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Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Skillet Cookie
I've been wanting to make a skillet cookie for oh, about 3 years, and finally did it.
And boy, did I do it. This goes down as one of the best cookies I've ever made.
It's definitely the biggest cookie I've ever made. Ten and one-quarter inches in diameter and about 2 inches thick.
But bigger doesn't always mean better when it comes to taste.
I've made cookies from various cookbooks that were big but they didn't wow me. Fine but nothing earth-shattering. The skillet cookie, however, knocked my socks off.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to break in my Le Creuset Enameled Cast-Iron 10-1/4-Inch Skillet with a chocolate chip cookie, a peanut butter cookie, or an oatmeal cookie. I love all three and when each is done perfectly in their own right, they each have respective selling points that can't be beat.
If you don't have a cast iron skillet, you can bake this cookie in an oven-safe skillet or in a 9-by-9-inch square baking pan. Don't use a 9-inch round cake pan because it will likely be too small and the bottom of your oven may be wearing cookie dough.
Since I couldn't decide which type of cookie to make, I made a 3-in-1-cookie. Necessity is the mother of invention.
The bulk of the cookie dough is largely that of an oatmeal cookie, with all its texture-filled chewy glory. I made the dough by hand, using melted butter, and stirred in the brown sugar, flour, and oats. I didn't use any granulated sugar because exclusively using brown sugar keeps cookies softer, which is what I wanted. I also wanted to avoid dirtying my mixer and I succeeded.
After mixing up the oatmeal cookie dough and pressing just shy of three-quarters of it into the base of the skillet, I mixed up the Elixir of the Gods, also known as one can of sweetened condensed milk and one half cup of creamy peanut butter that are stirred together. I poured the glistening, tan, creamy sauce over the oatmeal dough.
I normally don't do pour shots because frankly it's challenging to steady a 5 pound camera and lens setup in one hand and pour with the other, while not missing the action, and obtaining an image that's remotely in focus. Evidently though I became inspired in the presence of cookie dough, sweetened condensed milk, and peanut butter. I was tempted to save a little and pour it into my coffee but didn't. Next time.
After the tan flood, I turned the oatmeal-peanut butter cookie into a chocolate chip cookie by adding one cup of semi-sweet morsels on top of the floodwaters.
Then, I took the reserved portion of the dough, a little over one-cup's worth, and dropped it by the tablespoon over the top of the chocolate chip-laced flood. While baking, the oatmeal dough meshes with the creamy mixture, and forms a smooth wall, which was especially satisfying to puncture with my fork, knowing the sweet creaminess that awaited beneath.
If you like chewy edges, this cookie has your name on it. It has 32.185 inches of them to be exact.
Circumference = Pi x Diameter
32.185″ = 3.14 x 10.25″
Determining the amount of chewy cookie edge is the only redeeming value of 9th grade math class. Math finally clicked for me. It just took cookies and twenty years time later.
After eating my way around the cookie, I ate my way right into the middle, which is my panacea. The soft, warm, squishy, gooey, happy place that my dreams are made of. Scott can have all the crispy edge he wants, but give me the barely done, super gooey, melty, middle.
While baking, the peanut butter and the sweetened condensed milk mixture thickens slightly and the creaminess of the sweetened condensed milk is intensified, and it takes on a caramel-cream quality. Combined with the slightly salty nature of the peanut butter, the soupy mixture is a creamy, caramely, hot wonderful mess. And of course, warm and melted chocolate chips make everything that's good just that much better.
Both texturally-speaking and from a flavor perspective, I couldn't ask for more. My three favorite kinds of cookies in one, complete with chewiness, density, and creaminess. Dense walls of oatmeal cookie hunks, a smooth peanut butter and milky caramel center, and the satisfying quality of melted chocolate woven throughout each bite of this jumbo cookie pie makes it a new favorite.
Although it was best hot and fresh from the oven, the leftovers weren't too shabby. What we didn't eat immediately, I slid out of the skillet onto a cutting board (and the whole thing released like a charm) and I chopped it into two-inch bar-sized pieces, and stored them in an airtight container, which we happily nibbled on over the next few days. Scott had me warm up his leftovers in the microwave and add ice cream. Somebody had their thinking cap on.
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
- 1½ cups old-fashioned whole rolled oats (not quick cook or instant)
- one 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ice cream, optional
- Preheat oven to 350F, spray oven-safe skillet with cooking spray (mine is a Le Creuset enameled cast iron and I sprayed liberally with Pam for Baking and it released like a charm; if skillet is well-seasoned cast iron, you may wish to butter or grease it slightly; set skillet aside. Alternatively, cookie may be baked in a 9-by-9 inch square baking pan that has been lined with foil or sprayed with cooking spray; do not use a 9-inch circular pie dish because it will be too shallow.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter, about 1 minute on high power (you may microwave butter to a browned-butter state, which makes this cookie especially delicious, by cooking butter for about 3 to 4 minutes; watch it closely so it doesn't burn. See browning butter in the microwave tips.
- To the melted butter, add sugar, egg, vanilla, and whisk or stir vigorously to combine, for about 1 minute, slightly fluffing up the batter. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and stir until just incorporated. Add the oats and stir to combine. Pour slightly less than three-quarters of the dough into the skillet, reserving about 1¼ cups (just eyeball it) to be crumbled on at the end; set skillet and large mixing bowl with reserved dough aside.
- In a small bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter and stir until smooth. Pour mixture over the dough in the skillet. Evenly sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. Drop tablespoon-sized chunks of the reserved dough into the skillet, dispersing then as uniformly as possible over the surface, which forms the crumble topping.
