Vegan Levain Style Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Hello & Happy Wednesday!!
Let’s talk cookies!
If there is one style of cookie I’m forever obsessed with, it’s the Levain style cookies! Levain is a widely loved NYC bakeshop that features all the baked staples. It’s so good you’ll see it on tv left and right, they’ve expanded to offer multiple locations, and everyone just raves about this shop. So how did their cookie become so iconic?
I’ll tell you!
Everyone loves a classic chocolate chip cookie, but this approach is just next level. It features cake flour, which adds a lightness, lots of butter (needed), more brown sugar than white for more of a softer cookie texture, and they make the height of the cookie sky high. By adding height the inside cooks slower making it more of a doughy center. Last but not least, the temperature is key as its higher than traditional cookies at 410 degrees, giving you a crisp outer edge and just a slightly soft center.
The combination of all these variables truly delivers a fab cookie that will make you say, wow, I’m never going back to traditional cookies! When thinking of the next best variation of this cookie a midst the holidays, I knew we had to do something with bourbon. I don’t drink liquor, but bourbon in desserts just adds a fun depth to the flavor, and just like that..
the vegan Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies were born!
What’s fab about this cookie? Everything! It’s modeled after the most sought after Levain recipe, features just flax eggs, you don’t have to sift in the dry ingredients, uses vegan butter and stevia sweetened chocolate chips, has tons of sweet roasted pecans compromises nowhere with texture or flavor, it’s sweet, salty, crunchy, has notes of bourbon and brown butter, is perfect for any season, it’s crispy on the outside and slightly soft on the inside, and just hands down such a win in the cookie department!
If you’re all about this style cookie, you have to try these new vegan Levain Style Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Why this recipe is great:
Quick
Easy
Vegan
Tons of stevia sweetened chocolate chips
Tons of toasted pecans
No chill time
Crispy outside
Soft inside
No sifting of ingredients
Notes of brown butter and bourbon
Vegan Levain Style Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Total Time: 25 mins
- Yield: 8 Large - 24 Small 1x
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp ground flax w/ 6tbsps water
- 1 cup raw pecans
- 2 tbsps bourbon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsps + 1 cup brown sugar, divided
- 1/4 white sugar
- Maldon salt
- 1 cup + 1 tbsp vegan butter, divided
- 1 1/2 cups white flour
- 1 1/2 cups cake flour
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups stevia sweetened chocolate chips
Instructions
- Flax egg: Combine the ground flax and water, set aside. This will serve as the eggs in the recipe.
- 2 In a pan over medium heat add 1/2 cup + 1tbsp vegan butter. Cook until the butter begins to brown, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a heatproof bowl or liquid measuring cup. Stick in the freezer to chill, 10-15 minutes or allow to come to room temp on the counter. measure the butter as it may have been reduced. Simply add more soft butter until you have 1/2 cup.
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. On the baking sheet, toss the pecans in 1 tbsp brown butter, 1 tbsp bourbon, and 2 tbsp brown sugar. Bake 8-10 minutes, until toasted. Sprinkle with sea salt. Roughly chop the pecans.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together 1/2 cup vegan butter, the cooled browned butter, remaining 1 cup brown sugar, and the 1/4 cup white sugar until combined. Beat in the flax egg, until just combined. Add 1 tablespoon bourbon and the vanilla, beating until creamy.
- Set the oven to 410° F.
- In a bowl combine your dry ingredients, cake flour, white flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Don’t pack your measuring cup. Add it to the bowl of the standing mixer while beating on low and doing it in increments. Fold in the chocolate chips and toasted pecans.
- Roll the dough into large loose balls. These cookies won’t spread much. The idea is to create a large cookie that is crispy on the outside and slightly soft on the inside. That is a Levain Style cookie. For traditional ones, simply do 1 scoop.
- Bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes or until the edges are crisp. If they seem too high, once removed from the oven, slightly tap the pan on the counter to flatten them. They will continue to firm up as they sit on the pan. Allow them to fully cool on the pan.
- Sprinkle with Maldon salt
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
