Cheesecake Stuffed Skillet Cookie

Crawfish boils every weekend on every block. Anatomy lab three days this week. The cadaver work is what they say it is. I am holding up.

Drove to Baker Saturday morning. MawMaw Shirley was at the stove already. We made gumbo. Thirty-five minutes of roux. The lesson keeps unfolding. Kayla showed me a graphic design project Tuesday. She's at BRCC. The art is hers.

Jambalaya. The Robinson Monday tradition. Andouille, chicken, the trinity, rice cooked in the pot. One pan. Fed everyone.

Sat on the porch with iced tea. The Louisiana evening.

DeAndre's birthday came around again. I made his favorite — andouille and chicken in brown gravy. I ate two bowls. I called Aunt Renee. We did not say much. We did not need to. The food was the saying.

Tanya's tomatoes were in this week. She brought a sack. I made a sandwich for lunch every day for four days. Heirloom tomato, white bread, mayo, salt. The summer lunch. The simplest pleasure of summer.

Crawfish boil at a friend's place Saturday. Twenty-five pounds. The shells filled three trash bags. Standard Louisiana spring. We sat at the picnic table for four hours. The corn was the best of the boil. The corn always is.

The apartment kitchen is small but it cooks. Two burners. One pot. A cutting board balanced on the counter because the counter is too small for both the cutting board and the toaster.

Tanya brought a casserole over Wednesday. The Tanya casserole. Half went into the freezer. The other half fed me Wednesday and Thursday. Mama's casseroles are the silent backup of my entire adult life.

MawMaw Shirley's recipe cards in the wooden box on the kitchen counter. I copied another one Saturday morning at her kitchen table. The collection is growing. She watched me copy. She corrected my Cs. She has always corrected my Cs.

Anatomy lab three days this week. The cadaver work is what they say it is — not gross, not romantic, just human. I went home after Friday lab and made gumbo because the only thing that quiets the body after a day in the lab is the slow stir of a roux.

Daddy called Sunday afternoon. He is sixty-something and his knees are still bad and he still has not gotten the second one replaced. I am working on him. He is working on me to stop working on him. We are at an impasse. The impasse is the love.

I texted Kayla about her latest design portfolio Tuesday. She is good. She has Tanya's directness and Daddy's eye for proportion. The design field will know her name eventually.

Reading something light at night. A novel by a Louisiana writer. The voice was familiar. The voice was home. The book ended on a small kindness. I appreciated that.

Friday night Darius and I watched a movie I have already forgotten. We fell asleep on the couch by ten. The dog (we got a dog last year, did I mention) slept between us. Standard.

Daddy sent me an Amazon receipt accidentally Sunday. He bought a power tool I do not understand. Standard. He texted twenty minutes later, "wrong thread, sorry baby." I told him don't worry about it. He said thank you. The exchange was the exchange.

I went to the gym Tuesday and Thursday this week. Twenty minutes on the treadmill. Standard. The body is the only equipment I have for the rest of my life and I am trying to maintain it.

Sunday service at Bethany. The choir sang. The pastor preached on Hannah and Samuel. I sat with Tanya and Marcus. The hymn at the end was the one Mama used to hum. I cried into the bulletin. Standard.

The Robinson Monday tradition has always been about what one pan can do — andouille, chicken, rice, the whole meal feeding everyone from a single pot. That spirit does not leave when the week turns toward dessert. After anatomy lab and a long Saturday copying MawMaw Shirley’s recipe cards, what I wanted was something I could slide into the oven without thinking too hard, something that would sit on the counter and be ready when Darius woke up from the couch. This skillet cookie — chocolate chip dough wrapped around a cheesecake center, one pan, done — is that thing exactly.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 28 min | Total Time: 48 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

Cookie dough base:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Cheesecake filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 10-inch cast iron skillet or oven-safe skillet with butter or nonstick spray and set aside.
Make the cookie dough. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with both sugars until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and stir until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips. Divide the dough roughly in half and set aside.
Make the cheesecake filling. In a medium bowl, beat the softened cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and mix until creamy with no lumps remaining.
Layer the skillet. Press the first half of the cookie dough into an even layer across the bottom of the prepared skillet, covering it completely and coming slightly up the sides. Spread the cheesecake filling evenly over the dough layer, leaving a small border around the edges.
Top and seal. Flatten small pieces of the remaining cookie dough between your palms and lay them over the cheesecake filling, patching and pressing gently to cover as much of the surface as possible. It does not need to be perfect — rustic patches are fine and will bake together.
Bake. Bake on the center rack for 25–28 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the edges are set. The center will still look slightly soft — that is correct. Do not overbake.
Cool before slicing. Allow the skillet to rest on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before cutting into wedges. Serve warm directly from the pan. Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream if the week calls for it.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cheesecake Stuffed Skillet Cookie — One Pan, Every Tradition