When friend first told me that he wanted to make Levain cookies, as a sourdough bread baker, at first, I thought he misspelled ‘Leaven’. Then he mentioned this “Levain” word again, I then silently thought that he must mean ‘raising agent’. However, this time round, I decided to ask him, what he meant? He sent a picture of a giant chocolate cookie. Thereafter asking me to try the recipe. At the time I was busy with my own recipe development tests. I packed that idea very far in my memory. Until recently, the word popped up again while I was reading about food history and some baking stories, accordingly, I thought; ‘this must be a sign to finally make these cookies.’ 

So, I embarked on this slight journey to read more about the specific cookie, I discovered that, Levain is in fact a bakery name, in New York. Which is best known for its decadent cookies. The Levain Bakery was founded in 1995 by two triathletes’ friends namely, Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald. It is said that, “One day, they created an ultimate chocolate chip walnut cookie to give them energy while training for a triathlon. They decided to sell a batch in their bakery, and they flew off the shelves. An icon was born.”

I researched the recipe which others have said to be the original, however, I must profess; that the idea of adding walnuts to cookies didn’t sit well with me. Nevertheless, I first tried the “tried and tested’ (following my instincts, I made few tweaks here and there) recipe. Although people around me loved my first attempt, I felt something was missing, perhaps this was due to my insatiable love of browned butter bakes. Since discovering browned butter, I just can’t let go of its nutty flavour. I also felt that, the walnuts were not coming out boldly in flavour, consequently, I ended up going back to the drawing board. That’s when I decided to use browned butter and leave a little to toast the walnuts, so that its rich flavour comes out distinctively. So here we are, and I’m about to show you my newly founded version, and I hope you will try it too and let me know how you find it. I’m super grateful to the Levain Bakery ladies for their invention of this iconic cookie. 

My friend is impatiently waiting for this recipe: and couldn’t wait for me to share it.

Take care and stay healthy. 

Plant a seed and watch it grow