In the Big Apple, Dim Sum & Then Some…Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yay. Back to my second favorite city in the world…New York. In the immoral words of Tony Bennett, I left my heart in San Francisco and it will always be first. But wow, New York, I love you. Every time I return to this amazing city I am in awe of its energy. The number of people that converge to live, work and play in Manhattan, all at the same time, is intimidating but oh so amazing. Blaring horns, wailing sirens, screeching tires, rumbling subways trains, people yelling, music playing, dogs barking, the sounds of vibrant, urban life.
Home Away From Home
We are staying in LES (Lower Eastside) which exemplifies NYC. We are within walking distance of neighborhoods that represent every economic strata. Much like San Francisco, it is not unusual to walk a couple of blocks in any direction and see, homeless folks on the streets, millennials with their backpacks or totes making their way to the FiDi, the down and out struggling with addiction, to folks decked out in designer wear enjoying a latte and 8 dollar croissant.
The Daily Grind
Frequently, we walk Moose to Chinatown to pick up my favorite breakfast, rice roll noodles filled with bbq pork and veggies, slathered with chili oil, peanut sauce, and hoisin. Sitting on a stoop we wash it down with Milk Tea. Other mornings, we’ll walk down Ludlow to BBF, a Japanese Taverna where I pick up a coffee and an onigiri (a generous, warm ball of rice topped with pork belly or mushrooms). Our daily walks, navigating the streets through the LES, Chinatown, Ukranian Village, and Little Italy, are all reminiscent of growing up in San Francisco.
I am keenly aware of how lucky I am to enjoy a life built by the hard work and struggles of those who came before me. Gung Gung, my grandfather, left his wife and my dad in China and sailed to America looking for a way to support them. My dad, a Paper Son, came to this country at 16 and lived with folks who took him in because he came from the same village in China. This made them family. My mom, the eldest of 6 kids, started her own hair salon at 17 but continued to study to become a businesswoman and real estate broker. Their focus was always on the future and a better life.
In Search Of…
We headed to midtown today, in search of shoes. In particular, Hokas. I developed plantar fasciitis, so to keep doing what I love best in Manhattan, WALKING. I needed new shoes. Not to mention, I can hardly shirk my Moose-walking duties since this is my “excuse” for spending time in the Big Apple. Mission accomplished, my feet feel infinitely better. This calls for a celebration…coincidentally, there is a Levain Bakery close by. We stop for one of their scrumdidilyumptious chocolate chip cookies.
On our last visit we sampled a variety of CCC in NYC, so you wouldn’t have to (tough job, somebody’s got to do it). Our winners included Levain’s, best described as a ginormous chocolate-filled, scone-like warm cookie, and Jacques Torres’s, classic CCC, oh-so-delicious. Not surprisingly, the chocolate in his cookies is amazing.
The hubs tried Levain’s popular Blueberry Muffin to compare it to Hummingbird’s version, which we make at home. Honestly, our homemade one is just as good if not better. This got me thinking, is there a recipe out there for Levain’s CCC so I could make my own and avoid spending 5 dollars for a cookie, lol?
Pancake Princess to the Rescue
I turned to a favorite site, Princess Princess to search for a Levain knock-off. Not familiar with Pancake Princess? Best described as a one-woman version of America’s Test Kitchen. She will test a slew of different recipes, in this case, Levain CCC knock-offs, and invite tasters to help her select the best of the bunch. Her top two included Stella Parks’s from Serious Eats, and one from Hijabs and Aprons. I perused both and decided to try Hijabs and Aprons as the recipe looked simpler and did not require resting the dough for 12 hours before baking (total dealbreaker). I’m all about the path of least resistance.
It’s a good thing I picked the simpler recipe…rummaging through our home away from home kitchen, I found a gorgeous red ceramic bowl, one big spoon and a rubber spatula, a small cookie sheet, and a tiny (almost worthless) whisk. I get the feeling very little baking goes on here.
