**The Lavender Cookie Challenge**

As I stood in front of my oven, excitement filled the air as I prepared to take on the lavender cookie challenge. My goal was to create cookies that would rival those from a local bakery, Le Van Cookies. I had heard great things about their cookies and was determined to recreate them at home.

To begin, I mixed together a combination of sugars, including brown sugar, granulated sugar, and turbinado sugar, which added a rich flavor to the cookies. Next, I added in chunks of chocolate chips, walnuts, and a sprinkle of salt to balance out the sweetness. The dough was then formed into large mounds, rather than neat balls, as I wanted to achieve that beautiful craggy exterior.

As the cookies baked in the oven, I kept an eye on them, making sure they didn't overcook or spread too much. I had opted for parchment paper instead of a silicone baking mat, which helped the cookies retain their shape and size. Once the timer went off, I carefully removed the cookies from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes.

**The Results**

Upon taking the cookies out of the oven, I was pleased to see that they had turned out beautifully, with a crunchy brown exterior and a slightly gooey center. The lavender flavor was evident in every bite, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at having created such delicious cookies. However, as I took a closer look, I noticed that the cookies were slightly lighter than expected.

Undeterred, I presented my cookies alongside those from Le Van Cookies for comparison. To my surprise, they looked remarkably similar, with a beautiful craggy exterior and a large, thick shape. The size of the cookies was almost identical, which was a testament to my baking skills. However, as we held them up side by side, I realized that the Le Van Cookies had a slightly more pronounced lavender flavor.

**The Verdict**

Despite the slight difference in flavor, I was still thrilled with how my cookies turned out. The exterior was crunchy and beautifully formed, and the interior was soft and gooey. In terms of texture, I would say that mine were slightly lighter than expected, but this was not a major issue. The real test of a perfect lavender cookie is its ability to balance sweet and savory flavors, which my cookies achieved with ease.

The factors that make a perfect lavender cookie in my opinion are twofold: the beautiful exterior and crunchy brown craggy top, and the slightly gooey center. I felt that I had achieved both of these elements, although my cookies may not have been as perfectly formed as those from Le Van Cookies.

**Tips for Success**

One key tip that I would offer to anyone attempting to make lavender cookies at home is to rest your dough. This allows the flavors to develop and the texture to become more even. It also helps to reduce spreading during baking, resulting in a crisper exterior. If you're looking to achieve perfectly formed cookies with a beautiful craggy top, it's essential to chill your dough before baking.

In addition to resting your dough, I would recommend using parchment paper instead of a silicone baking mat for optimal results. This helps the cookies retain their shape and size, resulting in a more evenly baked cookie.

**Conclusion**

Overall, I was thrilled with how my lavender cookies turned out, and I hope that this experience will inspire you to try making them at home. With a few tweaks and adjustments, such as resting your dough and using parchment paper, you can create delicious and beautifully formed lavender cookies that rival those from local bakeries like Le Van Cookies.

Resting your dough is a game-changer when it comes to baking cookies. By allowing the flavors to develop and the texture to become more even, you'll end up with perfectly formed cookies that are full of flavor.

