Simple Stay-home Recipes: Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

We attempted to re-create the legendary Pierre Hermé’s 5-ingredient Chocolate Cake recipe. We paid the late Anthony Bourdain a tribute with his Candied Sweet Potatoes With Bourbon. Carrying on the theme of famous recipes in mind, let’s gather everyone in the family and have some fun making cookies. 

Yes, you read it right. Today, I present to you a cookie recipe. This is, however, not the average cookie in your cookie jar, neither is it the bite-sized baby cookie cereal that has been trending on TikTok. With the mindset of ‘go big or go home’, we are blowing out of proportion with this Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies recipe!

Credit

Starting out as a hole-in-the-wall bakery along West 74 Street in New York City back in 1995, Levain Bakery became an instant hit all thanks to their signature (and now world-famous) six-ounce cookies. 25 years into the business, this humble bakery has now evolved into a mini-empire with six stores scattered around the city and a massive international fanbase.

Having tried Levain Bakery’s Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie fresh from the oven during my last visit to Manhattan, I’ve never stopped thinking about it since. And in an attempt to relive the moment I had my first bite of Levain Bakery’s cookie in the streets of New York, I decided to take it to my kitchen, experimenting on the various copy cat recipes online.

After testing four recipes, this was probably the closest and most successful to the cookies I’ve tried at Levain Bakery. So let’s preheat our oven and get our hands dirty!

Ingredients

• 285g brown sugar
• 115g granulated sugar 
• 280g unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 230g cake flour
• 275g plain/ all-purpose flour
• 5g salt
• 8g cornstarch 
• 6g baking soda
• 150g walnuts, chopped
• 400g chocolate chips/roughly chopped chocolate bar (dark chocolate preferred)

Tools

• Baking tray
• Parchment paper
• Large mixing bowl
• Spatula
• Oven
• Kitchen weighing scale

Recipe Preparation

Preparation time: 10 minutes; Resting time: 20 – 30 minutes; Baking time: 10 – 12 minutes
Makes 10 cookies 

• In your mixing bowl, mix the granulated sugar and brown sugar evenly.
• Add melted butter into the sugar in two batches, stirring constantly to ensure they are well combined.
• Add eggs and egg yolks. Mix well.
• Sift the flours, salt, cornstarch, and baking soda before folding them into the egg mixture in two to three batches. Ensure they are properly combined without over-mixing.
• Fold in chopped walnuts and chocolate chips.
• Cling wrap the dough on contact and allow it to rest in the fridge for 20 – 30 minutes.
• Preheat your oven to 210°C.
• Shape chilled cookie dough into approximately 170g round balls.
• Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown on the surface. Rest the cookies for at least 10 minutes allowing them to set before serving.

Recipe Preparation (In Pictures)

Step 1: In your mixing bowl, mix the granulated sugar and brown sugar evenly.

Step 2: Add melted butter into the sugar in two batches, stirring constantly to ensure they are well combined.

Step 3: Add eggs and egg yolks. Mix well.

Step 4: Sift the flours, salt, cornstarch, and baking soda before folding them into the egg mixture in two to three batches. Ensure they are properly combined without over-mixing.

Step 5: Fold in chopped walnuts and chocolate chips.

Step 6: Cling wrap the dough on contact and allow it to rest in the fridge for 20 – 30 minutes.

Step 7: Preheat your oven to 210°C.

Step 8: Shape chilled cookie dough into approximately 170g round balls.

Step 9: Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown on the surface. Rest the cookies for at least 10 minutes allowing them to set before serving.

Words alone cannot describe how heavenly these Copy Cat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies taste! Just like the real deal itself, the cookies were perfectly crunchy on the outside, yet soft, chewy, and gooey inside. 

The best part of these cookies was the fact that they were thick. Gloriously thiccc with a height of at least three to four centimetres each! With its sweet caramelised aroma filling the air as they bake seducing your tastebuds, you will be tempted to sink your teeth into them the moment they are out form the oven.

But behold, as patience is key to the perfect bite of these Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies. Allow the cookies to work its magic internally as they cool on the rack for 10 minutes and then they are all yours to devour!

Pair these cookies with a cup of black coffee or English tea for an afternoon treat you will never forget this ‘Circuit Breaker’ period. If you have tried the real Levain Bakery cookies and also attempted this copy cat version, comment and let us know if this is up to par with the original!

Expected Damage: S$1.50 – S$2.50 per cookie

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