What’s the best way to top off a gigantic, awful-for-you takeout pizza? With a gigantic, awful-for-you takeout dessert, of course. But those ubiquitous cinnamon sticks made out of leftover pizza dough and smothered with frosting aren’t the only option anymore; if you’re craving something a little more chocolate-y, Pizza Hut's chocolate chip cookie pizza has your name on it. Starting today, they’re offering what they’re calling the Ultimate Hershey’s Chocolate Chip Cookie, which is basically a giant cookie in pizza form.
As Business Week noted, Pizza Hut isn’t typically a forerunner when it comes to menu trends (I think that honor, at least in the pizza category, goes to Domino’s and their chicken crust pizza/chicken nachos/whatever the heck you want to call it); indeed, the massive, chocolate-studded creation isn’t even a new invention — Mrs. Fields and other similar companies have been selling cookie cakes for years. But Mrs. Fields does not offer you pizza as well as cookies, and none of the other pizza chains offer huge-ass cookies on their menus, so that’s where Pizza Hut hopes to score. “Millennials tell us it’s what they want,” said Carrie Walsh, Pizza Hut’s chief marketing officer, to USA Today. “They like to cap off a great pizza with a great dessert.”
The dessert comes as part of Pizza Hut’s partnership with Hershey’s; it joins Hershey’s Chocolate Dunkers (“freshly-baked dough, topped with a touch of white chocolate and blended with Hershey’s milk chocolate”) on the menu. If you buy it and a pizza together, the cookie runs $4.99; if you just want the cookie, it’ll set you back another buck.
But see, here’s the thing: Gigantic chocolate chip cookies are super easy to make yourself, and anything that comes out of your kitchen will probably taste way better than something from Pizza Hut. Here are a few recipes to get you started:
1. Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Skillet
Also known as a “pizookie” (part pizza, part cookie), this super sweet creation from Damn Delicious is just begging to be topped with melt-y vanilla ice cream.
2. Dark Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookie
So is this one from How Sweet It Is. Really, you can’t go wrong with cookie cake a la mode, no matter where the recipe came from.
3. Banana, Walnut, and Chocolate Cookie Cake
If you like your banana bread with both nuts and chocolate, you’re sure to fall in love with Joy the Baker’s take on the treat.
4. Gluten-Free Skillet Cookies
Gluten-free? Love and Lemons has you covered.
5. Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Salted Coffee Caramel Apple Skillet Cookie
I think Half Baked Harvest’s skillet cookie qualifies as an “everything but the kitchen sink” offering.
Happy baking!
Images: Pizza Hut; Imgur; Damn Delicious; How Sweet It Is; Joy the Baker; Love and Lemons; Half Baked Harvest