Don't be discouraged if your first batch doesn't turn out perfectly – practice makes perfect! With time and patience, you'll master the art of making delicious lavender cookies that will impress friends and family alike.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enoh was i supposed to do it oh the racks are in the right place cookies should never equal stress but i think they might today oh no they're spreading this oven is 350. foiled it's not hot enough hi i'm sam and today i've been challenged to make a le van style cookie faster than delivery i don't think making good cookies fast is impossible at least i hope it's not because that's the plan today hi so we checked and it turns out we're out of the delivery range so we're gonna send somebody from our crew to go pick them up hello hey jack and sam can you get us six of the chocolate walnut cookies yes absolutely i'm checking the map and it says it's gonna take 30 minutes to get back okay 30 minutes take your time you got it sam so a levine style cookie comes from this wonderful bakery le van bakery they've won lots of awards for being the best cookies in new york city they're really really big you have to share them they're crunchy and gooey they have lots of texture and lots of delicious things inside get them if you can but if you can't i'll help you make one at home do i have to just go i can't even make the timer go and i've made cookies for some scary people all right here we go 30 minutes okay so i think what makes a really good living cookie is it's really big and really thick it's also got a really nice crispy nubly crackly exterior and they're usually gooey in the center holy this is taking me a surprising amount of time i'm using cold butter number one because i thought it would be a good time favor and i'm not trying to cream the butter and sugar because i don't want the chickens to be fluffy i want them to be really dense so we want a cup of packed dark brown sugar i used quite a bit of dark brown sugar in these because it creates less bread so it makes the cookies like taller and fatter in a good way three quarter cup of granulated sugar i'm hoping that this much sugar is going to help them brown really well and be nice and crispy on the outside oh okay yeah totally who has time for an apron this is all-purpose flour and this cake flour you can tell they smell different cake flour has like sort of a sweet smell once i have chunks of butter that are not visible anymore i'm gonna add eggs and my eggs are cold also just because now they'll be faster and since i'm not gonna have time to rest these cookies i want everything to still be cold so that hopefully they'll keep their shape in the oven cake flour has a slightly less slightly lower protein content so that means it's gonna absorb a little more liquid which i'm hoping will keep it from spreading so much i'm also thinking that the cake flour will add tenderness and these cookies are sort of like a mix between cake and cookie so that's why i did that it's all it's a gamble tbd these are big are these extra large they're those are serious eggs it's looking really chunky which is kind of stressing me out but that's just cause everything's cold which i knew was gonna happen okay so that's mixed in so i'm gonna do two cups and three tablespoons of ap flour i'm trying really hard to keep them tall and fat kind of like the living cookies le van cookies are and so i'm adding a lot of flour for the amount of butter and sugar we have because i'm trying to make them really thick three quarters of a cup of cake flour oh i have no idea what the time says i don't want to know it's fine we're adding one and a quarter teaspoons of baking soda i think that soda helps with browning and since they're not gonna be in the oven that long i really wanted them to brown well so that's one and a quarter oh salt using a full teaspoon of salt and i also use a salted butter because i want them to be salty because they're gonna be super sweet if you have some flour on your chin always always it's impossible not to vanilla i put in a lot i don't think the levin cookies have cinnamon but since i'm making them i'm gonna add cinnamon because i think the cookie needs spice oh okay so we're at 20 minutes i've already just blobbed away 10 minutes so we'll see what happens i'm not gonna get to rest these that's okay they don't need to okay so this is eight ounces of bittersweet chocolate i prefer bar chocolate because then you get all these beautiful varying sizes big ones little ones and that is a more fun eating experience and i hate chips because they don't melt as nice as far chocolate so they're not good for other things i think what causes gooeyness is i'm gonna try to bake them at a high temperature for not that long so that they get brown on the outside but the inside doesn't cook all the way through that's my theory so i'm doing 400 degrees for like 12 to 15 minutes 2 cups of walnuts i'm not even gonna chop them i didn't measure those but that's good you can taste the vanilla yum okay now we're gonna bake them okay let's think they have to bake no way i can't rest them screw resting sorry but rest them if you make them at home brother it's definitely better so i'm just making these like crazy mounds because i'm hoping that that will contribute to like the nubly outside that we were going for i'm using parchment paper instead of a silicone baking mat because i think that cookies spread too much on silicone baking masks i don't really like them i also don't like them because you they always feel greasy no matter what you do okay let's see where we're at oh 15 minutes okay so i gotta get these i'm gonna get this first tray in the oven oh the racks are