Yossy Arefi’s chocolate skillet cookie with walnuts & cherries

P.S. Vegan. P.P.S. Valentine's is Day next week.

If you’re a new subscriber expecting a dinner recipe today, know that one recipe a month is a weeknight dessert. Is it really dinner without dessert? Discuss in the comments.

Yossy Arefi writes baking recipes for people who like sugar but don’t consider themselves bakers—or for anyone who wants a dessert right away. The recipes in her two latest books, Snacking Bakes and Snacking Cakes, come together faster than my oven heats. I can get something in the oven by the time my boyfriend finishes doing the dishes from dinner, which means a warm, after-dinner cookie is a realistic option most every night.

Here we are shooting the cover of the Chef's Garden cookbook. (L) me arranging our vegetable models—Yossy tie-dyed that shirt! (R) Yossy bottom left shooting the cover

Yossy and I have known each other for years, since I acquired her first book, Sweeter Off the Vine, when I was an editor at Ten Speed Press. Since then, we’ve worked together on photo shoots in a million different configurations: her photographing, food-styling, or assisting me; me prop-styling, food-styling, or bossing people around—or some combination of all these things! She is so skilled at what she does and is the coolest cucumber in every and all situations. If Yossy is on set, it’s going to go well. Also how I feel when I’m baking her recipes.

Yossy’s recipe today is a chocolatey skillet cookie with an egg-free base so you can really undercook it for maximum goo. It’s studded with nuts and dried cherries but feel free to switch them out for 1 cup of your favorite add-ins: peanut m&ms, toffee bits, toasted coconut, cacao nibs, and so on. 

From Yossy:

This chewy chocolate cookie comes together with pantry ingredients with a whisk and a spoon (although you could totally get away with just using a spoon and a little muscle if you don’t have a whisk.) Lots of chopped chocolate melts into gooey delicious puddles. Chips work here too, but the chopped chocolate makes for a richer eating experience. Milk chocolate is nice here but use semisweet for a fully vegan cookie. This cookie is best just the slightest bit underbaked so it stays nice and soft. If you are patient, you can let the cookie cool in the pan then slice into wedges, or just spoon it out of the pan warm and serve it with ice cream.