Jared LOVES caramel, so I wanted to make the cookie of his dreams. Crunchy toffee pieces, chewy cookie, gooey caramel. Which I think might be the skillet cookie of everyone’s dreams! This cookie is super easy to make because you do everything in one skillet and it comes together very quickly.
Making the Skillet Cookie
To make the cookie, first you are going to brown your butter directly in your skillet. The butter will melt and then bubble and then foam. You will start to see browned bits at the bottom of the pan. As you stir, the foam will darken as the butter continues to brown. You want it to smell toasted, but not burnt. The butter should be an amber color when it’s ready. Once the butter is browned, remove from heat and add your sugars. You can stir or whisk in sugars, but whisking is a lot quicker and easier so I would recommend using a whisk. It’s okay if there’s a little bit of butter that is not fully incorporated but you want it to be mostly combined.
Melt and brown the butter 
Add sugars to browned butter 
Stir to combine
When you brown butter, some of the moisture evaporates. So in an effort to cool the mix down a little bit before you add your eggs and add some of that moisture back in, you’re going to whisk in an ice cube to your butter and sugar. If you add your eggs in to the hot butter, you’ll get scrambled eggs and that is something you obviously want to avoid. So once you start adding your eggs, you want to move quickly to combine that and then incorporate all of the dry ingredients. This will help create the final dough before your eggs have a chance to do anything you don’t want them to. So I would recommend having all of your remaining ingredients measured out so you can add them as quickly as possible. If you’re nervous about your mix being too hot, you can always stick your pan in the fridge for a few minutes.
Quickly add eggs 
Add dry ingredients 
Stir to combine
Then stir in your toffee pieces. Pull some of the dough from the center out of the way and add in your caramel pieces. Cover the caramel with the cookie dough. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt and then you’ll bake the cookie for about 25 minutes at 350F, until the cookie is set. The edges and top should be set, but when you move the pan, the cookie should still jiggle. The center will essentially be molten caramel, so it will be soft!
Add toffee pieces 
Add caramels 
Cover the caramel with the cookie dough
This is delicious fresh out of the oven topped with vanilla ice cream but it’s also SO good once it’s fully cooled. You can slice it into cookie pizza slices and enjoy SUPER gooey caramel in every bite.
For my toffee lovers, you should also try my Toffee Chocolate Chunk Cookies. And for skillet cookie lovers, try my One Pan Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie.
Brown Butter Toffee Caramel Skillet Cookie
Equipment
- 10 inch cast iron skillet
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks
- 1 cup dark brown sugar lightly packed
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 ice cubes
- 2 large eggs room temperature, whisked together in a small bowl
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 3/4 cup toffee pieces like Heath
- 1 4.5 oz bag soft caramels, unwrapped like Werther's
- Flaky sea salt for topping
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F. You also want to move through this recipe pretty quickly so you don’t give your eggs a chance to scramble in a relatively warm batter. So I would highly recommend measuring out all of your ingredients in advance so you are ready to add them as you need to.
- In a cast iron skillet over medium heat, brown your butter, stirring frequently. The butter will melt, then bubble, and then foam. You’ll be able to see your foam darkening in color as you stir, once the milk solids start to brown.
- Remove from heat.
- Once your butter is brown, whisk in your brown sugar and granulated sugar. Continue to mix until combined. It’s okay if there’s a little bit of butter that is not mixed in, but you want it as cohesive as possible.
- Stir in the ice cubes to cool down the mixture. You want to cool this down so when you add your eggs, they do not scramble. You want to move quickly from this point on, so as I mentioned in step 1, I would recommend that you have all of your ingredients ready. If you haven’t done that yet, do it now!
- Add your vanilla extract and whisked eggs. Quickly whisk this into your batter to incorporate.
- As soon as the eggs are mostly incorporated, add your dry ingredients. Whisk until you have a cohesive batter.
- Sprinkle your toffee pieces evenly over top of the cookie and quickly stir them in.
- Then use your wooden spoon to move some of the center of the dough out of the way and add your caramels. Cover the caramel with the cookie dough.
- Top with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt and bake in the oven at 350F for about 25 minutes. The edges and top should be set, but when you move the pan, the cookie should jiggle, after all the center is basically molten caramel.
- Remove from the oven and top with ice cream. Enjoy! The leftovers are equally delicious. The cookie will set up more as it cools, but the caramel layer in the center will stay very gooey. You will be able to slice it and have it later.