in the right place all right let's move one of these i'm putting it kind of in the top of the oven because i'm thinking they might the bottoms might burn so okay so let's get the other five maybe we can chill these five and bake them later maybe i just have to bake the first five no word from jack hopefully he hit a lot of traffic okay so i'm cooking them at a higher temperature for about the same time i would cook any cookie but they're so massive so i'm cooking them at a higher temperature for a short amount of time in order to hopefully get less spread and a nice crunchy brown exterior while keeping the center gooey-ish i want to put the light on so i can see where's the light somewhere over here oven light oh no they're spreading they're not spraying too much it's gonna be okay i think it's gonna be okay okay now i i can kind of chill right let's do a time check okay i have 11 minutes so in a dream world these are ready in like seven minutes so that they can rest for a couple minutes otherwise they're gonna be like molten hot and we're not gonna be able to taste them but i don't i don't think i should be penalized for rest time but you can decide i remember working with a very famous baking lady i don't know if i can even say her name can i i don't know i'm probably well we'll try i used to work with and she never wears an apron and she is always just pristine always always always nothing like this amount of mess never she would never do that so i'm i'm really trying to channel her but that is obviously not my style you have some flour on your chin always always we do our best every recipe is going to yield a different kind of thin thick whatever cookie depends on the recipe it depends on like the ratio of butter sugar and flour but if they're spreading too much you can always chill them you can always bake them at a higher temperature which is what i'm trying to do here is to like freeze them and cook them solid faster so a higher temperature or chillier dough we should chill these so we can bake them off in a few minutes and see how much different they are oh they're spreading so much six minutes do you get stressed out yes i definitely get stressed out you can tell i'm stressed when i start talking faster and if my station is an effing mess okay so we have four minutes to touch them yeah they spread a little but not terribly oh they're not done do we have an oven thermometer in here where are we at yeah i want to see yeah i knew it this this oven is 350. foiled it's not hot enough i can tell because they're not cooking as fast as i want them to which is also gonna make them spread more i'm gonna cut myself a little slack on the spreading it's also gonna they're gonna bake longer because now what are we at yeah they should have been baked by now but the oven temperature jammed me it's a real jam job i thought you always have to have an oven thermometer in your oven because they the oven this lies it's never right it's never right okay that was my 30 minutes should i reset it so i know how badly i failed the timer went off but that was just an estimate jack has not come back with our cookies yet so i have a little more time and i'm just gonna stare at them until he comes i did read like they have a very specific secret the ladies from levin about keeping them from spreading and they won't tell anybody which i respect but i i read on the internet that some people add cornstarch i mean you would never know that the cornstarch was in there it just sounds like why add another weird thing that doesn't technically belong in cookies but maybe i should have cause maybe they wouldn't have spread also they're looking cute all right i'm gonna i'm gonna pull those they look nice and brown they look pretty fat with really delicate cookies if you try to pick them up too soon they will just fall apart so i like to cool them on the sheet so that some of the residual heat sort of cooks them continues to cook them and let them firm up and then move them to a rack to cool completely so delivery is running late it's stuck in traffic which is good for me because that means i can get my other tray that i've chilled for a few minutes into the properly heated oven and i think these ones will actually resemble the le van cookies even more those are staying much firmer okay i'm gonna take them out you know what i'm taking them out those are pretty good they're a little lighter but i'm okay with that because look at the shape they spread a little less oh hello hey sam hey jack where are you i'm outside i'm about to come up i hope you're ready i'm ready come hello thank you so much okay i have my cookies they weigh a ton okay let's see oh i mean these look pretty good these look pretty great but i would say i mean that feels like a pretty good match no so we have the levan cookie here my cookie here i'm feeling pretty good about the size comparison can we just hold it up like check it out pretty much spot on i feel good about that they're also just about the same height they are both large and thick so we got that so the lavender cookie has this really beautiful craggy nubby brown exterior it looks very good so let's open her up i mean that looks pretty great you can tell there was goo it was gooey but it has sat for a while which you know can't blame them for so they've used chips i used chunks i see a walnut here and a walnut here but there is like a lot of cookie in between it's pretty great the exterior is beautifully crunchy it's so nice and crunchy which is an excellent contrast to the inside it is really sweet with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee this would be it's just mine oh i mean come on can you see that i mean it's it's not fair because