Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies, Levain Bakery Copycat

Tags

baking, chocolate, cookie, dessert, Levain

I am a chocoholic. I will therefore eat pretty much anything with chocolate. For example, I have eaten chocolate covered crickets. A little crunchy and gritty, but still chocolatey. One of my professors in college offered them to us, and college is the best time to try new things so I decided why not! Needless to say, I wouldn’t  recommend eating chocolate covered crickets. These cookies on the otherhand… totally recommended!

These cookies weigh in at a quarter pound per cookie. Quarter pound! How great does that sound! They’re as big as a hamburger, but better since it’s all chocolate!

There is a bakery in Manhatten called Levain Bakery. They are rumored to have the best cookies, as well as many other amazing baked goods. They have even been featured on some of the Food Network shows, which is how the writer of Parsley, Sage, Desserts, and Line Drives began to perfect her copycat recipes of the famous Levain cookies. At the bakery, they actually make their cookies into 6 ounce masterpieces! Though scaled down by just a little bit, these cookies are the ultimate chocoholic’s dream come true.

Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1¼ cup sugar
2 large eggs
½ cup dark cocoa powder
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. coarse salt or table salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.  Blend in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed.  Mix in the cocoa powder until well blended.  Add the flour, salt and baking powder to the bowl and mix on low speed just until incorporated.  Gently fold in the chocolate chips.  On a work surface or against the side of the mixing bowl, mix the dough by hand to ensure even distribution of the chocolate chips.

Divide the dough into 4 ounce portions, or divide into 12 equal pieces.  Roll each portion of dough into a ball and flatten just slightly into a disc.  Place on the prepared baking sheets, a few inches apart.  Bake 16-20 minutes, or until the cookie edges are set.  Let cool on the baking sheets 5-10 minutes, where they will finish cooking, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Source: Annie’s Eats, from My Baking Addiction

Advertisement

Mango Bread

Tags

baking, bread, cinnamon, Hawaiian, mango

My husband and I went to Maui for our honeymoon. While we were there, we met up with his aunt and uncle who live on the island. As a thank you for treating us to a wonderful dinner, we bought them a loaf of banana bread while on the the Road to Hana. They have many stands that advertise for the “best banana bread,” and I must admit, we bought some really tasty breads. One loaf that we bought was a mango banana bread, and it was delicious and unique. While talking with his aunt, she mentioned that she had a recipe for mango bread, and she was kind enough to mail me the recipe along with a few other recipes she thought I would like from one of her Hawaiian cookbook. I was so excited when I opened the envelope containing the recipes!Mangos can be rather pricy, so I was a bit hesitant since I didn’t know how many mangoes it would take to get 2 cups diced. When visiting my sister, I found them for really cheap so I bought 5 and actually got 3 cups. I had enough for one loaf of bread, and I used the other cup with a cup of mashed banana to try mango banana bread. Both loaves were amazing. Perfectly spiced, moist, and subtly mango with bursts of mango when you bite into a chunk. It may have taken me a while to make this bread, but now that I’ve had it I can’t believe I waited this long! I will definitely try to make this more often.Mango Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
3 eggs
¾ cup canola oil
¾ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups diced mango, about 3 mangoes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×5″ loaf pan.

Combine flour, baking soda, spices, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk to combine and make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add the eggs, oil, sugars, vanilla, and mango to the well. Stir to combine, until just mixed. Pour into the loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let bread cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Variation: Mango Banana Bread – Replace 1 cup of mango with 1 cup mashed banana