- Bake for about 25 minutes, or until edges begin to barely crisp up and most of the top surface of the cookie has set. The center may not be completely set; this is okay because cookie will continue to cook in the skillet after it's been pulled from the oven, noting that there is a fairly significant carryover cooking effect with cast iron; so don't overbake in the oven because cookie is meant to be very gooey. Cookie may be served immediately; optionally serve it with ice cream. Cookie is best eaten fresh from the oven but due to its size, extra cookie may be sliced and stored in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, reheating gently in the microwave before serving leftovers if desired.
Related Recipes:
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies – Similar in flavor to the skillet cookie, uses melted butter so no mixer is required, and one of my top 3 favorite cookies on my site, tied with the cookies below
Peanut Butter Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Cookies – Probably favorite cookie on my site and it can be made with semi-sweet chocolate if you're not into white chocolate. More than any other cookie recipe on my site, people write saying they loved these
Coconut Peanut Butter Magic Cake Bars – These bars use the 'flood' technique like I did with the skillet cookie. A can of sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter is mixed and poured over a cake crust, and it's all topped with white and dark chocolate chips and coconut. My favorite dessert bar on my site, tied with this one, which also use a flooding technique
Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookies with Peanut Butter Cups & M&M's – Baked in a whoopie pie pan, they turned out like little mini pies, with overhanging rimmed edges that are especially chewy and dense
Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups and Ice Cream – These cookies were baked in muffin tins and then topped with ice cream
Do you have a large oven-safe skillet, cast iron or otherwise? What do you bake in it?
Please link up your favorite recipes using a skillet, from egg frittata to cornbread to cookies.
Do you have a favorite cookie recipe that is just, The Best?
Whether chocolate chip, peanut butter, molasses, sugar, or a family recipe that turns out perfectly every time and is always a hit, I'd love to hear about it. We all have that one cookie that whenever we make them, people always want the recipe. I love those kinds of tried and true cookie recipes.
Links welcome and appreciated. Have a great week!


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This article comes to us courtesy of California Watch
California hospital overcrowding disproportionately affects minority patients, according to a study published today.
The study by UC San Francisco, Stanford University and UCLA researchers measured hospital overcrowding in 202 California facilities by analyzing ambulance diversion rates, or how often ambulances are turned away from an emergency department. They found that hospitals that serve large minority populations were more likely to divert ambulances to other hospitals.
These findings "are a matter of concern given that ambulance diversion has been associated with poorer health outcomes," the study said.
Ambulance diversion is sometimes used when an emergency room has become so crowded that it is deemed dangerous to admit additional patients, and the study authors used the practice as an indicator of overcrowding.
Nonelderly minorities in California are less likely than whites to have health insurance, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and researchers noted that they are also more likely to use emergency rooms for safety net care, or health care for low-income or uninsured individuals.
Hospitals serving large minority populations may be more crowded because there are fewer hospitals in their communities, researchers said.
"People think sometimes that there is a government body that has oversight of the supply and demand of emergency department care and that there is a rational system in place," said Renee Hsia, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of emergency medicine at UCSF. "But that's not how the health care system works; it's market driven. The emergency departments in some communities tend to be cost centers because they serve uninsured patients and some are revenue centers because they are bringing in paying patients."
Organizations like the California Hospital Association and the emergency physicians professional organization CEP America said that hospitals are also overcrowded because some patients don't have access to preventive and primary care.
"The real issue is there needs to be places for people to go with their primary care needs – that's what this is about," said Ellis Weeker, vice president of CEP America and a practicing emergency department doctor in San Jose. "The reason minorities use the emergency department more can be attributed to the fact that they can't find a primary care physician to see them. The answer is not more hospitals or emergency departments; it's more alternatives for people so that if you have a more routine medical problem, it doesn't need to be cared for in the emergency department."
Ambulance diversions are not always the result of overcrowding, some physicians noted. Diversions also happen if the emergency room doesn't have the proper equipment or specialist to address a specific medical problem.
"If you have two cases in the operating room and another case waiting and then a car accident comes in, those patients need care right away," said David Perrott, senior vice president and chief medical officer of the California Hospital Association. "What can also happen in an inner-city hospital is that it may not provide the full scope of services, and you may need a diversion because you don't have a neurosurgeon, for example."
The new study looked at diversions due to "emergency department saturation," or episodes when it is overcrowded, Hsia said.
Determining when to institute an ambulance diversion is complicated and controversial, medical experts said. According to a policy brief issued by the California HealthCare Foundation in 2009, diversions are "unhealthy for the patient from the standpoint of quality, outcome, and length of stay. It is unhealthy for the community because it delivers patients to a hospital that may not be the best fit for their individual and immediate needs."
Weeker of CEP America said that the practice has improved. "It was very unregulated and random if you go back 25 years, and there were very poor management of diversions," Weeker said. "It has become more regulated and the emergency medical system agencies have gotten involved and people are more thoughtful about what to do."
In California, ambulance diversion policies are drafted by the 31 local emergency management agencies. Some hospitals use software programs to track the volume of emergency department patients in their area. Some hospitals also have "pre-diversion plans" in place to avoid the practice.
The new study concluded that "system-level policies, whether at the hospital or county level, regulating ambulance diversion may help policy makers, health care providers, and hospital administrators reduce diversion and its associated inequalities."
Lead author Hsia added that even though minorities tended to be most affected by ambulance diversion and hospital overcrowding, it's an issue that has ripple effects on all patients.
"What ends up happening is if your hospital goes into diversion, it affects other hospitals and it's like a domino effect," Hsia said. "The effects are not just on patients in the emergency department; it's on people waiting for an ambulance that might be out of commission because it is circling the city (to get to a hospital that will accept the patient). The overall effects are felt by everybody."
Bernice Yeung is an investigative reporter for California Watch, a project of the non-profit Center for Investigative reporting. Find more California Watch stories here.

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