i got to bake mine right away so i have these like big rivers of dark chocolate plus little bits here and there which if you like chocolate it's gonna be a fun chocolate experience i mean there's a lot more salt in mine which i think helps balance out the sweetness a little bit and i prefer the dark chocolate and the dark chocolate with the cinnamon is really really good i mean they're both great mine is very great no they're both great they're both great okay so the things that make a perfect lavende cookie in my opinion are the number one the beautiful exterior the crunchy brown craggy nubly top and i think i achieved that by cooking my cookie at a higher temperature for a shorter amount of time by using a mix of sugars also by the forming of the cookies like i didn't make them into neat balls i kept them into in big mounds which i think probably contributes to all that number two a lemon cookie is always super large and super thick and my cookies are just about the same size i feel the most proud about that because they're huge and super fat and it's actually kind of hard to keep them fat as cookies want to spread so i think i did that i cook these guys on parchment instead of using a silicone baking mat because i find that on the silicon it's just too slippery and they sort of like spread out in a way that i didn't want so parchment helps them like stay tight i think a perfect lavender cookie has a slightly gooey center which with this one did not but i think we can cut them a little slack because it was delivery i have a gooey center because number one my cookies were just baked and also i baked them at a really high temperature for a short amount of time in the idea that the outside would sort of cook solid and leave the center a little bit soft so our delivery did get stuck in traffic so i got a few extra minutes but i did beat our delivery so i think i still won the challenge order some laven cookies you will not be sorry but i think it also might get pretty expensive if you need to ship frozen cookies around the country so if you can't do that you can absolutely achieve something very similar and equally delicious at home without much trouble at all the only change i would make probably is to rest this dough everything browns a little bit more evenly it doesn't spread as much and the flavor really develops like you can you can taste the difference when you rest your dough it makes a big difference so i would portion it and then chill it and then once it's sort of firm you can put it in an airtight container and then you could freeze them you could freeze them for weeks and weeks and weeks and then just bake one at a time because really you could share this with at least three people make sure you rest your dough that's my new sign-off like emerald's bam my catchphrase that's what it's called thanks for watching i'm sam don't forget to rest your dough the crabs are really there i feel good about it it looks good i feel like she'd be vanna whiting itoh was i supposed to do it oh the racks are in the right place cookies should never equal stress but i think they might today oh no they're spreading this oven is 350. foiled it's not hot enough hi i'm sam and today i've been challenged to make a le van style cookie faster than delivery i don't think making good cookies fast is impossible at least i hope it's not because that's the plan today hi so we checked and it turns out we're out of the delivery range so we're gonna send somebody from our crew to go pick them up hello hey jack and sam can you get us six of the chocolate walnut cookies yes absolutely i'm checking the map and it says it's gonna take 30 minutes to get back okay 30 minutes take your time you got it sam so a levine style cookie comes from this wonderful bakery le van bakery they've won lots of awards for being the best cookies in new york city they're really really big you have to share them they're crunchy and gooey they have lots of texture and lots of delicious things inside get them if you can but if you can't i'll help you make one at home do i have to just go i can't even make the timer go and i've made cookies for some scary people all right here we go 30 minutes okay so i think what makes a really good living cookie is it's really big and really thick it's also got a really nice crispy nubly crackly exterior and they're usually gooey in the center holy this is taking me a surprising amount of time i'm using cold butter number one because i thought it would be a good time favor and i'm not trying to cream the butter and sugar because i don't want the chickens to be fluffy i want them to be really dense so we want a cup of packed dark brown sugar i used quite a bit of dark brown sugar in these because it creates less bread so it makes the cookies like taller and fatter in a good way three quarter cup of granulated sugar i'm hoping that this much sugar is going to help them brown really well and be nice and crispy on the outside oh okay yeah totally who has time for an apron this is all-purpose flour and this cake flour you can tell they smell different cake flour has like sort of a sweet smell once i have chunks of butter that are not visible anymore i'm gonna add eggs and my eggs are cold also just because now they'll be faster and since i'm not gonna have time to rest these cookies i want everything to still be cold so that hopefully they'll keep their shape in the oven cake flour has a slightly less slightly lower protein content so that means it's gonna absorb a little more liquid which i'm hoping will keep it from spreading so much i'm also thinking that the cake flour will add tenderness and these cookies are sort of like a mix between cake and cookie so that's