Recipe and photography by Kayleigh Kosmas of Crafts and a Cat.
Ingredients
Skillet Cookie
4 bags Stash Christmas in Paris
1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
splash of vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2-1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips (feel free to reduce)
No-Churn Ice Cream
4 bags Stash Christmas in Paris tea
2 cups heavy cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
Directions
Skillet Cookie
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium low heat. Remove the tags and strings from the tea bags and add them to the butter (trim the strings; pulling can cause the bags to open up). Remove from heat when the butter starts to simmer and is foamy on top. Let steep off heat for 30-45 minutes. Remove the tea bags and discard, squeezing out as much butter as possible. Let come to room temperature before proceeding.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cream the infused butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt separately. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients a little at a time, then stir in the chocolate chips.
Divide batter between two greased 6" oven safe skillets, or spread into one 12" skillet. Bake 20-25 minutes, until the top is set and golden brown or to desired doneness.
No-Churn Ice Cream
Chill a 9" x 5" loaf pan in the freezer.
Slowly heat the cream and tea bags (as above, strings trimmed off, not pulled) on low. Stir frequently to keep a skin from forming on the surface of the cream. Remove from heat just as cream begins to simmer. Let steep off heat for 30 minutes before removing the tea bags, squeezing out as much cream as possible. Once the cream has come to room temperature, refrigerate until cold.
Beat the cold cream with an electric mixer until the cream holds stiff peaks. If the cream takes more than 5-7 minutes before it begins to thicken, try putting the whole bowl in the freezer for 15 minutes then try again. Stir the sweetened condensed milk into the whipped cream. Pour into the chilled pan and freeze until solid, about 10 hours.
"Don’t ask me to explain the science behind the magic, but dairy happily takes on the flavor of whatever you put in it. So working the flavor of the tea into the skillet cookie and the ice cream is as easy as steeping a few tea bags in melted butter and cream before mixing everything together. Just like when you make a cup of tea, the strength of the tea flavor that comes through is up to you. Simply use more tea bags for bold flavor or fewer for just a subtle hint of tea. Either way, you’ve got a uniquely delicious cookie and ice cream pairing on your hands."
"Why use the same tea to infuse both the cookie and the ice cream, you ask? This particular tea lends itself well to both, but in different ways: the cocoa shells in the tea add a smooth chocolate taste to the cookie batter, while in the ice cream I taste more of the peppermint, which keeps it from feeling too heavy. Whether you cut your skillet cookie into humanely portioned slices and serve it like pie a la mode, or just dive in with spoons like P and I did, I guarantee it won’t last long. First, the key to infusing dairy is patience. You want to heat it slowly to prevent scalding, then let it steep for a good while off heat to soak up as much tea flavor as possible. I did all my infusing the night before to minimize waiting/impatiently eating all the chocolate chips time. Second, you can adjust the baking time so the cookie comes out perfectly tailored to your liking, whether you’re a crispy on the edges and gooey in the middle person, or a chewy throughout kind of person."
"Since it’s baked in a cast iron skillet, you (probably, but no judgment) won’t be trying to lift the whole thing at once. Thus, you can leave the center super gooey without worrying about it falling apart when you eat it! I made it this way the first time, and it went really well with the ice cream, super soft and straight out of the oven." – Kayleigh Kosmas