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Oh, the legendary Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies. Even if you have never had one, you've probably seen or heard about these jumbo-sized cookies. If not, you might be wondering what's so special about them...
The cookies have a lot going on with them. They're loaded with a dose of dark chocolate that oozes out of the cookie when you take a bite. The edges of the cookies are tender, buttery, and crisp. As you eat your way in a bit from the edges, the cookie becomes dense, soft, and chewy. Then when you get to the very center, you hit a lava of melted chocolate and gooey, under-baked cookie dough madness. It's a medley of textures and everything you need in a chocolate chip cookie.
So... you want to know the secret to Levain Bakery cookies? The secret to getting that 'crisp, chewy, doughy' texture starts with the size of the cookie.
Levain Bakery's cookies weigh in at six ounces! Less than six ounces will diminish the wonderful cookie dough lava in the center, and more than six ounces will make too much of the cookie remain under-baked. So make sure you have a kitchen scale on hand to measure out the dough.
Another big part of the cookie magic has to do with temperature : both the temperature of the butter and the temperature of the oven. While most cookie recipes rely on softened butter or melted butter, but this recipe calls for diced cold butter. It helps the cookies not to spread too much in the oven (and allows you to skip out on a chill time). The hot oven temperature also helps to crisp up and set the outside of the cookies while ensuring the centers remain a partially cooked doughy mess.
This "small batch" recipe makes four giant Levain Bakery-sized cookies. So, what are you waiting for? Make these immediately, and say hello to your new favorite cookie.
Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 115 g unsalted butter cold and cubed
- 110 g dark brown sugar
- 50 g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg cold
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 65 g cake flour *
- 125 g all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 180 g semisweet chocolate chips
- 115 g toasted walnuts coarsely chopped
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using an electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until combined and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until well incorporated.
- Add the flours, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt, and use a rubber spatula to gently fold until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Separate the dough into four large, 6 oz hockey-puck-shaped cookies about an inch thick, then place onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Bake for 15-16 minutes or until light golden brown on the top. Let them rest for at least 10 minutes to set.
Notes
Nutrition
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Dianne Rabkin
Wow the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. Large or small batch meaning I doubled the recipe. Did decrease the time to 12 minutes for the medium size scoop.
I have a couple of your books, Mike and every recipe is off the charts. looking forward to what comes next.
Thank you for sharing and for all your time and efforts to make these recipes the great ones they are.
DR
Mike Johnson
Thank you so much for this wonderful comment! I'm thrilled you loved the cookies - and good call on adjusting the baking time for the medium scoop. Thanks for the kind words about my books too! It really means a lot to hear that you're enjoying the recipes. Comments like yours make all the recipe testing worth it! 😊
Sarah
I can’t wait to try these!!! Can I ask though, why is there no Baking Powder? I’m so used to seeing that in cookie recipes, so I was curious as to what that does to the cookie.
Mike Johnson
Good question! These cookies skip baking powder intentionally to achieve that signature Levain texture - it helps them stay thicker with a gooey center rather than spreading too much. It's part of what makes them special! Let me know how they turn out when you try them! 😊
Mike
Hi Mike, I’m about to try your recipe and noticed several people commenting thst he cookies spread too flat. Would increasing the amount of cornstarch resolve that issue? Thanks for your guidance.
Mike Johnson
I wouldn't add more cornstarch. These cookies truly don't spread much (as they start off with cold ingredients and get a brief chill time before baking); most of the issues people have encountered with spreading are due to improper shaping of the cookie dough; they're shaped by hand to make a slightly rounded tall mound of dough, not by using a cookie scoop, which leads to flatter cookies. If worried about spreading, or if you're in a particularly warm climate, I'd recommend upping the time the dough chills in the fridge from 30min to 1 hour. Hope this helps!
Brittany
This is literally the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever made (and I bake a lot of cookies!!). Sometimes I’ll do half regular chocolate chips and half pb chips for a fun twist. Love them!
Tricia
Please try to do a copycat Culture chocolate chip cookie!