why i did that it's all it's a gamble tbd these are big are these extra large they're those are serious eggs it's looking really chunky which is kind of stressing me out but that's just cause everything's cold which i knew was gonna happen okay so that's mixed in so i'm gonna do two cups and three tablespoons of ap flour i'm trying really hard to keep them tall and fat kind of like the living cookies le van cookies are and so i'm adding a lot of flour for the amount of butter and sugar we have because i'm trying to make them really thick three quarters of a cup of cake flour oh i have no idea what the time says i don't want to know it's fine we're adding one and a quarter teaspoons of baking soda i think that soda helps with browning and since they're not gonna be in the oven that long i really wanted them to brown well so that's one and a quarter oh salt using a full teaspoon of salt and i also use a salted butter because i want them to be salty because they're gonna be super sweet if you have some flour on your chin always always it's impossible not to vanilla i put in a lot i don't think the levin cookies have cinnamon but since i'm making them i'm gonna add cinnamon because i think the cookie needs spice oh okay so we're at 20 minutes i've already just blobbed away 10 minutes so we'll see what happens i'm not gonna get to rest these that's okay they don't need to okay so this is eight ounces of bittersweet chocolate i prefer bar chocolate because then you get all these beautiful varying sizes big ones little ones and that is a more fun eating experience and i hate chips because they don't melt as nice as far chocolate so they're not good for other things i think what causes gooeyness is i'm gonna try to bake them at a high temperature for not that long so that they get brown on the outside but the inside doesn't cook all the way through that's my theory so i'm doing 400 degrees for like 12 to 15 minutes 2 cups of walnuts i'm not even gonna chop them i didn't measure those but that's good you can taste the vanilla yum okay now we're gonna bake them okay let's think they have to bake no way i can't rest them screw resting sorry but rest them if you make them at home brother it's definitely better so i'm just making these like crazy mounds because i'm hoping that that will contribute to like the nubly outside that we were going for i'm using parchment paper instead of a silicone baking mat because i think that cookies spread too much on silicone baking masks i don't really like them i also don't like them because you they always feel greasy no matter what you do okay let's see where we're at oh 15 minutes okay so i gotta get these i'm gonna get this first tray in the oven oh the racks are in the right place all right let's move one of these i'm putting it kind of in the top of the oven because i'm thinking they might the bottoms might burn so okay so let's get the other five maybe we can chill these five and bake them later maybe i just have to bake the first five no word from jack hopefully he hit a lot of traffic okay so i'm cooking them at a higher temperature for about the same time i would cook any cookie but they're so massive so i'm cooking them at a higher temperature for a short amount of time in order to hopefully get less spread and a nice crunchy brown exterior while keeping the center gooey-ish i want to put the light on so i can see where's the light somewhere over here oven light oh no they're spreading they're not spraying too much it's gonna be okay i think it's gonna be okay okay now i i can kind of chill right let's do a time check okay i have 11 minutes so in a dream world these are ready in like seven minutes so that they can rest for a couple minutes otherwise they're gonna be like molten hot and we're not gonna be able to taste them but i don't i don't think i should be penalized for rest time but you can decide i remember working with a very famous baking lady i don't know if i can even say her name can i i don't know i'm probably well we'll try i used to work with and she never wears an apron and she is always just pristine always always always nothing like this amount of mess never she would never do that so i'm i'm really trying to channel her but that is obviously not my style you have some flour on your chin always always we do our best every recipe is going to yield a different kind of thin thick whatever cookie depends on the recipe it depends on like the ratio of butter sugar and flour but if they're spreading too much you can always chill them you can always bake them at a higher temperature which is what i'm trying to do here is to like freeze them and cook them solid faster so a higher temperature or chillier dough we should chill these so we can bake them off in a few minutes and see how much different they are oh they're spreading so much six minutes do you get stressed out yes i definitely get stressed out you can tell i'm stressed when i start talking faster and if my station is an effing mess okay so we have four minutes to touch them yeah they spread a little but not terribly oh they're not done do we have an oven thermometer in here where are we at yeah i want to see yeah i knew it this this oven is 350. foiled it's not hot enough i can tell because they're not cooking as fast as i want them to which is also gonna make them spread more i'm gonna cut myself a little slack on the spreading it's also gonna they're gonna bake longer because now what are we at yeah they should have been baked by now but the oven temperature jammed me it's a real jam job i thought you always have to have an oven thermometer in your oven because they the oven this lies it's never right it's never right okay that was my 30 minutes