Levain Bakery's Gigantic Cookies
February 11, 2009
I recently visited various delicious bakeries and gourmet markets in NYC with with my partner in crime, Carla D. I plan on making up a map of our route to share with you, but couldn’t wait until then to post pics of these marvelous cookies.
I had heard about Levain Bakery a long while ago and feel like lately I’ve seen their famous Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie all over the internet. Finally, when I heard they had a Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookie, I could stand it no longer and had to make the trek uptown to see what all the hype was about.
When we arrived at the scene, I was surprised to find out what a teeny tiny little shoebox the bakery is. For a place that had made such big waves among the tons of sweet tooths in this city, you’d think they’d have to be a larger operation.
Upon opening the door, we were instantly hit with the delightful aroma of freshly baked cookies. Trying not to let the wonderfully distracting scent throw me off balance, we descended the steps, and my eyes feasted on this lovely little display:
I walked home with all three chocolate varieties. If the $3.75 per cookie price tag were to prevent you from trying all four cookies, I’d recommend you go for the Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip, which was easily my favorite. Deeply chocolatey and so completely packed with dark chocolate chips, it has the body and flavor of a brownie, with the texture of a cookie.
The Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie was excellent as well, it’s just… if I could choose to have a dessert with more or less chocolate, I’d go for more, which is why my preference lies with the aforementioned mound of deliciousness. Despite coming in second, it was still one of the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever purchased. (Note: They do not sell a nut-free chocolate chip cookie. Sorry, Taste Tester!)
And finally we arrive at the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookie:
Believe it or not, this beautiful treat was my least favorite of the bunch. It was still a wonderful cookie, but “best cookie on earth” is not a description I would bestow upon it while I might be willing to dole that title out to one of it’s brethren. One of the things I really enjoyed about the other two chocolate cookies was that they were made with high quality dark chocolate chips. This cookie, however had peanut butter chips, which were definitely it’s weak point. They weren’t bad, they just weren’t great.
Despite the good but non-life-altering Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookie, the Levain Bakery still exceeded the hype I had heard about it. To anyone that plans on visiting NYC anytime soon, this bakery should be at the top of your dessert destinations list (you do have one, right?) along with Magnolia Bakery. And to those of you who live in the tri-state area and haven’t yet been there, get your butt in a cab, already!
Fun note: Levain’s site doesn’t share their prized cookie recipes but I love that they have a page dedicated to the many copycat recipes that have been created in it’s honor.