In my experience as a pastry chef for almost 20 years, this is simply not the case. If you pile just “any” chocolate chip cookie dough, or any cookie dough for that matter, into several large mounds, there’s more than a good chance that the cookies will spread out into a sheet of flat, conjoined cookies. In order to get a cookie that maintains it’s shape with such a large amount of dough, you need the proper balance of leavens and flour, in conjunction with the right amount of creaming, mixing and all around handling and temperature of the dough. As you very well know, baking is a science, and science isn’t as simple as “any cookie will puff up if you use a larger amount of dough than usual”.

I tried the aforementioned recipe, and got good results. I really couldn’t tell the difference between the tweaked recipe and the actual Levain cookie. Have you ever tried the actual Levain cookie? If so, did you like it?

As for the sandy texture, maybe it was due to overbaking them? Flavor wise, if you have been using whole wheat flour in your chocolate chip cookies for years, a chocolate chip cookie without whole wheat, may be bland to you, but this is all speculation and assumption. Naturally, a good chocolate chip cookie also depends on the quality of the ingredients, especially the chocolate. Hershey’s - Nestle’s or Valrhona - Cocoa Barry? Good quality vanilla? It’s all relative.

Having said what I had to say, I must compliment you on your wonderful site. You have some great recipes, and your writing is flowing and flawless, as is the photography.

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That said, this is why I’ve been trying to (and trying to get others to) experiment with different flours, to see how they come out as I felt it could be better. Also, as of late, I’ve been upping the brown sugar while decreasing the white sugar, which has definitely added more flavor and (in my opinion) brought it even closer to Levain’s.

Regardless, I still think they taste just like Levain’s and never got that ’sandy’ texture or plain flavor you mentioned, but we all have different palates, so it’s only natural that some will like it, and some won’t.

Anyway..thank you for letting me hog up your comment section with all of my ideas I’m glad you have a cookie recipe that works for well for you, and I’m looking forward to trying it, as I’ve never used WW flour in a CC recipe.