Kai and The Kitchen

Recipes and Musings of Food and Life

198 Baking

Coo-Kie Do You Love Me {Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies}

Jump to recipe

Last month I got to spend some time in the Hamptons working with my friend Kara at her pop-up shop for Morris and Son’s, a men’s clothing store we have here in Chicago. I fell in love with it there. The shingled houses with gardens brimming with hydrangea…the farm-stands full of fresh local produce…the lobster…the bakeries. I left there longing for more time, dreaming about when I could go back to experience more.

While we did our fair share of restaurant exploring when I was there, we also wanted to shop the local farm-stands and do some cooking to channel our inner Ina Garten. We made heirloom tomato salads, whole steamed lobsters, scallops provencal, loaded charcuterie boards, bone-in pork chops with sage butter, and mountains of sautéed green beans with dill and shallots.

Whether we were dining in or going out to dinner we always saved room for something sweet. The Hamptons is home to two very famous bakeries, Tate’s Bake Shop and Levain Bakery. Prior to my visit I had never had a cookie from Levain Bakery. As soon as I had a bite of one of their famous chocolate chip I was hooked. It was the best chocolate chip cookie I had ever had. These cookies have some serious height and density, weighing in each at 6 ounces. They are crispy on the outside with a soft gooey center and loaded with semi-sweet chocolate chips and walnuts. I knew as soon as I got home to Chicago, I had to figure out a way to recreate them.

If you’ve read any of my other baking posts, you’ll remember that I’ve mentioned before that I am not necessarily a baker. I am learning to be a good one, but baking is something that doesn’t come as naturally to me as cooking does. Typically for me with baking it takes a lot more trial and error to figure out what went wrong or what ingredient caused something to go right. As with anything I do in the kitchen, the trial and error is what is most essential to my learning.

In testing out this recipe, I tried my way through numerous Levain Bakery copycat recipes, and took notes of what I thought was successful from each and what could have been better. I tried adding and omiting things others hadn’t. I went through the painstaking work of tasting them all 🙂 I am confident enough in the recipe that I’m sharing with you to say that it is spot on. I will continue to tweak and update this recipe as I find things that I thing can improve them.

No need to fly to New York or wait in line to have one of their famous cookies. Whenever you’re craving a Levain Bakery cookie, just make a batch yourself! These cookies are best minutes after they’ve come out of the oven, so bake them when you plan on eating them. They also freeze wonderfully.

**If you are someone who doesn’t usually like walnuts or nuts in your cookies, try these with the nuts anyway..they do not have a strong flavor in this recipe. Or try subbing for pecans. The nuts are important because they add the bulk that allow these cookies to stand so high and mighty. If you’re someone with a nut allergy, do not simply omit the nuts. The cookies will turn out flat. Replace the amount of nuts with an equal amount of chocolate chips. You will also want to put them in the fridge for 45 minutes prior to baking. This will help the cookies keep their height. **

Let’s get started. 

Step 1: Get it hot. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. This temperature is ideal for getting the nice brown top that these have.

Step 2: Cold butta. It’s important to start with cold butter. Cut the butter into 1 tablespoon pieces. Put your butter pieces into a bowl and turn on your mixer. If you’re using a stand mixer, make sure you have the paddle attachment on.

Step 3: Suga sugar how you get so fly. Combine both your normal sugar and brown sugar with your butter and mix until smooth on medium speed. The sugar and butter should be completely blended. This should take about 1 minute.

Step 4: Wet ingredients. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat on medium until they are combined, 20-30 seconds.

Step 5: Dry ingredients. Add the cake flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix on low to combine.

Step 6: Get nutty. Add all of the walnuts to the cookie dough. Pulse the batter 5 times

Step 7: Chips. Pour the chocolate chips into the batter and pulse again 5 times.

Step 8: Fold it. Pour the batter out onto a cutting board or clean surface. Using your hands fold the dough until all the chocolate chips and walnuts are evenly combined.

Step 9: Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces. I use my food scale to make sure each cookie is roughly 6 oz. Do not flatten the dough or use a cookie scoop. Divide the dough using only your hands. These are meant to be roughly shaped tall balls.

Step 10: Bake ’em. Divide your cookies on sheets lined with parchment paper or silicon baking mats. Four cookies per sheet. Bake for 11 minutes on regular bake. If you are using a convection oven, bake for 8-9 minutes per cookie.

Step 11: Check ’em. Once the cookies are done they should be golden on the top and bottom. Make sure not to over bake. The bottom of these cookies will be done at exactly 11 minutes.

Step 12: Keep it cool. As tempting as it is it dig right in, these cookies need 15 minutes to set up and cool. If you are eating these cookies the next day, put them in a 350 degree oven for 2-3 minutes to warm them up!

 

 

 

 

198