Friday, May 22, 2009

Big and good


Copycat Levain Bakery Cookies
from Tricia's Kitchen

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (I used 2 tsp)
3 1/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt (I used regular table salt)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups good quality semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts (I omitted)
-----
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix flour, salt, and baking powder and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

3. Beat the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in eggs, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. The dough will be stiff and thick. Finish mixing by hand if needed until just combined. Gently fold in chips and nuts if using.

4. Use a 1/4 measuring cup to scoop out dough balls. Place dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. You can make smaller dough balls but be sure to adjust baking times as needed to prevent browning.

5. Bake 15-25 minutes (depending on the size of your cookies and your oven) or until cookies are pale brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy. I baked my cookies for 22 minutes exactly.

6. Cool cookies on cookie sheets for 10 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack until cooled completely. Serve or store in airtight container.
_____________________

I had to give up finding the perfect 'big cookie' in one of my cookbooks, at least temporarily. I turned to the internet and found this one. It seems that everyone and their mother has already made some variation of these cookies so I am late to the party as usual.

I think I should have baked them a little less but they were still an excellent cookie, and just what I wanted - nice and thick. I like all kinds of chocolate chips cookies but this is what I wanted this time. I will definitely make these again someday.

One thing about a big cookie is that, well, it's a big cookie. One cookie will fill you up. You can cut them in half (which I did for my son) but you won't be able to sneak a cookie here, a cookie there, and fool yourself that you really didn't eat that much. Not that any of us do that, right?

Question of the Day: Do you have any big plans for the weekend? I'm not 100% sure what we're doing but I'm going to make sure we do something fun.

3 comments:

Mrs. L said...

Headed to a friends house near Tahoe for a weekend of fun, BBQ and hanging out with the godkids and their parents. Have a wonderful weekend yourself!

#1SAHM said...

these look really good! we're going to WI Dells tomorrow! My best friend, her fiance and their daughter will be joining us on Monday so it'll be a lot of fun!

Heather said...

these look awesome. I am going to have to make them.