Parsley, Sage and Sweet Levain Bakery Copycat Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

A friend brought these cookies to work a while ago... I had never tasted anything like this before; they were so incredible that I asked her what the recipe was. She told me they were Levain Bakery-style cookies, and gave me the name of the blog where she found the recipe. The blog is called Parsley, Sage and Sweet. Lisa does a beautiful job of explaining how to make them, as well as how to adjust the ingredients in order to obtain different textures and variations. With her permission, here follows the recipe and picture of this extraordinary cookie.

Levain Bakery Copycat Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies 

Ingredients

• 2 sticks ‘cold and cubed’ unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar – not packed too hard. Just spoon it in the cup(s) and press down lightly when full, sweeping off any extra that runs over.
• 2 eggs
• 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 cups AP flour – Spoon and Sweep method. (feel the dough, it should be moist, kind of like cold cookie dough in a tube.. but not super sticky, so you can portion the cookies with your hands)
• 3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 3/4-1 teaspoon baking powder ( I don’t fill the tsp fully, hence the 3/4 tsp)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups good quality semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (I usually use half semisweet and half milk chocolate AND, a little birdy told me they use Guittard)
• 1 cup walnuts (Toast the nuts for more flavor, if desired and/or use any kind of nut you like. I love macadamias in these)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle, cream together butter and sugars until well blended and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time.. and beat until well incorporated. 

2. Add flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chunks and nuts.

3. Transfer dough to clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients. Divide into 12 equal portions, **about 4 oz each..

4. Place each on sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake in the preheated oven 16-23 minutes depending on how gooey and raw’ish you like the middles (I bake mine at 375 for 18-20 minutes, as I prefer a less raw interior), until very lightly browned, taking care not to overbake. Let cool on rack and store what you don’t immediately eat, in an airtight container. To freshen them after a few days (if they last that long), give them a quick nuke in the microwave for 5-10 seconds.

Note – The Levain Bakery doesn’t use vanilla extract in their cookies, as they feel it’s unecessary. However, some feel you need it. You can add 1 tsp to 1 T to each recipe if desired. Just add it after each egg is incorporated.

Note – The Levain Bakery uses 6 oz of cookie dough per cookie. As mentioned above, If you want 12 cookies out of the above recipes, a little over 4 oz per cookie (4.1 to 4.2 oz. Use a kitchen scale) will get you that. If you want to use 6 oz of cookie dough per cookie, you’ll probably get only 6-8 cookies. However, a little over 4 oz makes a cookie just as thick and huge, so you don’t even notice the difference.

Note – If you want a more ‘caramel-molasses like’ Chocolate chip walnut cookie, increase the brown sugar while decreasing the white sugar, so you still have 1 1/2 cups total sugar. (Like 1 cup brown sugar to 1/2 cup white sugar).