In New York there is a very famous cookie shop: Levain. This place has two peculiarities: it sells massive cookies (170 grams each) and was founded by two women, Constance McDonald and Pamela Weekes, who practiced the Ironman Triathlon as a sport in the early 90s.
In the year I lived in New Jersey, I did not miss any junk food. I used to go to New York with fighting plans to taste all the possible and imaginable filth, but above all to eat in ethnic restaurants and dance in the coolest clubs.
In one of my culinary excursions, I tasted the Chocolate chip Walnut Cookies and I fell in love with them. These cookies have the particularity of being crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.
I reduced the amount of dough per cookie to fit European portions: moreover, because I’m not exactly Ironwoman!

New York Chocolate chips Walnut Cookies

  • Preparation time: 30 minutes
  • Ingredients for 24 cookies
  • Difficulty: Easy recipe

  • Ingredients
  • 3 ½ cups (390 grams) of cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon (5 grams) of bicarbonate
  • 2 sticks (230 grams) of butter
  • ½ cup 2 tbs (130 grams) of granulated sugar
  • ½ cup 1 tbs (130 grams) of cane sugar
  • 7 oz (200 grams) of walnuts
  • 12 oz (360 grams) of dark chocolate
  • 2 eggs
  1. Instructions
  2. Coarsely chop the chocolate and nuts.
  3. Cut the butter into small pieces.
  4. In a mixer, quickly mix the very cold butter until it becomes workable. Add the sugars and mix again briefly. Combine the nuts, chocolate, bicarbonate and sifted flour with baking powder and mix again. The dough must be homogeneous but grainy. Finally, add two eggs.
  5. Take the dough with an ice cream cup, forming cookies into loosely-shaped balls of about 60 grams (2 oz) each. Put the cookies in the freezer for at least ninety minutes.
  6. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  7. Place the cookies on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, and place this baking sheet on top of another upside down one.
  8. Bake in the oven for about ten minutes.
  9. Allow the cookies to cool and serve.

Tips to ensure the success of the dish:

  •  The falsely complex system of the two trays (the one above with the cookies and the one below turned upside down) serves to prevent the cookies from burning underneath. It is a step that cannot be eliminated.
  • The timing of cooking in the oven is indicative because each oven cooks differently. My oven cooks them in eleven minutes. Some friends’ ovens do it in eight minutes. You need to do some tests.
  • If you want cookies of the same size as the original ones, they should be weighed. Each will be 170 grams (6 oz). The cooking time will be about twenty-to-twenty-five minutes.
  • The secret of these cookies lies in the semi-cooking of the inside, which remains so creamy/chewy. Therefore, they should not be cooked too much – but above all, only the cookies that will be eaten THAT DAY must be cooked. They are, in fact, not so good the next day. I always leave some in the freezer to bake in the morning before breakfast.