World’s Best Cookie Alert! Bake it like NY’s Levain Bakery: a giant, thick cookie, crispy golden brown on the outside with a soft gooey center inside. To die for!
To all cookie lovers, forget all cookie recipes out there; this one is the only one you will ever need in your life. If you have tried the authentic recipe from Levain Bakery in New York City, you know what I’m talking about and I don’t need to say more about it, right? For everyone else who have not been there (yet), be ready for the true cookie experience of your life. This recipe is game-changing, I’m not kidding!
New York Style Cookies
I am completely obsessed with Levain Bakery cookies and each time I go to New York City, this bakery is my go-to stop, at least once, often twice during the same trip. You might have seen this little video that I made over a year ago in Central Park, showing you the fantastic inside of the cookie. Isn’t it dreamy just looking at it? I usually do one last stop to the bakery before my trip back home, making sure I bring some fresh ones with me that I then freeze until I can’t resist anymore. You’ve got to deserve such a cookie, so make it count and choose your special occasion.
Coming back to the bakery, Levain Bakery is a very tiny shop located in a building basement, with nothing fancy outside that would make you think it is a mandatory stop-over, if not for the long line outside. And if you don’t like waiting outside for a while for a cookie, trust me this one is worth the wait! Once you go down the few steps taking you to the shop, you are immediately overwhelmed by the sweet aromas of the cookies prepared in the back. This is a happy therapy place: everyone comes and leaves with a bright smile, and a giant one-inch thick cookie, slightly warm, gooey inside, and oozing with chocolate.
I usually take mine to Central Park or to a tiny café nearby (I keep the place secret for myself, hehe!), and my guilty pleasure is then to break the large cookie into two equal parts to see this perfect and decadent texture inside. At first bite, you have everything in your mouth: a crispy golden outside, contrasted by this soft gooey inside which is, without a doubt, extremely rich and sweet. I like healthy foods most of the time, but for this cookie, I make an exception. There is no other way to enjoy it. Life is all about balance after all; you’ll eat a salad next time.
Since the first day I have tried Levain Bakery Cookies, I have been dying to learn how to bake these awesome cookies myself and share the beautiful recipe with you, so that we don’t need a trip to New York every single time we have a Levain Bakery Cookie craving (it’s a serious addiction, believe me!). Anyway, in the beginning I did my very best to understand what the cookie was made of but let’s be honest, this would have taken me ages to find the right ingredients and proportions. So I checked for the original recipe, and of course it is a well- kept secret.
This wouldn’t discourage me and I was ready to give the recipe a few attempts anyway, when I stumbled upon Si, from A Bountiful Kitchen. There are several Copycat Levain Bakery Cookie recipes people tried to recreate over the years after their huge success, but no one came as close as Si. Completely obsessed with these cookies, she spent time watching videos where you see the owner baking them and then watched them again and again, until she finally guessed the right quantities, after giving the recipe a few attempts. She truly did an awesome job and literally nailed the cookies!
On her blog, she wrote an extremely long post explaining everything about Levain Bakery cookies, from their creation over 24 years ago by two triathlete/Iron women – Pam McDonald and Connie Weekes – who wanted to create the best cookie in the world (congrats, ladies, you did it!). Si also describes with precision all her observations during her way to recreate the recipe for us, and you will find many useful tips to master yours too.
A few tips to get the perfect Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies:
- Dream Big! – Levain Bakery’s Cookies are 6 oz (170g) each, which is far more than one can eat, but you can always share with your friends. Or not!
- Chocolate Chips – the original recipe calls for large milk chocolate chips, which I did in my version here as well. In the end, I think I prefer with semi-sweet chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips (I love dark chocolate). Or just use chocolate chunks!
- Go nuts – walnuts really made the cookies awesome, bringing a perfect nutty and crunchy texture at the same time.
Also, do not forget:
- Do not chill the dough – I mean, you could if you would like to, but I don’t find it necessary here.
- Rustic shaping – roughly shape the dough into your hands for a rustic look (you don’t need an ice cream scoop)
- Silpat vs parchment paper – unlike Si, I found that my cookies kept their shape much better when they are baked on parchment paper instead of a silicone mat (Silpat).
- Cool onto the baking sheet – unlike other cookies, you don’t need to transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Just leave them on the baking sheet and it will be just fine.
One of the secrets that make the texture perfect – besides the enormous quantity of butter (yes, I know, I know…) – is the use of cake flour. Si suggests a few versions with or without cake flour, which is indeed not easy to find in every store. To make it easier for everyone and because I truly believe that the ratio all-purpose/cake four really makes the difference over the use of all-purpose flour only, I am sharing with you in a recipe note how to make your own cake-flour mix, which is incredibly easy indeed and won’t take you long to prepare.
