Hmm, that would be interesting. I do have a pretty good brownie pie recipe (with chocolate chips!) that I make in my 10" cast-iron skillet. Although Stella's brownies are fudgy rather than cakey, so they might stick to the pan, which is why I think she recommends using a foil cover and a spray-release agent in an aluminum pan. So maybe just put foil over the skillet? I'd imagine the way that cast iron conducts heat would have a positive effect on the crust, for sure. Hmm, will have to try this next batch!

Regarding pan-release agents, I've actually had pretty good luck with just smearing Crisco on my CI skillet for things like cookie pies & cornbread. I also use Baking Goop a lot. It's a similar idea to when you bake a cake & prep the pan by coating it in butter & then rubbing flour into it (before pouring the batter in) to help release the cake after baking, except you mix a paste together of flour, shortening, and oil, and can keep it in the fridge for awhile & just brush it on with a silicone pastry brush as needed:

https://iambaker.net/homemade-pan-release-baking-spray/

Side note, as long as we're talking baking & cast-iron stuff, I'll share my favorite recipe for cast-iron cookie pie because I am so excited at how it turned out! It started out with David Leite's amazing cookie recipe, but I eventually switched to this slightly-modified recipe: (which is my #1 best-ever amazing, "adult" cookie recipe, equivalent Stella's brownies, but for cookies)

https://smittenkitchen.com/2016/06/the-consummate-chocolate-chip-cookie-revisited/

I then modified that to fit into a 10" cast-iron skillet last year & was extremely pleased with the results. The quantity isn't quite perfect yet (you'll have some leftover dough to make into cookies, or else use in either 3.5" or 5" mini cast-iron as individual skillet cookies), but the texture is amazing. Oh, and I have two secrets to making fantastic cookies in general:

1. Use a Danish dough whisk. Not many people have heard of these, but they are life-changing! They look weird, but it works like magic for mixing batters & doughs of all kind. It prevents over-mixing of the flour, and also lets you PERFECTLY stir in the chocolate chips without breaking them (side note: I always keep my chocolate chips in the freezer, that way they don't smear when I mix them into the dough!). Here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/Original-Kitchen-13-5-Inch-Stainless-Danish/dp/B00HQQJ3N6
2. Chill the dough for at least two or three hours in the fridge (I use a gallon-size Ziploc freezer bag). This is a VERY IMPORTANT STEP! Ideally you do it overnight (or really, two or three days), because it not only holds the dough together better (and bakes out better!), but it lets the flavors marry (kind of like a marinade). Which is a pain when you want cookies NOW, but the payoff is worth it, I promise! Re: the Smitten Kitchen modified recipe above - you can leave the dough in the fridge for a few days, then measure out 3.5oz cookie dough balls, then freeze on a Silpat on a baking pan for a couple hours, then throw in a ziploc bag back in the freezer, or into a vac-seal bag (like a Foodsaver). I put them into 4-pack & 6-pack vac-seal bags and then just bake them up whenever you want cookies. Either put them in the fridge to thaw overnight, or just let them sit out at room-temp for 20 minutes (while the oven is pre-heating), or just add a few extra minutes to baking them (although if you have a really cold deep-freezer, that may affect the shape/size a bit).

Anyway, on to the ingredients: (this is actually one of the few baking recipes that I don't bother using the kitchen scale for)

• 1 & ¼ cups Unsalted butter (at room temp)

• 1 & ¼ cups Light brown sugar

• 1 cup, plus 2 Tablespoons, of Granulated white sugar

• 2 large Eggs, cold

• 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract (imitation is absolutely fine!)

• 1 & ¼ teaspoons Baking soda

• 1 & ½ teaspoons Baking powder

• 1 & ½ teaspoons Kosher salt

• 3 & ½ cups, plus 2 teaspoons, all-purpose white flour

• 16 ounces of Milk chocolate chips (I use the large/jumbo chips from Ghirardelli - you can use semi-sweet or dark too, if you prefer!)

• Crisco shortening (for greasing the skillet)

Tools you'll need:

• Large bowl

• Stand mixer (like a Kitchenaid) or electric hand mixer

• Wooden spoon & a spatula, OR just a Danish dough whisk

• 10” cast iron skillet

Directions: (note: I write things out in detail, don't be afraid of the wall of text or dozen instructions, it's not a hard recipe at all!)

