoons (eyeball it) vanilla extract

• chocolate chips - I like to use a variety of milk, semi-sweet and dark

Directions:

1. Pre-heat over to 350 degrees F

2. Mix sugars, eggs oil and vanilla together

3. Add the dry ingredients and mix until blended (don’t over mix!)

4. Fold in chocolate chips

5. Pour batter into the greased skillet

6. Add some chocolate chips on top for *aesthetics*

7. Bake until golden brown and still a bit gooey in the middle - about 25ish minutes

Notes:

1. I use a fork to mix my batter. I know - weird - but it works and you can’t over-mix as easily

2. Unfortunately, I don’t know the exact amount of minutes I typically bake this for (the perks of not using recipes…) Check it after 20 minutes and use your best judgment. I trust you!

3. Same goes for olive oil. Olive oil is a great, easy way to bring that rich fatty flavor to a recipe that is lacking consistency. Use it with your own judgment.