It’s also good to know that the Levain Bakery Cookies freeze extremely well. I usually wrap mine in a ziploc bag once they have cooled enough, making sure they don’t touch each other. And then, when a cookie craving hits, I just remove a few of them from the freezer and either let them thaw at room temperature (this can take a little while) or warm them up in the oven for a few minutes. Some people would tell you to warm them up in the microwave, which you could too but you might lose a bit of the crispy outside which makes this fantastic contrast of textures.
I didn’t mean to ramble on so long about these cookies but I couldn’t stop writing. I describe them here with passion as they are my #1 favorite in the entire world. Give them a try and stick to the original recipe as much as possible for best results (although you can cut on the sugar a little bit if you wish, but definitely not the butter or any other ingredients except maybe chocolate chips and walnuts). Oh, and before you say it: you are welcome! 🙂
Lastly, if you make these Levain Bakery chocolate chip cookies, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating, letting me know how you liked it. And of course, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Thank you and enjoy!
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Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 11 mins
- Total Time: 26 mins
- Yield: 8 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies & Bars
- Cuisine: American recipes
Description
World’s Best Cookie Alert! Bake it like NY’s Levain Bakery: a giant, thick cookie, crispy golden brown on the outside with a soft gooey center inside. To die for!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks/240g) unsalted butter, softened and diced
- 3/4 cup (135g) light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup (about 120g) homemade cake flour*
- 1 1/2 cup (180g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 cups (250g) walnut halves
- 2 cups (350g) large chocolate chips/chunks**
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Place butter into bowl and turn mixer on low.
- Add sugars and beat butter until smooth on medium speed, about 1 minute.
- Add the eggs and beat on medium just until incorporated with butter and sugars, about 30 seconds.
- Turn the mixer off. Add the homemade cake flour*, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pulse the dry ingredients on low until the wet and dry ingredients are mixed together.
- Pour the walnuts and chocolate chips into the batter, and stir with a rubber spatula until spread evenly into the batter.
- Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, about 6 oz/170g each (or half of it if you want regular size cookies). Use your hands to shape cookies, not a cookie or ice cream scoop. The cookies are meant to be roughly shaped. Do not flatten the dough.
- Bake 4 cookies per pan, for 11 minutes. The cookies are done when the top and bottom parts are slightly golden. Do not over bake. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
* Homemade cake flour: measure 1 cup (120g) of all-purpose flour. Remove 2 tablespoons of the flour, and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to the flour. Sift the flour and cornstarch mixture over a medium sized bowl 3 or 4 times. You now have cake flour!
** The original Levain Bakery Cookie recipe calls for milk chocolate chips, but you could go for dark chocolate chips or use chunks instead of chips.
This beautiful Levain Bakery Cookies is suggested by A Bountiful Kitchen.
Keywords: Levain bakery, chocolate chip cookies
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Here are some items I used for this recipe
Platinium Professional Bakeware | KitchenAid Hand Mixer | Stainless Steel Ice Cream Scoop | Silpat Baking Mat | Stainless Steel Measuring Cups | Stainless Steel Sifter | Measuring Spoons | Glass Mixing Bowl Set
Some of the links above are affiliate links, which pay me a small commission for my referral at no extra cost to you! Thank you for supporting Del’s cooking twist.
Magnifiques ces cookies j’aimerai les faire mais en plus petite quantité,
50 à 60 gr, que me conseilles tu au niveau de la cuisson merci d’avance pour ta réponse
Bonjour Cathy! Réaliser des cookies de 50-60g revient ici à diviser la taille des cookies par 3. Malheureusement la règle mathématique ne s’applique pas systématiquement au temps de cuisson et je te recommande de surveiller simplement les cookies une fois dans le four pour se faire au mieux l’estimation du temps de cuisson exact. Je pense qu’on sera sans doute autour de 5-6 minutes, peut être 7-8. L’idée est de les retirer du four quand ils sont légèrement dorés sur le dessus ; l’intérieur du cookie restera mi-cuit mais c’est ici l’effet recherché. N’hésite pas à revenir vers moi pour partager ton expérience.
Hello, they look super delicious! Thanks for the recipe. How do you make the top golden brown? Do you bake in a convection oven?
I made some the other day but the top seems very light and middle still a bit raw.
Thanks again!
Hi Greg! I actually use a regular oven, but as it appears, all ovens are actually different and we sometimes need to adjust the baking time depending on which one we use. The cookies are meant to be a little raw-gooey inside but if it is too raw for your taste, simply bake a couple of more minutes, keeping a close eye on the oven. Remove when top of the cookies are slightly golden/golden-brown. I hope it helps! Del
Merci beaucoup pour cette recette, elle est IN-CRO-YABLE, vraiment !!!!
In english please
All my recipes are translated into English, just hit the “In English” button and the recipe will be there for you!