Tips for Baking in a Tiny, No Baking Tools Kitchen
I made sure the butter was room temp soft but not melty, after all, I only had a spoon to mix with. Then, I ran downstairs for Guittard chocolate chips, a tiny bag of Gold Medal AP Flour (4 dollars!), vanilla extract, and dove in.
I muscled through beating the butter and sugars (unless you are lucky enough to have a mixer handy in which case, don’t overbeat). Next, add eggs and vanilla, then sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt over the creamed mixture. Finally, fold the dry ingredients in and add chocolate chips and nuts last.
Voila’ that’s it. It took significantly longer than if I had a mixer but at least I got an arm workout. Use classic chocolate chips, not chunks, and don’t bother cutting up a chocolate bar. These cookies depend on a nice, even distribution of chips throughout the cookie.
The OG cookies call for walnuts but feel free to use pecans or another nut. If you like that tannic, slightly stringent bite, use walnuts. Best to make these cookies as directed, BIG, 5-6 ounces of dough. The cookies will be crisp with browned edges on the outside but moist and buttery on the inside. You can make them smaller but the textural difference between the exterior and interior won’t be as pronounced.
When scooping out dough, don’t smooth the dough into a ball. The craggy edges give the cookie character so plop the dough on the sheet, trying to keep the overall shape round.
Bake until the edges are a nice deep golden brown. Serve WARM, really, so much better warm and gooey. I zap next-day cookies in the microwave for a few seconds to warm them up before eating.
These easy-to-make cookies will satisfy your Levain Chocolate Chip Cookie craving and save you a couple of bucks.
Levain Style Chocolate Chip Coookies with Walnuts
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter, slightly softened 112g
- 1 cup light brown sugar 200g
- ¼ cup granulated sugar 50g
- 2 eggs cold
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted 300g. (Gold Medal works)
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt or 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 cups walnuts, roughly chopped 250g , if omitting walnuts, you can add roughly 50g extra AP flour
- 2 cups dark chocolate chips 325g Use a dark or semi-sweet that you like, I like Guittard’s chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375ºF. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Beat the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until creamy smooth (about 3 minutes).
- Add the first egg and beat on low-medium speed until fully incorporated. Repeat with the second egg. Add vanilla. MIxture will be soft and creamy
- Add flour mixture to the mixing bowl. On low speed, pulse a few times to blend flour into creamed mixture. Low speed to prevent flour from exploding in your face.
- Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips.
- Form and place eight 6-ounce rough/messy balls of cookie dough into your lined baking sheet. If you have a scale, weigh the dough then divide into 8-12 cookies. Each one will be approximately 4-6 ounces, as a general goal/guideline. Also, if the edges of the cookie dough ball are rough/not smooth, that’s better. I use 2 tablespoons In my experience, if you like craggly crispy tops, it’s best if you barely mush it together and smack it onto the pan.
- At this point, if your dough seems like it has softened due to your kitchen's temperature or too much handling with hands, refrigerate the dough-balls for about half an hour before baking. Because of the relatively high flour content in this recipe, the dough tends to be pretty stiff and doesn’t require chilling.
- Pop the pan(s) into the oven for 12-16 minutes. This time variation depends on your oven (I’m using conventional top and bottom heat, not convection) as well as whether or not you chilled your dough (and for how long). I recommend checking (look, don’t touch) the cookies every minute after hitting the 11 minute mark. Ideally, you want patches of deep golden brown and lighter golden brown.
- No matter what, you need to let these cookies set! Similar to steak, you’ve gotta take the cookies out while they’re technically a bit undercooked, and let them finish cooking in the still-hot pan in order to achieve the cooked-but-gooey center. The amount of walnuts/chocolate chips will make it hard to really check the inside without just breaking a cookie in half.
- If you need to reuse your baking sheet for the second batch of 4-cookies, you can do so. Just make sure the pan is clean of grease and has cooled down before you place the dough-balls on it.