Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie

I woke up this morning thinking about thick chocolate chip cookies. Crazy, I know! But for some unknown reason, I really did have a thick chocolate chip cookie on my mind. So I did some research, checked out certain cookie companies that made this type of cookie, including the famous Levain Bakery cookie, ( which I won't even attempt to duplicate!), and ended up literally creating my own.
I based my ingredients and amounts after researching ingredient lists of other cookies of this type. Since ingredients are listed by descending amounts based on weight, I knew that the first ingredient would be flour. So I chose to begin with 2 1/4 cups of flour. Then I weighed everything off of that. For example, if the next ingredient was the chocolate chips, I knew they had to either equal or be less in weight than the flour..and so on. The only problem with this was that maybe they began with more than the 2 1/4 cups of flour, but I needed to start somewhere!

So with the first ingredient of flour, than the chocolate chips, I had to weigh the next ingredient, butter, to be equal or less than the chips, which weighed in at 6 oz., so I couldn't use 2 sticks of butter because that would weigh 8 oz., so I cut back the butter to 1 1/2 sticks ( 6 oz.).

Now I did want to include some other ingredients which are not always found in chocolate chip cookies, such as toasted coconut and oats, so I added these, made the cookies and I have to say, they turned out pretty darn great!

They came out nice and thick, not too sweet ( which I like) and they have good flavor. The inside is slightly underbaked and soft. I liked the addition of toasted coconut ( rather than just flaked which alot of people don't like). The oats were ground to a flour like consistency and added in with the flour.

So here's the recipe (below) I created. Let me know if you try them and what you think.

Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Makes approx. 15 cookies

2 1/4 cups AP flour

1 cup chocolate chips

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp.

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 cup ground rolled oats, (pulse in food processor to make a fine ground flour).

1 egg

1/3 cup toasted coconut

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

1. In small bowl, combine flour, oat flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. In mixing bowl, beat butter and both sugars til light and fluffy.

3. Add egg, mixing well and scraping down sides and bottom of bowl occasionally.

4. Add vanilla and mix well.

5. Add the flour mixture and mix just til all combined.

6. Add the chips, walnuts and toasted coconut and stir to combine. (The dough will be fairly thick).

7. Scoop out balls of dough ( mine weighed 2.5 oz. each), using a cookie scoop.

8. Place on baking sheet spacing about 3" apart.

9. Bake approx. 16 to 18 minutes, but check after 15 minutes to be sure they're not getting too brown ( especially if your oven runs hot).

10. Cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

**Notes: I flattened one of the cookies to see if it came out any thinner and it did come out a bit thinner, but just a little bit. So you can just keep the balls as they are formed and the cookie will spread out a little but still keep its thickness.**

Also, this is not a crisp cookie. It's more on the soft side. Now that I know the recipe is good, I'll try it with a really good quality of chocolate chip, or a variety of chips, such as maybe bittersweet and semi sweet chocolate. And you can certainly change the nuts to be whatever you like. Pecans would be good, also.