Note, I do one batch in the skillet & used the rest for extra-large cookies (3.5 ounces each, per the original cookie recipe - yes, they are huge, yes, they are awesome, and surprisingly, they get even better the next day after they fully cool & the chocolate re-solidifies!). I haven't bothered tweaking the recipe to scale down to exactly a 10" cast-iron skillet because who doesn't like extra cookie dough? lol

1. Add butter, brown sugar, white sugar to a bowl. Beat for 5 minutes (long time!) with a stand mixer (or electric hand mixer).
2. Add egg & vanilla, beat for 1 minute.
3. Sprinkle over baking soda, powder, salt. Beat for 1 minute.
4. Add in flour. Do not over-beat! Simply mix until there is no more visible white flour. Optionally, just use the Danish dough whisk, if you have one available.
5. Stir in chocolate chips (preferably cold from the freezer).
6. Put in ziploc bag, in fridge, for AT LEAST 2 hours. Good for up to a week in the fridge. Can also be frozen.
7. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F
8. Grease a 10” cast iron skillet with a generous amount Crisco shortening using a paper towel (side note: I found that a 12" skillet was too big to effective cook this without being mush inside; maybe lowering the heat & increasing the time would fix that, but the 10" pan size is absolutely PERFECT for this recipe).
9. Tear apart cold dough (it will be very hard!) into chunks. Fill up the pan to ½ to ¾ full. Push down with your knuckles to fill in evenly in the pan.
10. Bake for 20 minutes, or until just slightly brown on top & getting brown around the edges.
11. Turn on the broiler for just a minute to get the top nice & crispy. This way the top is crispy & the inside is gooey! Make absolutely sure you babysit it the WHOLE time so that you don't burn the top (use your oven light, if you have one!).
12. I cut mine into “pie” slices for serving with a pie spatula. Because triangles are the best.

Excellent with a quality vanilla ice cream (like Haagan-Daaz, or homemade!). I should note that I hate chocolate-chip cookie bars (not all bars in general, I just don't like having my cookie be in a bar for some reason), and this is NOT a cookie bar. This is a cookie PIE. Flakey, melty, gooey, crispy, chocolately goodness. Doesn't sound like there would be much of a difference, but it's night & day (for me at least, lol). Anyway, #TeamCastIron yo!

Original recipe:

• https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2018/02/bravetart-glossy-fudge-brownies.html

High-Level Overview: (HLO, i.e. major components overview)

1. Brown butter
2. Mix eggs for 8 minutes
3. Bake 30 minutes

Special tools & ingredients:

• SideSwipe blade for KitchenAid
• Spatula-spoon
• Danish dough whisk
• Pernigotti cocoa powder
• Aluminum pan

Ingredients:

• 3 sticks of butter
• 170g chopped chocolate bar (70% to 90%)
• 450g white sugar
• 55g light brown sugar
• 1 & 3/4 teaspoons Kosher salt
• 6 cold eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 125g AP flour
• 4oz Pernigotti cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Preheat 350F
2. Line 2" 9x13 special pan with foil & spray with Pam
3. Brown butter, chop chocolate, turn off heat, stir in chopped chocolate
4. Combine white sugar, brown sugar, salt, eggs, vanilla in mixing bowl and whip on medium-high for 8 minutes
5. Mix flour & cocoa powder
6. Put KitcehenAid on low and pour in the chocolate-butter mix. Then add cocoa-flour until combined.
7. Pour into greased foil-lined pan. Bake 30 minutes to 205F (measure angled)
8. Allow brownies to cool. Lift out of pan & cut. Can be frozen.

Freezing procedure:

1. Cut into squares
2. Put a Silpat (well, I have a knockoff, haha - another budget-friendly Amazon item) on a baking sheet and put the brownies on top
3. Flash-freeze for a few hours
4. Remove from freezer (they pop off the Silpat super easily!) and vacuum-seal in small batches using a FoodSaver or something similar (I have one from Monoprice). They will be nice & hard so they won't squish when you vac-seal them. After sealing, put them back in the freezer for storage ASAP.
5. When you have a brownie craving, simply pull out a pack, cut it open with scissors & remove from the packaging, and reheat. I have a small toaster oven; I do 390F for 6 minutes right out of the freezer. Comes out like I just baked them, but with none of the work!

Some amazon reviews make it sounds much less forgiving than The Food Lab and that it calls for all types of specialized baking equipment.

tbh, cooking & baking are pretty simple. You mostly do just 3 things:

1. You stir stuff
2. You cut stuff
3. You watch it to make sure it doesn't burn black on the stovetop or oven

Now, based on those three things, you can also do:

1. Advanced stirring techniques (kneading, electric hand mixer, stand mixer, Danish dough hook, etc.)
2. Advanced chopping techniques (dough scraper, food processor, blender, etc.)
3. Advanced heat tricks (grilling, etc.).

lol @ "advanced". But that's more or less what it boils down to...stir & chop stuff up, and make sure it doesn't burn, haha. Why is that important to understand? Because of how actions are managed in the kitchen. The example I like to refer to is Newton & Gravity. When the apple fell on Newton's head & he figured out gravity, he basically spent a long time figuring out the formula for gravity, which in turn provides you with a simple one-line piece of information to learn. So you didn't have to go through all of that work, you simply had to "stand on the shoulders of giants" & benefit from their discovery process. All you're doing is walking through the steps that someone else figured out.