Tiffany Buturla
I love these cookies! I'm not usually a fan of nuts in desserts, but they definitely have a place here. I haven't had the real Levain cookies so I can't compare, but if they are similar to these, I would love to try them!
Bella
I loved this recipe! Just wondering if I could replace the AP flour with gluten-free AP flour next time?
Michael Johnson
I haven't tried myself, so I can't guarantee that it would work! BUT I've heard of people using Bob's Red Mill cup-for-cup GF baking flour in other recipes of mine and having success.
Asia
hi mike thank you so much for sharing this recipe & having the metric available for each ingredient. My husband loves them! May I know what brand of chocolate chips do you use? Are there any other brands you recommend aside from the one you use for this recipe to get that melty chocolate chip?
Michael Johnson
I use Guittard and Valrhona for all my baking chocolate needs. These cookies were made with Guittard's semisweet baking wafers; they're super thin and the size of about a quarter, making them for perfect melty chocolate puddles!
Muneera
Hello Mike.. I tried to make your recipe.. but one egg doesn't enough ? I used 2 egg to make the dough comes together.. I didn't bake them yet .. hope they become perfect ??
Thank you .. have a nice day..
Michael Johnson
Oh no! Hope they turned out okay, I'm sure only one egg is needed! The dough is very thick though. Try weighing your ingredients next time to make sure there's not too much flour or anything!
Diana
Hi Mike! I´m from Perú and in my country you can only buy chocolate chip cookies at Starbucks. I´ve been traying many recipes on the internet and this is by far my faavourite one. I used panela (or raw sugar idk) instead of brown sugar, bc it doesn´t exist here haha, also put something called chuño bc I runned out of cornstarch, and also put pecans, no walnuts. I was impressed because they´re sweetness was perfectly balanced, they´re crispy on the outside and sooo soft on the inside. Oh!,I filled some of the cookies with Nutella <3 I ended up dividing the recipe in 6 cookies, they were HUGE. You have no idea of how happy your recipe made me feel, I´ll try more of your recipes. Tyssssm 🙂
Roxanne
Hi Mike! I tried making this and while it tastes good, I couldnt get the ball-shaped form like a levain cookie should be. Mine had flattened out like a pancake after taking out from the oven. What are your tips to ensure that the cookies do not flatten out and maintain the ball-shaped form as they are heating in the oven? My butter is cold, and I even put the cookies in the fridge overnight before baking them. I dont know what I did wrong!
Appreciate your reply xx
Michael Johnson
These cookies are not shaped like a ball, you may want to find a different recipe if that's what you're looking for! They're a thick cookie, but have an even thickness due to shaping them by hand rather than using a cookie scoop. Here's a video showing how I made them and what they're supposed to come out looking like: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17889428713505521/
Hope this helps!
Johnna Walker
Hi,
I made these, but I feel like they spread too much.
I used cold ingredients and refrigerted the dough for two days. Maybe I flattened them too much? Would that do it?
Michael Johnson
That's likely the issue, especially if you refrigerated the dough for two days. These cookies don't really spread much!
Akshataa
Would I get the same type of cookie if I deduct the sugars by 50%, I do not prefer sweet but I really want to make these the exact kind.
Michael Johnson
Not at all. I would recommend following the recipe as written or looking for another Levain copycat recipe on google!
Lauren
Hey, Mike! Would be okay if I omit the nuts?? Would the shape and the texture keep the same?
Or should I add more flour or chocolete!?
Thanks in advance!!!
Michael Johnson
I would add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of additional chocolate chips if you want to remove the nuts!
Pakaporn Ham
What’s the different btw AP flour with cake flour and with bread flour? Which one is better? Thank you in advance:)) by the way i really enjoy all your baking ❤️❤️?
Michael Johnson
This recipe uses cake flour, not bread flour! When you use cake flour, it creates a more tender crumb on the cookie. Bread flour has a higher protein content which makes for super chewy cookies, generally speaking.
