Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

If you’ve traveled to, or live in New York City, you have probably heard of Levain Bakery and their famous chocolate chip cookies. On my trip to NYC just over a month ago, I made a stop at the popular bakery on West 74th Street to see for myself if this was indeed the best chocolate chip cookie in the world!

Levain Bakery is rumored to have the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. Yes, in the world.  Hmmmmmmm. This is a highly debatable subject. What determines if a recipe is the best recipe in the world?  It’s all a matter of personal opinion and preference.

History of this famous cookie:

Levain Bakery was opened in 1994 by two women, Pam McDonald and Connie Weekes,  who trained for triathlete/Ironman competitions together. They were often hungry after training and wanted a treat that would fill them up. During the training process they talked about creating the best chocolate chip cookie in the world.  Over 20 years later, they are still baking cookies (and muffins, breads, pizza, sticky buns)  and wowing New Yorkers and tourists every day.

They have 4 locations. There is almost always a line out the door, and their locations even sport a line cam giving you a look at the length of the line. Not that a long line seems to deter anyone from buying Levain’s cookies! We visited the West 74th street location and waited in line for less than 20 minutes.

Why are these cookies so popular?

Size: Huge. 6 oz (almost half a pound) of cookie. Everything is is big and flamboyant in NYC, and Levain cookies are no exception. The cookies are enormous. If you are forking out $4 per cookie (current price),  you want a cookie you can sink your teeth into. I’ve purchased big cookies in the past, only to be disappointed that the flavor didn’t match up to the size of the cookie. The Levain cookies deliver in both the size and deliciousness categories!

Texture: Perfect combination of crisp outside and incredibly gooey center. The cookie is baked at a high temperature, and mounded high, allowing the outside of the cookie to crisp up perfectly while the middle barely gets baked and creates puddles of chocolate in the cookie dough.

Hype: New Yorkers love to wait in line! No really.  Anything with a long line in NYC= (usually) an experience you don’t want to miss. This isn’t a tourist-only line. New Yorkers faithfully stand in the Levain line, patiently waiting for their cookie fix.

Why recreate the Levain cookie?

Reason 1. They are delicious- See all of the above reasons. A big melty hunk of a cookie.
Reason 2. Cost- At $4 per cookie, if I lived in NYC and could run down the street to buy a cookie whenever I had a craving, it would be an easy choice. Four dollars a cookie is a reasonable  price, given the size of the cookie. I mean, it’s a meal for $4.  So one cookie or two or three are affordable. But when you consider you can make 8 at home for about a dollar per cookie, the make at home option  starts to look very attractive.
Reason 3. Location- If you don’t live in NYC, (and who does?)  I mean, only about 8 million people, but most of them don’t read this blog, which brings us to the out-of-towner option, having the cookies shipped. See reason 4.
Reason 4. Affordability of shipping: The mail order option, in my opinion, is not very affordable for most people.  And who wants to wait 2 days when they have a chocolate chip cookie craving? Levain cookies are sold four to a package in the smallest package available.  The least expensive shipping option (to Utah, 2 day air) will set you back approx $64 or about $16 per cookie. For two day old cookies.  Gulp.
or
The next option is $81.50 for next day air, which is about $27 per cookie. Fairly fresh, but still a day old.
or
Last, but not least, next day (early) delivery is $108.50 or $34.94 PER COOKIE. Did you just pass out?  I’ve eaten a lot of cookies in my lifetime. Probably more than my share. I don’t ever recall eating cookie that was worth $35 per cookie.
The shipping is what increases the price of the cookies.  If you have a friend visiting NYC, having them hand deliver cookies is a sweet option. Unless they leave the cookies on the plane. Oops. See Reason 5.
Reason 5.  I want to help you keep your integrity intact. These cookies are a HOT item. Don’t leave them unattended, or else.