Likewise, in cooking, unless you're contributing a new recipe to the culinary world, for the most part you're simply going to be following someone else's directions. Those directions are important because someone else has already gone through all of the hard work of figuring out how to make a particular recipe awesome, and all you have to do is follow their "formula"! The problem is that many cookbooks are crappy because they have no color pictures & barebones instructions.

With Stella's Bravetart book, she gives you some history, color photos, and solid explanations about what you're doing. YOU don't have to do any of the labor of discovery or make it 200 times to get it perfect, all you have to do is follow her instructions! Regarding specialized baking equipment, yes, some of that will be required. If you want to make Twinkies, for example, you're going to need a canoe pan in order to get the shape right, you know? If you want to make muffins, you're going to need a muffin pan, and so on & so forth.

Equipment-wise:

One of the nice things, however, is that with most baking stuff, you can buy it for a reasonable cost off Amazon & keep it for a really long time. Like, the Norpor Cream Canoe pan is currently going for $27 shipped on Amazon & includes a cream injector tool, which sounds pretty expensive, but a box of Twinkies sells for upwards of $9 where I live, so for the price of 3 boxes of Twinkies, you can make unlimited Twinkies...red velvet topped stuffed with coconut cream & topped with shredded coconut, chocolate-dipped chocolate twinkies with buttercream frosting, white-chocolate & dark-chocolate-striped yellow-cake-mix twinkies with whipped cream frosting, etc. So if you like Twinkies, especially if you have kids or teach a class, you now have access to making really high-quality Twinkies for cheap at home!

That may sound a little funny, but wait until you try something like her English muffins...it will ruin Thomas' for you for life, lol. Being able to not only make your own homemade creations, but being able to make amazing versions of them, is a dangerous skill to cultivate, hahaha. So as far as costs go, aside from raw materials, you will need a base set of baking tools, and then whatever specialized tools you need to for whatever particular type of recipe you're going after. It does pay to invest in better-quality tools, when available. For me, being on a budget, that simply means spacing out the purchases over time to allow both my collection & skill set to grow over time. For example, I'd highly recommend Stella's recommended 9x13" pan here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017Z0E08/

It's pretty pricey for just a pan, but it's not only easy to work with, but also gives amazing results! I'm never going back to regular cheapo pans again! Plus, I always use her foil trick, where you wrap one sheet of aluminum foil horizontally & one vertically, and that way you can (1) lift the baked good out easily after cooking, and (2) never have to wash the pan, because it never gets dirty! Genius! And it's a fairly heavy-duty pan, so I can see myself keeping this for ten or twenty years, easily.

There are two other tools I always recommend for baking. The first is called a Danish dough whisk, which is a flat version of a whisk. It's amaaaaaazing for hand-stirring doughs & batters! Looks funny, but does an amazing job. I have several (a couple large ones & a small one) & they are amazing for everything from pancake batter to blondies:

https://www.amazon.com/Original-Danish-Dough-Whisk-alternatives/dp/B00HQQJ3N6/

Second, there is a crazy-expensive ($25, no joke) spoon that I HIGHLY recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Creuset-America-Revolution-Bi-Material-Cerise/dp/B00N9SDI40/

This is basically a combination of a spoon & a spatula. It's absolutely incredible to use in a skillet or in a bowl, because you can manipulate large amounts of food (batter, dough, sauces, etc.), but ALSO scrape the pan with it. So if you're pouring say brownie batter into your pan, you can use the spoon portion to pull the batter in, and then use the flexible tip to scrape the bowl clean...no more fussing with a wooden spoon & a spatula! Sounds like a small thing, like a really minor issue, but I can't live without this or my Danish whisk, haha!

Book-wise:

Anyway, recipe-wise, again, everything is pretty much laid out for you. You can dive into any recipe, read up on the section, go through the recipe, and get really great results. I've hit a homerun on pretty much every recipe I've tried the first time out, which is pretty rare when you're cooking stuff for the first time! I'd say Bravetart is actually one of the best baking books to start out with, not because it walks you through the "101" class of baking basics, but because everything is so well-explained that it's really easy to be successful because she has not only done the research to make really amazing recipes, but has also taken the guesswork out of the recipe, which a lot of other cookbooks don't bother doing, which can be extremely frustrating!

Also unlike a lot of other cookbooks, every recipe I've tried has been a homerun, which is pretty great because I feel like a lot of cookbooks are centered around a few really amazing recipes & then the rest are variations or fillers. Kind of like how a lot of music albums have one or two "hits" & then have pretty lame songs for the rest of the tracks, lol. My family, friends, and coworkers think I'm some kind of baking genius when I bring stuff in from her cookbook. /u/TheBraveTart I owe you lunch sometime lol.