Pizza Hut Cookie Dough Recipe

Few things bring me as much joy as a warm cookie, and when I’m indulging in some deep-dish pizza, I can’t help but dream of the Pizza Hut cookie dough recipe. 

It might have cookie dough in the name, but I can assure you that this cookie is warm, chewy, and totally irresistible.

When it arrives in that skillet, it’s all I can do to not dig in right away. I’ve had one too many burned tongue experiences due to my impatience!

They’ve stuck with calling this cookie dough because technically, it’s hot cookie dough served in a skillet with ice cream.

It’s just barely baked to the point where you’ll get a slightly crisp edge and an ooey, gooey center.

Sounds like heaven, right? Read on for instructions on how to make your own at home.

Pizza Hut Cookie Dough Recipe

You might be wondering: how can you eat hot cookie dough? The eggs! The salmonella! What about the children!?

Ok, maybe you’re not quite that dramatic, but it’s a fair question, and it has such a simple answer: this recipe contains no eggs.

Have you ever had cookie dough dip? If you have, then you’ll know it’s soft, sweet, and essentially cookie dough without the eggs. Pretty delicious, right?

For those of us who like to eat cookie dough AND can’t keep our hands off freshly baked, chewy cookies, this recipe is a no-brainer.

Ingredients

When looking through the ingredients, there are no real surprises. 

The great news is, if you’re looking for a tasty vegan alternative, this recipe couldn’t be easier to modify.

All you’ll need to do is swap out the butter for a vegan alternative and be sure you have dairy-free chocolate. How easy is that?

For the original, tried-and-true recipe, you’ll need:

• Light Brown Sugar – I know that most cookie recipes call for a mixture of both sugars. But since you’re not worrying about flat cookies or too-crisp edges, all this recipe needs is a little sweetness and some molasses for texture. Light brown sugar is the best of both worlds, though you can use an even mix of white and dark brown if that’s all you have.

• Butter – As mentioned above, this is so easy to change out to make this recipe vegan! But using butter over oil is key to that richness only butter can offer.

• Flour – Regular all-purpose is your best bet here.

• Chocolate chips – I like to use a mix of mini-chocolate chips and chocolate chunks for this recipe. The minis will disperse throughout the dough, giving you fantastic chocolate flavor in every bite. But the pieces will melt into little pockets of gooey chocolate that are so messy and so, so, good.

• Vanilla – I would never recommend skipping vanilla, and try to use extract or paste if you can.

• Salt – A pinch of salt in the dough is essential in most recipes. But to take this recipe over-the-top, try sprinkling with some sea salt just before you serve. 

Tips for the Best Cookie Dough

This recipe makes the perfect base for a skillet cookie, and you can adjust it so quickly:

• Replace the chocolate chips with toffee bits, or chunks of soft caramels
• Use white chocolate and drizzle with raspberry sauce
• Mix in Reese’s Pieces and chopped peanut butter cups
• Throw in some chopped nuts and serve with butter pecan ice cream
• Chop up some Oreos and drizzle with extra chocolate

Since this doesn’t make a huge batch, it’s best made by hand. Start with soft butter and stir with a spoon.

Unlike other cookie recipes, you won’t cream the butter and sugar until they’re light and fluffy. Just mix them together and move on.

The texture of the dough is pretty important. It needs to be sticky and spreadable, but not runny or soupy.

When adding the water (or milk), do so a little at a time until it’s just right.

You can easily make this recipe ahead and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready for it. Just let it warm up a little before you try to spread and bake. 

The best pan for this recipe has to be the cast-iron skillet. You can get mini-skillets (I know, I keep going on about them!) that are too cute and make the perfect individual servings.

But you can also make these in ramekins. 

How Is It Different From a Cookie?

There are a lot of cookie recipes that don’t contain eggs, and this one is pretty similar.

However, if you were to spoon this onto a baking tray, you would get flat, sad-looking cookies.

The reason being, this is designed to be cooked as a thick cookie that has a soft center.

Once you’ve made the dough, you’ll need to add some water to thin it out a little. 

This cookie only cooks for about 12 minutes, where an average skillet cookie would need closer to 15 minutes.

Of course, you could cook this for longer if you want the middle less soft. 

Will Pizza Hut Cookie Dough Taste Good Cold?

Of course! The idea behind this recipe is to eat it hot while the middle is undercooked and gooey.

But if you leave it to cool completely in the skillet, it will continue to cook as it cools.

Once cold, it will set up just right, and you’ll have one incredible egg-free chocolate chip cookie!