After making the amazingly delicious double dark chocolate Levain Bakery copycat recipe, I’ve been wanting to make the chocolate chip walnut cookie recipe. After searching around the web, I decided to work with the copy cat Levain Bakery recipe from Parsley, Sage, Desserts & Line Drives and tweak it a bit.
I’ve never been to the Levain Bakery, never had one of their cookies and am not so sure I ever will, and really haven’t a clue if this actually tastes like their cookie, but this much I know…. This is one damn good cookie.
It maintains that slightly dough like consistency inside, which is heavenly. After making this cookie, I don’t plan to be making the recipe off of the Nestle chocolate chip bag (though I will give it credit, it served me well for many years).
The biggest difference in this recipe for me was that it did not call for vanilla, and it included cornstarch. At first this seemed really odd, but I remember my mom always adding a box of vanilla pudding mix to her chocolate chips cookies. Given that the second ingredient on the pudding box is “modified food starch” (which apparently often means cornstarch), I figured it was a safe add in to try.
Here’s what you need…
Levain Bakery Walnut Chocolate Chip Copycat Cookie Recipe
2 sticks butter – cold and cut into cubes
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cups light brown sugar
3/4 cups dark brown sugar
2 eggs
3 cups flour (you may need slightly less or more)
1 & 1/2 tsp salt (I prefer sea salt)
2 tsp cornstartch
1 & 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips – I used one cup regular semi-sweet chips and one cup mini chips
Optional – 1/2 block of semi-sweet or dark chocolate (not unsweetened baker’s chocolate)
Optional – 1 cup walnuts or pecans
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. In a large bowl/mixer bowl, cream together cubed butter and sugars until well blended and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, until well mixed.
4. Add flour, salt, cornstartch, baking powder, baking soda & salt to butter, sugar and egg mixture until just combined. This should be a very thick mixture, and not sticky. If your dough is still sticky, try adding more flour, 1/8-1/4 cup at a time.
5. Add in chocolate chips and nuts. If you are using a block of chocolate, you will want to grate it and add it in as well.
You can even use a chocolate candy bar for this part. The grated chocolate just adds a hint more chocolate in every bite.
Yay for chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate!
6. Combine the dough and chocolate chips. My dough was so thick that I had to do this by hand, a bit like kneading bread.
7. Divide into portions to bake. I scaled back a bit from the giant Levain Bakery size cookie and instead of making 12 cookies with this recipe, I made about 18. I worked the dough into balls, and put them on the cookie sheet, leaving ample room between them. I did not flatten the dough out at all. I also did not use a silpat, parchment paper or grease the cookie sheets. I’m a baking rebel when it comes to putting my cookies on the cookie sheets.
8. Put into the oven to bake. For my 18 cookies, each sheet took approximately 10 minutes. Larger cookies will obviously take a few more minutes. Watch them closely and don’t over bake, or you will ruin the gooey wonderfulness inside. I pulled mine out as soon as I saw them start to lightly brown.
9. Let cool and remove from pan.
10. Break one open and eat. Squeal with joy after tasting. Figure out who to give them to or where to hide them so that you don’t eat the entire batch in one sitting.
Some day I am really going to have to try an actual Levain Bakery cookie. So far the two knock offs have been AMAZING. Next time I may have to try the dark chocolate peanut butter cookie. Or the oatmeal, subbing out the raisins for butterscotch chips. Either way, I have a feeling it will be scrumptious!
Enjoy!
Anna K says
I noticed your cookie sheets looked dimpled, are they? If so what brand are you using?
Christi says
Anna, I have one that is, most are not. Honestly I think I picked it up at Target probably 8+ years ago. My favorite baking sheets are the plain regular ones, and I love the non-stick ones that Crate & Barrel sells.
[email protected] says
I, too, have just made and posted a knock-off for Levain Bakery’s signature chocolate chip cookie. Only the recipe I tried had some cake flour in it. The cake flour along with all-purpose flour is supposed to be the formula for pastry flour. It’s said that pastry flour is the secret ingredient in Levain’s cookie. All I can say is that these cookies are absolutely AMAZING! Enjoyed browsing your blog…when you have a chance, stop by and visit mine! http://www.fransfavs.com/2012/07/levain-bakery-chocolate-chip-walnut-cookie-clone/
Elizabeth says
Just made these, I didn’t have dark brown sugar, so I just substituted light brown sugar. The cookies still came out great! The first batch I rolled them like she did, but found that they didn’t spread at all. So, the next batch I rolled them and then flattened them out a bit. Despite not spreading the first batch tasted wonderful. And the second batch was perfecto!
Susan says
These were amazing! I have never been to Levain Bakery as do not live near NYC, but I have made my fair share (and MORE) of chocolate chip cookie recipes and I have potentially found my new favorite! I’m a lover of Alton Brown’s Chewy and think I could love both as they both offer wonderful characteristics depending on what you’re looking for. Due to the large quanties of flour, I think the Levain can dry out more quickly, than the Chewy. However, if consuming or presenting for consumption right the day of than Levain may have one up on the Chewy. Gasp…did I just say that?! However, the Chewy could offer up a richer taste a few days after and it may be due to the higher butter:flour ratio. Hmmm…I did bake the Levain cookie with and without toasted pecans.Both equally delicious, but since I LOVE nuts with chocolate the pecan version wins hands down too. I think I will have a bake-off of the Levain and Chewy just to be sure of my allegiance and plan on making other Levain copycats as the Fall is upon us. Did anyone suggest butterscotch and oatmeal? 🙂
jonn says
why the 2 tsp of cornflour,cant see that it makes any difference ?
Christi says
John, there has been much conversation about cornstarch being one of Levain’s “secret” ingredients, so just trying to replicate their delicious cookies!
bakery recipes says
Really a wonderful recipe of chocolate cookie, can’t wait to try it soon as the pictures itself looks so yummy than what to say about the taste.. a nice recipe blog..
Rose Tencza says
What are the alternations for high altitude on this recipe?
Maria Jose says
The best cookie recipe I’ve ever tried. Incredibly yummy. Everything is perfect. Wonderfully delicious. A piece of heaven in your mouth.Thank you for sharing this recipe.
xxx from Spain
Katie Kay says
I made these in a chocolate chip cookie contest, and these won 2nd out of 6 with 15 judges! I loved them and I’ll make them again and again!
http://www.katiekayskitchen.com/2013/06/chocolate-chip-cookie-contest.html
Melania mure says
Just made these today and they came out delicious!!! I used pecans instead of walnuts and all light brown sugar since that was what I had on hand. Definitely recommend everyone to try! <3
Christi says
So glad you liked them Melania!