should i reset it so i know how badly i failed the timer went off but that was just an estimate jack has not come back with our cookies yet so i have a little more time and i'm just gonna stare at them until he comes i did read like they have a very specific secret the ladies from levin about keeping them from spreading and they won't tell anybody which i respect but i i read on the internet that some people add cornstarch i mean you would never know that the cornstarch was in there it just sounds like why add another weird thing that doesn't technically belong in cookies but maybe i should have cause maybe they wouldn't have spread also they're looking cute all right i'm gonna i'm gonna pull those they look nice and brown they look pretty fat with really delicate cookies if you try to pick them up too soon they will just fall apart so i like to cool them on the sheet so that some of the residual heat sort of cooks them continues to cook them and let them firm up and then move them to a rack to cool completely so delivery is running late it's stuck in traffic which is good for me because that means i can get my other tray that i've chilled for a few minutes into the properly heated oven and i think these ones will actually resemble the le van cookies even more those are staying much firmer okay i'm gonna take them out you know what i'm taking them out those are pretty good they're a little lighter but i'm okay with that because look at the shape they spread a little less oh hello hey sam hey jack where are you i'm outside i'm about to come up i hope you're ready i'm ready come hello thank you so much okay i have my cookies they weigh a ton okay let's see oh i mean these look pretty good these look pretty great but i would say i mean that feels like a pretty good match no so we have the levan cookie here my cookie here i'm feeling pretty good about the size comparison can we just hold it up like check it out pretty much spot on i feel good about that they're also just about the same height they are both large and thick so we got that so the lavender cookie has this really beautiful craggy nubby brown exterior it looks very good so let's open her up i mean that looks pretty great you can tell there was goo it was gooey but it has sat for a while which you know can't blame them for so they've used chips i used chunks i see a walnut here and a walnut here but there is like a lot of cookie in between it's pretty great the exterior is beautifully crunchy it's so nice and crunchy which is an excellent contrast to the inside it is really sweet with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee this would be it's just mine oh i mean come on can you see that i mean it's it's not fair because i got to bake mine right away so i have these like big rivers of dark chocolate plus little bits here and there which if you like chocolate it's gonna be a fun chocolate experience i mean there's a lot more salt in mine which i think helps balance out the sweetness a little bit and i prefer the dark chocolate and the dark chocolate with the cinnamon is really really good i mean they're both great mine is very great no they're both great they're both great okay so the things that make a perfect lavende cookie in my opinion are the number one the beautiful exterior the crunchy brown craggy nubly top and i think i achieved that by cooking my cookie at a higher temperature for a shorter amount of time by using a mix of sugars also by the forming of the cookies like i didn't make them into neat balls i kept them into in big mounds which i think probably contributes to all that number two a lemon cookie is always super large and super thick and my cookies are just about the same size i feel the most proud about that because they're huge and super fat and it's actually kind of hard to keep them fat as cookies want to spread so i think i did that i cook these guys on parchment instead of using a silicone baking mat because i find that on the silicon it's just too slippery and they sort of like spread out in a way that i didn't want so parchment helps them like stay tight i think a perfect lavender cookie has a slightly gooey center which with this one did not but i think we can cut them a little slack because it was delivery i have a gooey center because number one my cookies were just baked and also i baked them at a really high temperature for a short amount of time in the idea that the outside would sort of cook solid and leave the center a little bit soft so our delivery did get stuck in traffic so i got a few extra minutes but i did beat our delivery so i think i still won the challenge order some laven cookies you will not be sorry but i think it also might get pretty expensive if you need to ship frozen cookies around the country so if you can't do that you can absolutely achieve something very similar and equally delicious at home without much trouble at all the only change i would make probably is to rest this dough everything browns a little bit more evenly it doesn't spread as much and the flavor really develops like you can you can taste the difference when you rest your dough it makes a big difference so i would portion it and then chill it and then once it's sort of firm you can put it in an airtight container and then you could freeze them you could freeze them for weeks and weeks and weeks and then just bake one at a time because really you could share this with at least three people make sure you rest your dough that's my new sign-off like emerald's bam my catchphrase that's what it's called thanks for watching i'm sam don't forget to rest your dough the crabs are really there i feel good about it it looks good i feel like she'd be vanna whiting it\n"