Lovin' From the Oven

Levain Bakery Copycat Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

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I feel like all I want to eat is sweets ever since my surgery. Maybe while they were poking around my insides, they took out the need to eat regular food and substituted it with tons of sugar. That would explain it.

Also, ever since I came back from New York, I can’t stop thinking of that darned cookie from Levain Bakery. It was seriously the best cookie I’ve ever had and the best part of it is that they served it warm! I can’t recall one bakery that serves any of their baked goods warm. It was also probably the biggest cookie that anyone’s ever served me and I dream of it every night. Don’t judge me.
So the moment I came across this recipe on My Baking Addiction, I HAD to give it a shot. If there was any chance this recipe was anything like Levain’s, I’d be in heaven. Sure enough, this is one good cookie. Even better when you make them extra large, as I did. I adapted it just a bit, and here’s what I did:

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks cold and cubed unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon table or fine sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 2 1/4 cups good quality semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
  • just unter 1 cup chopped walnuts
  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, mix in vanilla and beat until well incorporated.
  2. Add flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips/chunks and nuts.
  3. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour.
  4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  5. Roll cookie dough into individual balls. Make them HUGE! I got 12 cookies from this batch.
  6. Place each on sheet pan and bake in the preheated oven 15-20 minutes depending on how gooey and rawish you like the interior, until very lightly browned, taking care not to overbake. Mine took 16 minutes.
  7. Let cool on rack and store what you don’t immediately eat in an airtight container.

For all of you near the LA area, I’m glad to say that I’ll be participating in this year’s Eat my Blog charity bake sale! Do drop by and say hello if you can, there will be plenty of great desserts and great bloggers supporting a great cause!

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Alton Brown’s The Chewy

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Hmph, you’d think after being in school for 18 years, you’d know exactly what you want to do with your life. Nope. Halfway into my first year of grad school and I’m already having second thoughts. Is this really worth it? Do I really want to spend this much money in school only to make nothing teaching? I feel like I’m having deja vu. I experienced this in undergrad, being a poli sci major, only to find out halfway through my junior year that I want nothing to do with political science/law. I wish we had time in our lives to sit down and figure this stuff out before we’re forced through school year after year.

I mean, all I want to do is bake. That’s one thing I’m for sure on, but I’m also a realistic person.. baking’s not going to pay for anything. I have to have money if I want to bake.. and I need to work to make money. That leaves us back at square one: going to school -> getting a job -> making money -> being able to pursue baking. Oh how reality sucks, sometimes. Good thing there are cookies to make us all feel better.

I had no AP flour left in the house after my cookie fiesta fundraiser last week, so I googled for a recipe using bread flour. The first thing that came up was Alton Brown’s “The Chewy” and boy, am I glad it did! I know a ton of people have tried it before and it’s always been on my list of things to bake. Now I can finally vouch for the recipe– it’s as good as everyone says it is. The bread flour definitely makes for a chewier & flatter cookie. I mixed half of the cookie dough with Heath bar bits and the other half with mini baking M&Ms (and some extra chocolate chips for added measure). Both were exceptional. 🙂

My notes are in green italics.

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks unsalted butter
  • 2 1/4 cups bread flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used heath bits and mini M&M’s)

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat (I just softened it and let it melt a bit in the microwave). Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
  3. Pour the melted butter in the mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips (or whatever your add in is).
  4. Chill the dough (I chilled it overnight), then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet (I did 8). Bake for 14 minutes (14 minutes?! That’s way too long for soft cookies. I baked mine for no more than 12) or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

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P.S. I’ll be leaving for NY on either Monday night/Tuesday morning, so for all the people that signed up for the cookie mailing list, I’ll be mailing them out on Monday since I’ll be out of town Wednesday. I’m really excited to be going!! Before I forget, does anyone have any recommendations on food places or tourist things that I must visit and do in NYC? You guys helped me so much on my trip to Seattle a couple of months ago and always have the best recommendations. I’d love to hear it all! Thanks in advance!

Cookie & Cupcake Bouquet with a Traveling Theme

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One of my good friends, Robin, wanted to surprise her mom for her birthday and asked for a little help. Robin’s currently living in Europe for school/work, so she asked me to do a cookie bouquet to deliver to her mom on her birthday. Isn’t that sweet? Her idea was to make a bouquet that represents all of the places her mom visited this past year– the rest was up for grabs.

While strolling around my local crafts store for the supplies, I stumbled across an airplane cookie cutter and knew it was perfect for the bouquet. Although, it did look like a fish without any decoration. It was hard trying to figure out how to decorate it so you could tell it was a plane.

That’s the one I was the most proud of. All done with a toothpick because my piping bag was NOT cooperating that night. I need to invest in a good quality one.

Then, once the cookies are dry, I wrapped them up individually.
Next, I assembled it all together. This particular bouquet had cupcake pops and decorated sugar cookies. I’m really sad that my American flag stripes were droopy. I decorated it while holding it perpendicular to the floor because it was easier to make stripes that way and gravity kinda took over. Ugh. I did this bouquet at 4:30AM in the morning, so I didn’t have time to make another batch of cookies and start again. 🙁


And there you go! There’s the completed product. I included a personalized note from Robin, too, and tied it all together with some ribbon. I liked the idea of leaving the bag opened for this one, kind of like a bouquet of roses. For the recipe, I used my no fail sugar cookie recipe with royal icing, as posted before here.

Robin’s dad was in on the surprise and waited for my arrival so I wouldn’t have to ring the doorbell. I walked in and the birthday girl was SO surprised! Best part ever was that it was the perfect timing— Robin was actually skyping (video chatting) with her mom, so Robin witnessed the whole delivery and surprise. I gotta say, there’s nothing better than seeing someone’s face light up!

Note to self: Do not take a 4 dozen cookie order and a bouquet order on the same night that a 2,000 word essay is due. You’ll become nocturnal. (totally worth it to see those smiles, though!)

As for the Martha Stewart status, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone that has donated! Keep an eye on the mail and the one marked from “kim” isn’t spam, so don’t throw it out! It’s a little thank you for your kindness. I’ve gotten $160 from donations, which is AMAZING! Not quite enough for a plane ticket, but with the cookie delivery fundraiser that I’m doing tomorrow night (ahhh i have to bake 24 DOZEN cookies tonight..), it’s enough to make my trip come true! Everything’s been booked and I cannot be any more excited. Actually, I lied, I can. My boyfriend is coming with me since I was able to bring a guest to the show! He’s never been to NY so his excuse for going is to celebrate our 2 year anniversary.

And WHOA MAMA, who knew there were so many haters? They even followed me over to my formspring to ask their nasty questions. All I gotta say is, please, for everyone’s sake, eat a cookie or two. There’s no reason why anyone should be so miserable.. especially on a food blog! Can’t we all just hold hands and sing Kumbaya?

Thanks to everyone else for the support! Seriously. I’ve never felt so much love from my fellow blog readers.

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