These chocolate chip walnut cookies are made with a copycat Levain cookie recipe!! As a result, you can make the famous, delicious Levain Bakery Cookies at home!
Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies “How-to” Video
Watch this quick video and you’ll see exactly how to make the best chocolate chip walnut cookies in existence!
I was in New York City last summer for two glorious weeks taking a culinary nutrition class at the Natural Gourmet Institute. I made plenty of trips to By Chloe for smoothies, lunch and sweet treats and got to meet up with friends and try lots of new restaurants.
On the weekends, my friend Susie and I went all over NYC and Levain Bakery was first on my list one Saturday! We got there and the line was out the door. This was to be expected and the line went relatively fast if I remember correctly. These chocolate chip walnut cookies are beyond amazing.
The Levain Bakery chocolate chip walnut cookies not only resemble snowballs in size and weight, but they’re also gooey on the inside and crunchy on the outside, just like the perfect cookie should be!
LEVAIN BAKERY HISTORY:
“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.” (Thank you, Si, for the history!)
I just found this video:
Levain Bakery has four locations in the NYC area and you can buy these delicious cookies online. Buying them online isn’t cheap. So, you’d better grab this chocolate chip walnut cookies recipe and just make them at home!
There are several copycat recipes online for the Levain Bakery chocolate chip walnut cookies and I basically took bits and pieces from a few and two followers on Instagram (Deborah C. @flwrpwr_chick and @tangcindyy) helped me out a lot!! Deborah makes the chocolate chip walnut cookies at home and has already tried several methods. I loved her tip to refrigerate the dough for an hour before baking.
I’m making this Levain cookie recipe again tomorrow, to celebrate New Year’s Eve. EVERYONE loves the cookies and I think you will too!.
If a little raw and doughy in the middle isn’t your thing, just bake the cookies longer. However, you should know that this is how they are when you buy them at Levain Bakery.
Other Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes
If you love chocolate chip cookies, check out the equally famous New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, or my Yummy Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie- copycat recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (8 oz.) unsalted butter cut into cubes
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups cake or fine pastry flour
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks or a combination of both
- 2 cups walnuts roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 410 degrees F.
- Using your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together cold cubed butter and both sugars for about 3 to 4 minutes, or until creamy. (after the butter is more incorporated after 2 minutes or so, I raised the stand mixer speed a little).
- Add in your eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add in the vanilla extract and mix again.
- Using a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: both flours, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. With the stand mixer on low, slowly add in all of the dry ingredients into the wet. Mix until just combined. Add in the chocolate chips and walnuts and mix one more time.
- Scoop out dough into large balls and place on a baking sheet. To get the Levain Bakery style cookies, you want to make the cookie dough balls pretty large. Test a few to see the size you prefer. Bake right away, OR make all of your cookie dough balls and refrigerate for one hour. Test both ways to see which cookie you prefer. They both taste wonderful. The refrigerated ones have a slightly deeper flavor.
- Place desired number of cookies on baking sheet. (I wouldn't bake more than 4 at a time.) Bake for about 11 to 12 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom edges and browned slightly on the top. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Enjoy!
Adapted from this recipe, and additions made based on comments from readers. See more copycat variations: Delish.com, Broma Bakery and A Bountiful Kitchen. There are a ton more as well .. just google it!
