This week I have been on a cookie baking spree— and getting real scientific and detailed about it. On my cookie journey I discovered a few tricks and I decided that I could tweak my Levain bakery inspired cookie recipe to be more like the real thing. If you loved my previous recipe, don’t worry, it’s still here! Just under a different name– you can now find that recipe under the title ‘Giant Soft Baked Chocolate Chunk Cookies’
I’ve discovered that using nut butters and nut flours (i.e. almond flour) yields a softer cookie with a nice chew to it— which is a great thing. For certain chocolate chip cookie recipes though, (like this one) you want to be able to get that golden crispy on the outside tender and gooey on the inside– with just the slightest chew.
I found using solely oat flour and eliminating the almond flour, nut butter and maple syrup helped this recipe get closer to the real thing. I also used a mixture of coconut sugar and organic cane sugar—as the levain bakery recipe calls for a mixture of brown sugar and white sugar (brown sugar and coconut sugar are more moist, while white sugar gives a bit more crisp.) If you don’t have or don’t want to use cane sugar– you can totally just replace it with more coconut sugar, it’ll just be the teensiest bit less crisp.
RECIPE
dry ingredients:
1.5 cups + 2 tablespoons oat flour
3 tablespoons arrowroot starch or corn starch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
wet ingredients:
1/2 cup cold vegan butter (or regular butter– I haven’t tried coconut oil)
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup cane sugar
1 flax or chia egg (1 tbsp ground flax mixed with 3 tbsp water or milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
add ins**
chocolate chips (I like to use a mixture of chips and chunks) measure with your heart
walnuts (about 1/3 cup)
** you can sub the mixture of coconut and cane sugar for 3/4 cups coconut sugar— it will just be slightly less crispy
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
Cream together cold butter (cut into cubes) both types of sugar, vanilla, and flax or chia egg until everything is combined (should look like a buttercream frosting)
Mix together oat flour, arrowroot or corn starch, baking soda, and salt until fully combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until a dough forms. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts. You can bake right away, but the cookie may spread a bit more. I found the sweet spot to be chilling the dough for at least 15 minutes prior to baking.
To get that tall chunky levain bakery cookie look, I didn’t create perfect cookie dough balls, instead I just spooned some dough onto my silicone lined baking sheet and then spooned a smaller bit on top (sort of creating a little cookie dough tower) topped with more chocolate chips and then baked.
Bake for 9-13 minutes– mine varied in how long they took. They should look golden brown and crisp on the outside. It’s okay if they seem soft, they will firm up as they cool.
