- Olivier Roche
- Oct 6, 2024
- 3 min read
A la demande des 3e LCE... voici la meilleure recette de cookies du monde : une copie "au plus près" des cookies vendus par la petite chaîne de magasins LEVAIN à New York.
Ils sont énormes, un peu chers sur place quand même (mais c'est gratuit ici), ils sont croustillants autour et fondants dedans : allez-y absolument si vous avez la chance de faire un séjour à New York!
This way for the recipe!
Levain Cookies
Ingredients (6 cookies)
½ cup (112g) butter, slightly softened
1 cup (200g) light brown sugar
¼ (50g) cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, cold
1 tsp vanilla extract (imitation works just fine)
2½ (300g) cups all-purpose flour, sifted (tamisée)
1½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate alimentaire)
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups (250g) walnuts, roughly chopped (grossièrement concassées)
(if omitting walnuts, you can add roughly 50g extra flour)
2 cups (325g) dark chocolate chips (65% and higher if possible)
Recipe
Preheat your oven to 375ºF (190°C). To bake all 8 cookies now, line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
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. Then the vanilla extract.
Mix together the sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Carefully pour it all into the mixing bowl. Pulse the mixer/beater a few times to prevent flour from exploding in your face.
Mix in the walnuts and chocolate chips.
Now this next step should not be neat. Form and place eight 6-ounce (170g) rough/messy balls of cookie dough onto your lined baking sheet. I weighed them so that I would actually yield 8 cookies. Depending on the chocolate chips and walnuts, yours might not come out to 6 ounces each, but that’s the general goal/guideline. Also, if the edges of the cookie dough ball are rough/not smooth, that’s better.
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. When baking in winter, the dough tends to be pretty stiff and solid and doesn’t require chilling.
Put the pans 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.
Notes
FREEZING DOUGH: If you’d like to freeze the dough for later use, go right ahead! Wrap the dough balls individually in plastic wrap and freeze them. You can thaw them for about 20-30 minutes prior to placing on a parchment lined sheet and baking them.