Day Ninety Six: Hard-as-a-Skillet Skillet Cookie

I research and write this blog from my home.  Often at my kitchen table.  The problem with this arrangement is that my children often sneak walk up behind me to see what I'm doing.  If the item I'm looking at happens to be one of Martha's fabulous dessert items, I inevitably get a request to make said dessert.

Well, it's usually not a request.  It would be more accurately characterized as begging.

Today, when I was researching my blog at MarthaStewart.com, my son walked up behind me while I was opened to Martha's Skillet-Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies.  You can guess what happened next.  Now, I generally have very little problem telling my kids "no" once or twice.  I get a little worn down after the fiftieth time.  In the past few days, my normally high tolerance for begging has been worn down by my son begging for a pet bird.  So, after a couple begging requests and two sets of puppy-dog eyes later, I relented and pulled out the skillet and chocolate chips.

I have had some pretty fantastic failures so far on this blog.  Mostly, these have been a result of my inability to channel my inner-Martha.  The recipes have been good.  But I'm not so sure this one was my fault.  I followed the directions perfectly.  Completed batter poured into the skillet:

Batter patted down into the skillet:

Resulting lovely golden-brown (and nearly rock hard) skillet cookie:

This dessert, while easy to make, was so rock hard that even my son would not eat it.  He ate exactly two bites before he asked me if we could "save it for tomorrow".  Then about two minutes later he asked if his "cookie cake" would be "more soft" tomorrow.  When I asked what he meant, he replied:

"You know, will it taste better tomorrow?"

No, son, it won't.