Baking tips:

Pam and Connie do the following when making the cookies:

• They use cold butter in 1 lb blocks
• The walnuts are not chopped, and don’t appear to be toasted.
• The amount of brown sugar is a bit more than the white sugar added, and the brown sugar is light brown and is not packed. 
• No vanilla. They don’t add vanilla because they think it is not needed. At first I thought WHAT? No vanilla in a cookie? But they are right. It really doesn’t add much flavor.
• Eggs, are 2 per recipe, the butter and egg ratio per (at home) recipe would be 1/2 lb butter to 2 eggs.
• Chocolate chips. Semi sweet. About  2 cups per recipe. They add the walnuts first and pulse the dough, then add the chocolate chips last. They add the walnuts and chocolate chips after the dry ingredients have been pulsed into the wet ingredients.
• The cookies also seem to be on the less salty side, they use about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of salt per recipe. I always use a coarse sea salt for best taste results. I am not sure if they use salted or unsalted butter, but I always use unsalted.
• Mixing: The mixer used is a large commercial grade machine. They mix the butter and sugars together first, with the mixer on low. The mixer speed is always on low.  When making other chocolate chip cookies, I usually add my chocolate chips and nuts with the flour to get them coated with flour (which is supposed to help them from sinking into the bottom of the dough) but Levain just adds the walnuts and chocolate chips after mixing in the dry ingredients. They pulse the mixture several times to prevent the flour and other dry ingredients from spilling over the bowl.
• Refrigeration of dough: Refrigeration of dough usually enhances the texture of the cookies, but I don’t feel it is necessary in this cookie. You can see what will be best in your oven by baking  a cookie right after mixing up. If the cookie flattens too much, refrigerate the remaining dough for 30 minutes before baking.
• Shaping: Pam and Connie talk about “no baseballs” when shaping the dough. I usually create “baseballs” by using a cookie scoop. The Levain cookie is a more rustic looking treat. They use their hands to shape the dough. I prefer to use a food handler’s glove and measure the dough out and weigh it on my trusty kitchen scale.
• Baking time and temp: I found the best temperature in my oven is 400 degrees. If I am baking on a regular setting, I bake at 400 for 11-12 minutes. If using convection, I bake for 8-9 minutes. To achieve the gooey consistency of the Levain Bakery cookie, you must take the cookie out of the oven before the center is baked.
• Cooling-an important step: The Levain cookie needs to sit on the cookie sheet for at least 15 minutes before eating. Leave the cookie on the warm cookie sheet so it can finish baking and set up. I believe the cookies are best when left to sit for about an hour after baking.
  

Conclusion:

I loved this cookie at the bakery and at home. It’s definitely a cookie lover’s dream. Not to be confused with the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie, which is a chocolate lover’s dream, this cookie is a mini-mountain of chocolate chip cookie dough. If you know someone who loves to eat the dough more than a baked cookie, I am guessing they will fall in love with the ABK version of the Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie. One recipe makes 8 GINORMOUS cookies.

Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 11 minutes
Total Time: 21 minutes
Yield: 8 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, cut into tablespoons 
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1 1/2-1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 2 cups walnut halves
• 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F and set rack in middle of oven.
2. Place butter into bowl and turn mixer on low. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.
3. Add sugars and beat butter until smooth on medium speed. This should take about 1 minute. Mix until the butter pieces are completely blended with the sugar and is no longer visible in pieces.
4. Add the eggs and beat on medium just until incorporated with butter and sugars, about 30 seconds.
5. Turn the mixer off. Add the cake flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pulse the dry ingredients on low until the wet and dry ingredients are mixed together.
6. Pour the walnuts into the batter all at once. Pulse the batter 5-6 times.
7. Pour the chocolate chips into the batter and pulse again 5-6 times.
8. Pour the batter out onto a clean surface. Fold the dough together a few times until all of the chocolate chips and walnuts are mixed into the batter.
9. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces about 6 oz each. Use your hands to shape cookies. Do not use a cookie or ice cream scoop. The cookies are meant to be roughly shaped. Do not flatten the dough.
10. Bake 4 cookies per pan, for 11 minutes on regular bake or 400 convection bake for 8-9 minutes.
11. The cookies are done when the top is a bit golden and the bottom is also golden.
12. Do not over bake. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

*Recipe from abountifulkitchen.com