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Sourdough Discard Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

written by Marvellina Updated: October 9, 2024
5.6K
PIN RECIPE COMMENTS VIEW RECIPE RECIPE VIDEO
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This Levain Bakery style’s hefty palm-sized cookie has a perfect balance of texture and flavors. An amazing crisp edges and gooey center is simply out of this world. I used sourdough discard to make them and I couldn’t be happier.

Sourdough Discard Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

What’s so special about Levain’s Bakery Chocolate Walnut cookies?

What sets Levain Bakery’s cookies apart from the rest is their impeccable balance of textures and flavors. It’s a delightful marriage of gooey, chewy centers and crispy edges, creating a harmonious blend that is unrivaled. The secret lies in their precise baking technique, which ensures the perfect dough consistency and a caramelized exterior. With each bite, you’ll experience the sheer joy of sinking your teeth into one of these!

An AWESOME way to use sourdough discard

I can’t be happier to find a good excuse to accumulate more sourdough discard. I don’t have a whole lot of discard because I maintain a small batch of sourdough starter that I feed twice daily. Regardless, there are still some discards and I’m constantly finding sourdough discard recipes to use them up.

Sourdough Discard Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Sourdough Discard Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 10 minutes mins
Chill dough in the fridge 1 hour hr
Total Time 1 hour hr 28 minutes mins
Servings 4 Extra large cookies
5 from 2 reviews
REVIEW & RATE PRINT

Ingredients

  • 80 g Unsalted Butter
  • 55 g Granulated Sugar
  • 50 g Light Brown Sugar
  • 17 g egg yolk (room temperature) about 1 yolk from a large egg
  • 80 g 100% hydration sourdough discard
  • 125 g Bleached all-Purpose Flour see notes for important tips
  • 1 g Baking Soda
  • 3 g Baking Powder
  • ⅛ tsp Fine sea salt
  • 113 g Walnuts chopped
  • 113 g Semi-sweet chocolate chips 90 grams (3/4 cup) if using chocolate chunks

Instructions
 

  • Get the sourdough discard out of the fridge about an hour before if you plan ahead, to let it come to room temperature
  • Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and set aside
  • I highly recommend using a scale to weigh the ingredients instead of using cup measurements, which is highly inaccurate

Brown the butter:

  • This step is a must and you cannot skip it. Sourdough discard contains water and it is important that we remove water from the butter to reduce amount of liquid in the dough
  • Melt the butter over medium-low heat and let it gradually melt. You will see large big bubbles and the butter is "foamy" at the beginning. Then the bubbles gets smaller and you start seeing brown bits appearing. Remove from the heat

Prepare the cookie dough:

  • Add both brown and white sugar to the brown butter and stir. They don't have to melt. Let the mixture cool down for about 5 minutes or to at least warm before you add the egg yolk as we don't want to cook the yolk
  • Add the yolk and sourdough discard and use a whisk to loosen the mixture and whisk until combined. Depending on your sourdough discard, some can be quite thick and some may be runny and mixed easily
  • Sift the flour mixture you prepared earlier and use a spatula to fold to combine, but they are not entirely mixed yet, you still see some flour. Fold in the chopped nuts and chocolate chip morsels and fold to combine just until you don't see any more pockets of flour. Do not overmix. The dough is not an overly sticky type

Shape the cookies:

  • 10 minutes before you plan to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 415 F (210 C) for conventional oven, 395 F (195 C) for convection oven. Position the oven rack in the middle
  • Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Get the cookie dough and divide into 4 equal portions, or you can weigh it. Each dough weigh roughly about 120 grams (4.23 oz). Round it up into a round tight ball so there won't be any "holes" in the cookies later
  • Place it on a baking sheet, about 3 inches apart. Repeat with the other 4 cookie doughs

If you don't bake on the same day:

  • If you don't want to bake right away, put them in the freezer to flash freeze for about 1 hour and then transfer to a freezer-friendly container or bag and the dough won't stick to each other
  • When ready to bake, you can bake straight from the freezer without thawing. You may need to add 1-2 minutes extra at each baking temperature (there are two different baking temperatures)

Bake the cookies:

  • Bake the cookies in a preheated oven for 6 mins. The cookies may not spread much yet at this point. Rotate the pan and lower temperature to 375 F (190 C) for conventional oven, 350 F (180 C) for convection oven. Bake for another 4 minutes. The cookies would have spreaded a bit but should be still tall and thick enough. Don't be tempted to bake it any longer
  • Let the cookies cool on the baking pan for at least 10 minutes. The outer part of the cookies are "crusty" but the inside is heavenly "gooey".
  • TIPS: If you find that the center of the cookies are too gooey to your liking, next time you know you can add a minute and see. Every oven is different, so you may have to experiment with baking time a bit. Vice versa, if the center is not gooey at all, then you may need to shorten the baking time or play with the baking temperature

Serve the cookies:

  • The cookies have the best texture, crusty outside, gooey inside when served on the same day. The next day the cookie crust may have softened, but the inside should still be chewy, but may not be as gooey anymore. TIPS: I find that if I don't overbake them, the inside stay gooey even after 2 days.
  • The cookies can be stored in air-tight container at room temperature for 3 days

RECOMMEDED TOOLS

digital kitchen scale
digital kitchen scale
Mixing Bowl

Marv’s Recipe Notes

If your sourdough starter is very thick, I recommend using pastry flour or half bleached-all purpose flour and half cake flour. Using unbleached all-purpose flour gives a firmer denser texture, especially if you overbake the cookies

