Two weeks ago I had my very first bake sale! The motivation for having the bake sale was to raise money for PAWS, my nephew's marathon charity. Our bake sale was hugely successful thanks in large part to the generosity of the runners in the marathon training running group. Next to spending an entire day baking and packaging everything up, deciding on what cookies and confections to make was my second biggest challenge. Our predictions on which items would sell out first completely missed the mark. In a last minute decision I decided to make two batches of the Levain Style Lemon Cookies. Turns out, those were the cookies that sold out first! I shouldn't have been surprised because there is something very appealing about a perfectly golden brown, humungous cookie. Which is why I decided I needed to create my version of Levain's Chocolate Chip and Walnut Cookies.
In spite of having numerous recipes for chocolate chip cookies on the blog, only one other contains coarsely chopped, toasted walnuts. Additionally, the size, texture, taste, and look of these cookies are nothing like anything I have ever shared with you before. Had I brought these cookies to the bake sale, they might have given the Lemon Cookies a run for their money.
If chocolate chip cookie are one of your favorites, you absolutely want to have this almost too pretty to eat version in your repertoire.
This version of a chocolate chip calls for using chocolate chips and not chopped chocolate. Buy either good quality semisweet or dark chocolate chips. Chips made by Guittard or Gharadelli are my favorites.
The cookie recipe calls for two kinds of flour: all-purpose flour and cake flour. Cake flour when combined with all-purpose flour helps to create a more tender crumb, a melt in your mouth texture, and a thick without being cakey cookie. Unlike some other more traditional chocolate chip cookies, the dough is made with only one large egg and one large egg yolk. Save the extra egg white for your morning scrambled eggs.
I used only light brown sugar, but you easily replace a couple of tablespoons of the light brown sugar with the dark brown sugar. Even a little bit of dark brown sugar will give your cookies a hint of molasses flavor.
Instead of dividing the dough into 8 equal portions, I divided it into 9 equal portions instead. The size of each baked cookie was still substantial enough. I would be reluctant to make these cookies any smaller as they would lose their 'Levain-style' look and eating experience.
The dough should be chilled for at least 60 to 90 minutes, however, it can also be chilled overnight.
Baking the cookies at the slightly higher temperature of 375 degrees (F) helps to shock and prevent them from spreading too too much. You want the finished cookie to be hefty in appearance.
The biggest challenge in making the cookies is determining their doneness. Particularly being careful in not under baking or over baking them. They should be golden brown along the edges and allowed to rest on the hot baking sheet for at least 10 minutes when they come out of the oven. If this is the first time making them, I recommend bake just one cookie to start. This will help you gauge the right amount of time they need to spend in the oven.
A light sprinkling of flaky sea salt on the balls of dough before they go into the oven is optional, but it helps to further ramp up the cookie's overall flavor.
Levain style cookies are my newest, latest obsession. And these Levain Style Chocolate Chip and Walnut Cookies are my newest chocolate chip cookie obsession. No, I am not abandoning my favorite Jacques Torres Style Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. But if I wanted to sell, bring, or serve some 'eye-popping' chocolate chip cookies, I would make these Levain Style Chocolate Chip and Walnut Cookies. They are as irresistible and impressive as they are delicious. To use an Olympic analogy, they are gold medal worthy cookies.
Recipe
Levain Style Chocolate Chip and Walnut Cookies
Makes 9 humungous, gorgeous cookies
Ingredients
1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (134g) light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 Tablespoon good quality vanilla
2 1/4 cups (293g) all-purpose, unbleached flour
1 cup (118g) cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
12 ounces (340g) semisweet chocolate chips (e.g., Guittard or Gharadelli)
1 1/4 cups (125g) walnut halves, toasted and coarsely chopped
Flaky Sea Salt
Directions
1. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter for approximately 1 minute.
2. Add in the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat until light and fluffy (approximately 4 minutes).
3. Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract. Beat until well blended.
4.In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and Kosher salt. Add in the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl. Beat on low-medium speed until the dry ingredients are almost all incorporated.
5. Add in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Mix until completely blended (and no white streaks of flour remain).
6. Roll in 9 balls, slightly more than 5 ounces (164-168g) each. Break each ball in half and press sides into each other to create a round ball with a top of the craggle-y edges.
7. Place balls of dough onto a platter or baking sheet. Cover and chill for 60-90 minutes or overnight.
8. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F).
9. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Note: You will bake only one sheet at a time (unless you have a double oven).
10. Place 4 or 5 balls of dough on a baking sheet, spacing more than 2 inches apart. Lightly sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Note: Do not bake up more than 5 balls of dough on a single baking sheet.
11. Turn a baking sheet upside down. Place the baking sheet with the balls of dough on top of it. Insert both of them onto the middle rack of the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. Note: Rotate the baking sheet midway through the baking process and check for doneness at the 16 minute mark.
12. Remove from the oven and let the cookies remain on the hot cookie sheet for at least 8 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
13. Bake the remaining cookie sheet.
14. Let the cookies cool before eating. Note: If you are gifting them or selling a bake sale, package the completely cooled cookies in a cellophane bag and tie rightly with ribbon or string. Do not wrap in 'plastic' bags as the cookies will lose their crispness.
15. Store the baked cookies at room temperature. Ideally, store them individually wrapped in a cellophane bag or waxed bag. To recreate the just out of the oven taste, reheat the cookies in the microwave at high for 8-10 seconds.
Notes: (1) There is another version of a Levain Style Chocolate Chip Cookie. There are differences between that recipe and this one. Both are good, but I am partial to this one now. (2) To make a milk chocolate chip cookie version, eliminate the semisweet chocolate chips and walnuts. Replace with 16 ounces (453g) milk chocolate chips. I highly recommend using Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips. (3) Cookies that were chilled overnight baked up slightly faster than the ones chilled only for 60-90 minutes. (4) To toast your walnut halves, put them on a baking sheet and bake in.preheated 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Transfer the toasted walnuts to a cutting board to cool before chopping.