my golden hour

The other weekend, my friend Amy and I decided to go to Levain after eating lunch at a nearby restaurant. Once we stepped inside, we were in cookie-heaven – trays upon trays of freshly cooked cookies, the mind-numbingly amazing scent of chocolate and butter…we agreed to split one (why only one? inhuman self-control, come on, don’t all girls have that?) and quickly devoured it before we even stepped out of the store.

Tonight, I was in the mood for something sweet but upon last night’s epic snowstorm #2 of 2011, I was unable to go to Levain.  My solution?  Google the Levain chocolate chip walnut cookie recipe and attempt to make them myself!  Ambitious, I know, but upon some surprisingly unexpected time researching several different “copycat” recipes, I settled on one from http://lisamichele.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/my-much-talked-about-levain-bakery-copycat-cookie-recipes/ with a few minor adjustments, and I was set to go.

Here is the recipe, modified slightly, courtesy of Lisa Michele’s wonderful blog!

Levain Bakery Copycat Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies (**Yield-  16 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 cups AP flour
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt (I like my sweet desserts to have a subtle salty taste for some reason, that juxtaposition of sweet and salty is so yummy!  If you don’t like this, use 3/4 tsp of kosher salt)
• 3/4-1 teaspoon baking powder ( I don’t fill the tsp fully, hence the 3/4 tsp)
• 1 cup good quality bittersweet and semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (I don’t like overly-sweet chocolate-chip cookies, so I like my chocolate not sickeningly sweet.  I also used two L.A. Burdick’s chocolate bars, as this was the only chocolate I had at home and I couldn’t venture out to the grocery store since I was snowed in.  I also used about 1/3 cup of Ghiradelli’s bittersweet chocolate chips.)
• 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 16 equal portions, roll into balls and flatten slightly when transferring to baking sheet.

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 baked mine for 20 minutes), 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.

THESE WERE DELICIOUS!  I forgot to take pictures of the inside because I ate the first cookie so quickly…but then I remembered and begrudgingly, I just HAD to break another cookie in half to take a picture…and then I didn’t want it to dry out, naturally, so I ate that one too.

😦

I know I’m not allowed to complain about how hard it is to lose weight anymore.