*Nutrition facts are just estimates and calculated using online tools*

Nutrition Facts
Sourdough Discard Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
Serving Size
 
1 extra large cookies
Amount per Serving
Calories
793
% Daily Value*
Fat
 
47
g
72
%
Saturated Fat
 
19
g
119
%
Trans Fat
 
1
g
Polyunsaturated Fat
 
15
g
Monounsaturated Fat
 
11
g
Cholesterol
 
91
mg
30
%
Sodium
 
234
mg
10
%
Potassium
 
366
mg
10
%
Carbohydrates
 
84
g
28
%
Fiber
 
6
g
25
%
Sugar
 
37
g
41
%
Protein
 
12
g
24
%
Vitamin A
 
581
IU
12
%
Vitamin C
 
0.4
mg
0
%
Calcium
 
118
mg
12
%
Iron
 
5
mg
28
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Did you make this recipe?Let me know how you like this recipe and consider rating it! Tag me @whattocooktoday I’d love to see your photos/videos on Instagram
Sourdough Discard Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Can I use this recipe if I don’t have sourdough discard?

Unfortunately, no. This recipe is specifically written for sourdough discard. The recipe and process of making Levain Bakery’s Cookies using sourdough discard is slightly different than the one without.

How to bake Levain Bakery chocolate walnut cookies using sourdough discard

1. Get the sourdough discard out of the fridge about an hour before if you plan ahead, to let it come to room temperature. Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and set aside

2. Let’s brown the butter. This step is a must and you cannot skip it. Sourdough discard contains water and it is important that we remove water from the butter to reduce amount of liquid in the dough. Melt the butter over medium-low heat and let it gradually melt.

3. You will see large big bubbles and the butter is “foamy” at the beginning. Then the bubbles gets smaller

4. You start seeing brown bits appearing. Remove from the heat

5. Prepare the cookie dough. Add both brown and white sugar to the brown butter and stir. They don’t have to melt. Let the mixture cool down for about 5 minutes or to at least warm before you add the egg yolk as we don’t want to cook the yolk

6. Add the yolk and sourdough discard and use a whisk to loosen the mixture and whisk until combined. Depending on your sourdough discard, some can be quite thick and some may be runny and mixed easily

7. Sift the flour mixture you prepared earlier and use a spatula to fold to combine, but they are not entirely mixed yet, you still see some flour.

8. Fold in the chopped nuts and chocolate chip morsels and fold to combine just until you don’t see any more pockets of flour. Do not overmix. The dough is not an overly sticky type.

9. Cover the dough with a cling wrap and chill for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours

10. 10 minutes before you plan to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 415 F (210 C) for conventional oven, 395 F (195 C) for convection oven. Position the oven rack in the middle. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Get the cookie dough and divide into 5 equal portions, or you can weigh it. Each dough weigh roughly about 120 grams (4.2 oz). Round it up into a round tight ball so there won’t be any “holes” in the cookies later

11. Place it on a baking sheet, about 3 inches apart. Repeat with the other 4 cookie doughs

12. Bake the cookies in a preheated oven for 6 mins. The cookies may not spread much yet at this point. Rotate the pan and lower temperature to 375 F (190 C) for conventional oven, 350 F (180 C) for convection oven. Bake for another 4 minutes. The cookies would have spreaded some but should be still thick enough

13. Let the cookies cool on the baking pan for at least 10 minutes. The outer part of the cookies are “crusty” but the inside is heavenly “gooey”. TIPS: If you find that the center of the cookies are too gooey to your liking, next time you know you can add a minute and see. Every oven is different, so you may have to experiment with baking time a bit. Vice versa, if the center is not gooey at all, then you may need to shorten baking time

14. The cookies have the best texture, crusty outside, gooey inside when served on the same day. The next day the cookie crust may have softened, but the inside should still be chewy, but may not be as gooey anymore. TIPS: I find that if I don’t overbake them, the inside stays gooey even after 2 days.

Sourdough Discard Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Did you make this Sourdough Discard Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies recipe?

I love it when you guys snap a photo and tag to show me what you’ve made 🙂 Simply tag me @WhatToCookToday #WhatToCookToday on Instagram and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a peek for real!

Sourdough Discard Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
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6 comments

Jake Paucarpura September 11, 2024 - 1:46 pm

Can I use cake flour instead of bleached flour? or how would you change the recipe for unbleached all-purpose flour? or a mixture of cake and AP flour? Any suggestions would be awesome!

Reply
Marvellina September 11, 2024 - 7:51 pm

Hi Jake, you can try half cake and half unbleached AP flour.

Reply
Paige August 18, 2024 - 3:33 pm

How big do you make the cookies?

Reply
Marvellina August 20, 2024 - 3:50 am

You can divide it into 4 equal portions, about 120 grams (4.3 oz) each for extra large size. You can make it smaller too if you prefer, but baking time needs to be adjusted as well if you make it smaller.

Reply
Susan March 27, 2024 - 6:00 pm

Love these cookies, made them twice. Not sure what you mean by 18 g of salt, do you mean 1/8 tsp?

Reply
Marvellina March 27, 2024 - 8:00 pm

Yes, it’s 1/8 teaspoons of salt.

Reply
5 from 2 votes (1 rating without comment)

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