Thursday, March 19, 2009

Levain Copycat Chocolate Chips Cookies




Before I started my cooking blog, I spent several hours online searching for a good cookie recipe. I was searching for titles which read the Ultimate recipe for…. The best ever recipe for... I tried several recipes which turned normal and sometimes less than normal, I was wondering… is this what they call ultimate and the best ever??? For sure the people taste has changed.

Last week I visited a friend's blog http://www.lisamichele.wordpress.com/, Lisa wrote about the famous Levain cookies, to my surprise I never heard of these cookies before or the famous bakery, though I visited NYC twice couple of years ago.

What was interesting Lisa called her recipe Levain Bakery Copycat Chocolate Chips Cookies, Lisa was trying to achieve the right recipe, it took her more than one attempt, until she was satisfied with the results. That to me proved that these cookies should be the Ultimate and worth trying “though I still had my doubt about finding the right chocolate chips cookies” but I was very curious to try Lisa’s recipe and see what is the story behind the famous Levain Cookies every one is talking about. I also visited the Levain Web Site which Lisa had a link to, and was surprised to find that a dozen of these famous 4 inches cookies sells for 66.00 USD.. WOWWWW

Lisa‘s recipe achieved the right thickness and has a crunchy flavour which I like at the same time they are not hard inside and crumbly, also she added they are best eaten the same day, and if they last couple of days longer 5-7 minutes in the micro will freshen them.
I really like the cookies, though I got a burned finger from a melting chocolate, but they are worth it. One thing I changed I didn’t cut them into 12 portions to achieve the 4 inch size cookies, I used an ice cream scoop to measure the same size , according to my husband the cookies are around 3 inches -24 cookies.

Ingredients:


2 sticks ‘cold and cubed’ unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 to 3 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon table or fine sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups good quality semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (I usually use half semisweet and half milk chocolate)
1 cup walnuts (Toast the nuts for more flavor, if desired. Use any kind of nut you like)
Directions:

I was lazy to bring my Kitchen Aid machine to whip the butter with the sugar, so instead I used a pie mixer and I cut the butter and the sugar to break them into pieces then added the eggs and with a hand mixer I whipped the mix to soften and melt the sugar, then I used a wooden spoon and mix everything together, I had to use my warm hands to bring the dough together. I put the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes to cool, and then I sliced and baked in a warm oven at 375F to 17 -20 minutes. Here are some photos to share.

Big thanks to Lisa from me and Michel….…. Great recipe!


a yummy bite caused a burnt finger.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Arlette! They came out wonderful and I'm so glad you and your hubby liked them - not to mention flattered that you blogged about them! Tell Michel hello for me and also tell him to go easy on these cookies as the last thing he needs is a mad stomach ache, which Jason was 'rewaded' with after eating 5 of these monster cookies in one sitting! LOL

Anne said...

Those sound great! I ADORE Lebanese food - I grew up with it so it's my "comfort food". :)

Thanks for stopping by my blog yesterday!

♥Sugar♥Plum♥Fairy♥ said...

Hey Arlette, ur Choco chippy cookie posts dure got me excited babes:-)
and love to hear about u being at the farmers market, oh would have loved to hop by there n cya,and all the delicious goodies u have.
After reading both these posts , i see that ,u love crunchy and crispy, i do too,and end up baking my cookies longer to get the crunch.
but my cookies never go hard the next day,they go soft ,a bit ,while i would prefer hard:-)
i mean once or twice ,i've had to bake them again too!
Now ur other ones sound perfect too and its been awhile that i have been wanting to bake a batch of Lisa's cookies,she has PHD there,aint she a darling?
Well from what i know,i think her cookies are the softer ,chewier kind and would love to have ur tweaked recipe ,if its ok with u.
I have a few tips for crunchy cookies and am also going to try to add those and get crunchy cookies:-)
and have a super day buddy:-)))

♥Sugar♥Plum♥Fairy♥ said...

And thannxxxx a ton lods for both the posts:-)))