I was cruising around on TheKitchn the other day when I came across a post about making a giant cookie in a cast iron skillet. How could I pass up a recipe like that! It also fits in nicely with Gluten-Free Homemaker’s Monthly Gluten-Free Challenge to make a dessert bar.
Turns out TheKitchn writer used Martha Stewart for the guidelines. (Don’t we all at some point or another? Well, I do, like when I made red velvet cupcakes.) I hopped over to her site, looked over the recipe, thought up the necessary gluten-free changes, plus a few other adaptations (namely making the cookie hazelnut flavored) and we were good to go. (Mike always gets scared when I want to adapt recipes. As he explains it, 3/4 of the time the changes are good; 1/4 of the time he ends up with kale in his food.)
Hazelnut Chocolate Chunk Bars
- 1 cup hazelnut meal
- 3/4 cup sorghum flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca starch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, tightly packed
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons hazelnut extract
- 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chunks
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mix flours, salt, and baking soda together. Combine well.
- In a separate bowl, cream sugar and butter together. Then add in egg and hazelnut extract.
- Once thoroughly mixed, add in the flour. Stir until just mixed, then stir in the chocolate chunks.
- Press into a 12-inch skillet. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove and allow cookie to cool completely before cutting.
Serves 8
The hazelnut flavor was very prominent, which was my main goal. However, because of the high proportion of hazelnut meal to other flour this cookie is not quite the same texture as “regular” cookies. (It had a dense chocolatey middle, with a crispy crusty top.) If you can’t find hazelnut extract, plain old vanilla works too.
I used chocolate that was 71% cacao, because I love dark chocolate. It makes for a very rich flavor. Semi-sweet or milk chocolate work as well.
Martha’s original recipe calls for a 10-inch skillet. I only own a 12-inch. If you use a 10-inch adjust the cooking time upward. She says to bake for 40-45 minutes.
Cast iron holds heat well, so remove the cookie before it gets too brown. It will continue to bake after you remove it from the oven.
You have to wait for the cookie to completely cool before cutting it up–unless you want gooey crumbly mess. Granted, warm gooey, crumbly cookie mess is not that bad of a thing. But if you want actual bars, you’ll have to wait.
This recipe is shared in Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.
Ohhhh, whoaaaaaa. I love hazelnutty chocolatey stuff! Where did you find the hazelnut meal? And what brand of skillet do you have? I’ve been wanting a cast iron skillet but haven’t gotten one yet. My mom friends have been making skillet cookies for months, like, to feed their kids for dinner, and I want to play too!
Poor Mike with kale in his food, ahahahaha!
I used Bob’s Red Mill Hazelnut Meal that I picked up at Whole Foods.
We have a Lodge seasoned cast iron skillet that some lovely friends gave to us for Christmas. It is wonderful. You don’t have to worry about seasoning it and it’s definitely nonstick. I’m kind of kicking myself for not getting one sooner.
Wow. This sounds and looks fantastic! I think it would be very dangerous around me as somehow I’d end up eating the whole thing! haha.
Ha, it certainly did not last long here.
I’ve never made a cookie in a cast iron skillet, but I love the idea. I’ve also never tried hazelnut meal, but I bet it’s good. Thanks for participating in the dessert bar challenge and coming up with something interesting and different for us to try.
What a cool idea. I have a bag of Bob’s Red Mill hazelnut meal they just sent me in a box of GF goodies to test. I see a big cookie in my future.
Yummy, these look great! I wonder if I could veganize these, they would be off the hook :)
Seems likely, just have to switch out that one egg.