Joie Langit
hi do you think will it be okay if I double the recipe? thanks 🙂
Michael Johnson
You can absolutely double the recipe! Enjoy! 🙂
Natalie
The cookies came out really good, and they are humongous! Will they still come out ok if I made smaller portions? Also, I only had self-rising flour, but they still seemed to come out ok.
Michael Johnson
I'm not sure if you'll be able to achieve the same overall gooey/chewy/crisp texture but the cookies will come out fine! They'll likely take less time to bake as well, however, I didn't test smaller cookies myself so I can't say for sure!
Vicky
I made them a little smaller.. About 125 g per cookie which made 6 cookies. Just baked them about 2 to 3 minutes less and they still had that slightly underbaked center and nice crisp on the outside.
Stephanie
Do you think freezing the shaped, unbaked dough to bake later would be ok?
Michael Johnson
Absolutely! You can bake the shaped dough directly from the freezer, just add an additional 2-3 minutes of bake time. 🙂
Michelle
Hi Mike! I love your recipes! It’s my first time making these and they are really huge. Am I right to make each at 170g? the cookies came out a little too brown on the top and is the inside supposed to be underbaked with like cookie dough lava in the center? How should shape the cookie dough in the right way so it would come out so pretty like yours? Thanks much!
Mike Johnson
Yup, each one is about 170g; they are indeed giant cookies! And the middle is supposed to be like cookie dough lava; if you aren't a fan, you can make them smaller by using an actual cookie scoop and baking them for 9-10 minutes! I shape mine like a hockey puck with a little bit of a rounded mound on top. Hope this helps!
Michelle
Thanks Mike! Appreciate your reply. Will definitely try your other amazing recipes too!
Lisa
Hi Mike.. Thank you for sharing this recipe..
I've baked this couple of times and the kids absolutely love them... I was just wondering what type of oven do you use? When baking these cookies, do you use only the bottom heat; or what mode in the oven do you use?
Michael Johnson
Hi Lisa! So glad to hear that!! I have a very tiny (& old) gas stove that heats from the bottom only. 🙂
Navneet Kaur
Is it okay To use light brown sugar if I don’t have dark drown ?
Michael Johnson
Absolutely!
TS
Hi Mike,
would you say that this recipe is overly sweet? if I want it to be less sweet, how much sugar should I cut down?
Michael Johnson
You could take out 1/4 cup of sugar and be okay. I haven't tested anything less than that!
Allyssa Hao
hi! which sugar should we take out? the granulated sugar?
Michael Johnson
I don't recommend removing or altering the amount of sugar used! But you could try to remove 1/4 cup dark brown sugar.
cindy3539
I tried to properly convert the measurements to cups but as you can probably imagine, I was unsuccessful.
Michael Johnson
Not surprised! Investing in a scale is a good idea! Also, this recipe has cup measurements listed (as do most of my recipes). If you look under the ingredients list in the recipe card, there's a button/link that allows you to switch over to U.S. customary measurements. 🙂
Megha
Would bread flour work instead of cake flour?
Michael Johnson
I would advise against using bread flour as it has a much higher protein content. You can either make your own cake flour using all-purpose flour & cornstarch (14 tbsp flour + 2 tbsp of cornstarch sifted together will yield about 1 cup of cake flour) OR you can just substitute it with all-purpose flour in the recipe! Hope this helps!
Leonie
You don't know what you're missing!
The first time I made these, it was 11pm and my boyfriend kindly let me pause the movie we were watching. I had a craving! But 1 hour later, due to it being the first time baking in my new flat - the cookies were very dark and crumbly after only 9min of baking. This is when I knew: the oven was absolute trash. Did I still eat and love the cookies? Absolutely! But little did I know their full potential...
A few days ago, I made them again, at my parents house (I wasn't risking it again). Everyone sang high praises. My boyfriend dislikes chocolate - he ate half a cookie! My mom and I are over the moon about these cookies.
Sure, I've never had the original, but these cookies are divine and a gift. Share, but hide one cookie for yourself - they're that good!
Michael Johnson
Leonie, I’m so glad you gave these another go and they came out perfectly!! They’re slowly becoming my favorite cookie recipe!