Ever since I went on my birthday/food/travel trip to New York City, I’ve been dreaming about all the food I ate. More specifically those hefty, crisp, yet gooey chocolate chip walnut levain cookies. I definitely was a non-believer right up until the moment I actually took a BITE of the cookie. My whole face lit up, and I knew my life had been changed. Never again would I doubt a cookie based on the cookie’s appearance.
Levain’s cookies are HEAVY. When you take a bite from the cookie, your teeth crunch through the crisp outer layer, then they SINK into the warm, tender, gooey centre. The chocolate is melty, the walnuts are toasted, and balancing the flavour of the cookie. These cookies must be on everyone’s bucket list.
Since that magical moment, I’ve been dreaming of them, craving them, and itching to get another like I’m addicted. So consequently I dedicated about four days total to recipe testing to find the perfect copycat cookie recipe. Of course I’ll never know exactly what techniques and ingredients/ratios go into the actual cookies, but I believe my recipe comes pretty damn close. Feel free to watch my gruelling three day recipe test video below. This was a tough cookie to crack but we got ’em in the end.
Copycat Levain Cookie Recipe
This recipe makes 3 large 6oz cookies
Ingredients
97g (1/2 cup) soft butter
62g (1/3 cup) brown sugar
62g (1/3 cup)white sugar
1 egg
2g (1/2 tsp) vanilla
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
90g (3/4 cup) cake flour
2g (1/2 tsp) baking powder
1g (1/4 tsp) salt
34g (1/3 cup) chopped walnuts
67g (1/3 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Method
- Cream the butter and both sugars together until just combined.
- Add in the egg, and stir to mix together. Add the vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, sift and whisk the flours, baking powder, and salt together.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter sugar egg mixture, and stir until partially combined. Add in the chocolate chips and the walnuts, and mix until the cookie batter is fully combined and there is no flour left.
- With clean hands, pick up the cookie dough and weigh it to 170g or 6oz each. Place the three cookies onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper and place in the fridge to chill — about 20 min.
- Preheat the oven to 400F/204C with the rack in the center of the oven.
- Place the tray of cookies into the oven and bake for 16-18 min or until fully golden on top and there are no shiny spots of raw batter.
- Let it cool for 15-20 min so the cookie has time to set up completely. Enjoy while warm!
ally bakes 