Thick, Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

We thought Allen’s Prize-Winning Whoopie Pie bordered on monstrous. But this baby tops it. Weighing in at almost a half-pound, this thick, bakery-style chocolate chip cookie barely contains all that gooey chocolate. Before you bite in, think about saving some for later. Or better yet, slice it up to share.   

Our daughter and son-in-law introduced us to this mega cookie from their favorite local bakery. More than its big size, we like its big flavor. Heaps of molten bittersweet and semisweet chocolate flood your taste buds, while finely chopped nuts, oats and surprise bits of apricot add extra oomph.

Levain-like?

More than just “bakery-style,” this recipe indeed comes from a bakery. Posted on their newsletter, it bakes up a dead ringer for the real thing (which sells for $6 a pop).

We suspect the bakery got some inspiration from the Levain Bakery of Manhattan, New York. Levain created and popularized a super-thick chocolate chip cookie in the 1990s. Hyped by the New York Times, their 6-ounce “virtual mountain of a cookie” (notably lighter than ours) took off and so did the bakery.

But why such a large, imposing cookie? The two women who started Levain developed it as something of a high-energy bar for their triathlon training. So we probably shouldn’t chow down an entire super-thick cookie without involving some amount of significant exercise.

Chillin’

This recipe calls for chilling the dough for at least a half hour, or for freezing it. We usually prefer to bake cookie dough right away. But many pros claim that chilling can improve flavor, color and texture. In this case, it seems to work. And freezing also makes it easy to bake one cookie at a time on demand. And usually all you can handle is one.

Oscar Wilde wrote, “Nothing succeeds like excess.” He must have been talking about how much good stuff you can fit into a chocolate chip cookie. And with this cookie, it all adds up to sweet success.

Thick, Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 6 giant cookies, each about 8 ounces

• 1 cup butter, softened (225g)
• 1 cup sugar (200g)
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (300g)
• ½ cup old-fashioned oats (40g)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups assorted semisweet and bittersweet chocolate chips and/or chunks of different cocoa percentages (340g)
• ½ cup walnuts, chopped fine, but not ground (70g)
• ½ cup pecans, chopped fine, but not ground (70g)     
• ⅓ cup dried apricots, diced into tiny pieces (40g)

1. Cream butter, sugar and molasses.
2. Add egg and vanilla. Mix well.
3. Add flour, oats, salt, baking soda, chocolate, nuts and apricots. Mix until just combined.
4. Shape into 6 balls, flatten slightly, and wrap each tightly in plastic film. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to a couple of days, or freeze. Thaw frozen dough to about 40° F before baking.
5. Bake in pre-heated oven at 350° F for 18-25 minutes, or until lightly browned and firm to the touch (about 185° F on an instant-read thermometer).
6. Wrap leftover cookies in plastic film and freeze in a well-sealed plastic bag. Defrost and rewarm at 350° F briefly to melt the chocolate, or eat as is.