Cast Iron Skillet Chocolate-rich Chocolate chip Cookie (Triple C)

The minutes start to blend into the hours into the days into the months. That is how my life has gone by so quickly over the past six months. First it was my Surgery, then my Medicine, and finally my obstetrics and gynecology rotation. I am happy that I was able to learn a lot, help and care for my patients, and give back.

At the same time, trust me, I am happy that I finally get two weeks off from this hectic schedule I call third year medical school. I intend to use them to watch TV, eat, sleep, bake and repeat.

It was around this time I got a wonderful gift in the form of a 6 inch cast iron skillet pan and I was overjoyed because there is a baked good I have been meaning to make for ages. The gigantic skillet cookie and that's what I did today.

The recipe is simple - it's like any other cookie dough recipe that you would use but instead of many small cookies, you make one gigantic one. I modified the recipe from Bake or Break - a wonderful site with lovely recipes with a few modifications:

1) I replaced a 1/4 cup of flour with baking unsweetened cocoa.
2) I cut the sugar by half
3) I added a shit load of chocolate chips - how can you go wrong?

Everything else was identical to the recipe there.

Easy as pie - or cookie - dump ingredients into the mixing bowl

The dough comes together in a snap

Press the dough in and top it with more chocolate chips

Stare at this gorgeousness that is the cookie :-)

Enjoy this delicious cookie with some mmm... ice-cream. I used vanilla!

This is wonderful to share with your family or with yourself, but since it's the holidays, you probably should be nice (just this time.)

Happy Holidays,

Kartik

Incoming....

Hello fellow bakers,
So what have I been up to you ask? Well medical school kind of took over my life. Not surprisingly. But I still managed to keep on baking. It was my stress relief. It was my love. It was my peace. It was my happiness. And it was my little business :-)

How is that you ask? Well I managed to convince my med school classmates to start purchasing the baked goods and so far I'm proud to say I've sold more than 500!!

500!! Thats a lot of cookies. So I'll start posting recipes soon, but here's a little preview...

See you very very very soon.
Kartik

Red Wine Chocolate Cake

Happy New Year everyone!

It's been a while since I last posted. But you know, medical school, life, studying, and more studying seemed to keep creeping up on me.

I'll keep this short since I'm in the middle of watching Homeland - I love this show! - in the little break that I have.

This is a great recipe especially when you've got left-over red wine lying around. Come on now! You know that moment where you have a tiny bit in the bottle left and you're wondering, is it worth keeping it? It's a day old, what should I do? I know those questions have been running through your mind.

Well, have no fear. Here's an easy recipe to use that leftover wine. I also see no reason you can't use white wine, but use a wine that you are willing to drink. Don't use cooking wines that are terrible. Trust me, that's a bad idea.

I just ended up following the recipe from Smitten Kitchen - my to-go recipe site and it's really easy.

Plus, if you don't like wine or don't drink alcohol, no fears. There's also a simple chocolate cake recipe on the site as well.

Here's a picture with how easy it is:

What are you waiting for? Now's the best time to make it. Surely, you've got a lot of left-over wine to use.

Kartik