Je n’ai jamais testé les cookies de Levain Bakery malgré quelques passages à NY. J’imagine que l’idée de faire la queue avec de jeunes enfants m’effraie un peu ! En tout cas, je les ai testés aujourd’hui, avec un peu de fond de placard soit du beurre vegane en plus du beurre normal pour arriver au total de 240g, de la cassonade grossière + de la cassonade finement moulue (j’achète en vrac et principalement du bio et je ne trouve pas de sucre blanc). J’ai finalement mis un mélange de très petites pépites de chocolat noir et de gros chunks. Ils se sont pas mal étalés j’avoue (le beurre vegan peut être) mais ils avaient ce côté croustillant-fondant tel qu’on le retrouve dans les cookies de Subway par exemple (dsl, on est loin de la référence fancy de Levain Bakery lol) mais en plus épais et c’était délicieux !
Bonjour Lexie! Très heureuse de voir que les Levain cookies vous ont plus! En effet le beurre vegan a peut être contribué à ce qu’ils s’étalent un peu mais en dehors de ça il est possible aussi que les pépites y soient pour quelque chose également. Il est en effet important de garder la même quantité de pépites et de noix que pour la recette car les unes comme les autres aident le cookies à maintenir sa forme. Aussi, je conseille d’utiliser des pépites de taille normale plutôt que des mini, ou bien d’utiliser des chocolate chunks. En testant avec ces petits changements, vous tomberez à la renverse en goûtant vos prochains cookies 😉 Très bonne semaine à vous! Del
Je vais réessayer, c’est certain! Merci encore.
Merci pour la recette c’était un régal !
La première fois j’ai divisé par deux les quantités pour tester mais j’ai mis 140g de beurre au lieu 120g. Mais ils étaient tout de même succulents et fondants à souhait. La seconde j’ai bien respecté les proportions mais j’ai testé une nouvelle version aux trois chocolats ( blanc, noir et au lait) avec des amandes torréfiées. Ce fut un succès : une symphonie de saveurs et de textures. Merci encore !
Et bien ces cookies sont trop beaux, j’ai testé la recette et j’ai réussi à ne pas encore les dévorer mais ils ont l’air succulents! Merci!
Super ! J’espère que tu t’es bien régalée 🙂
Bonsoir Delphine,
on a tenté cette recette de cookies aujourd’hui et ils sont vraiment super bons…
Mon compagnon, qui a pourtant une recette fétiche de cookies, m’a dit que la tienne entrait en concurrence avec la sienne !
Bref, on en refera ! Merci beaucoup !
A très vite,
Elisabeth
Oh merci beaucoup Elizabeth, et ça me fait très plaisir de te voir par ici ! Me voici bien curieuse de la recette de cookies de ton compagnon également, je suis toujours avide de nouvelles idées et aime par-dessus tout expérimenter de nouvelles recettes – d’ailleurs il y en aura une nouvelle d’ici la fin du mois de mai pour info. Bien à toi depuis Chicago ! Del
No Vanilla???
Indeed. You really don’t need it in this cookie recipe. If you really want to, it never hurts to add a drop of vanilla. It’s really up to you!
1) If I happen to have cake flour in my house, I guess I can use that?
2) Would freezing the dough balls before baking help the cookies retain their shape? Or, is that overkill?
Oh, I see you said chilling the dough is unnecessary. My mistake.
Hi Joel,
1) For sure you can use already made cake flour.
2) You do not need to chill or freeze the dough; just remember to shape roughly so the dough does not become warm and bake immediately.
I hope this helps! Del
Have you ever added a little coconut flakes too these ingredients. I like chocolate and coconut together
★★★★★
Hi Elena! I actually haven’t, but I’m always up for new challenges. Please let me know how it turns out if you try 🙂 Del
Can I use all purpose flour instead?
★★★★★
I couldn’t find cake flour but this recipe is a lifesaver. It came out exactly like the pictures here. My family loved it and I’m making 3 more batches for tomorrow.
★★★★★
Hello! So happy you liked it and found the cake flour recipe in the note under the recipe useful 🙂 Feel free to tag #delscookingtwist on Instagram when you bake them again tomorrow, I will be happy to see and share your realization! Del
Hi if I wanted to make a chocolate cookie dough ( double chocolate cookie ) what is the amount of cocoa powder you recommend me to add. Also what amount of vanilla I can add for this amount of ingredients. Lastly, will the cookie dough change its flavor if I froze it up to 3 months?
Thanks for great Recipe
★★★★★
Hi Sarah! I never tried to turn these cookies into a chocolate version (with use of cocoa powder), nor did I try to turn them into edible cookie dough. So unfortunately I cannot guarantee the result. Please let me know how it comes out if you try! Thanks 🙂 Del
Theses cookies are amazing. I could not imagine eating a whole one if you only make the 8 cookies. I made 15 from my batch but only baked 5. I froze the other 10 and baked them a week or so later. I baked them from frozen and they came out perfect. Thank you so much for the great recipe.I think I might try adding other ingredients like cranberry and white chocolate and maybe some macadamias next time .
★★★★★
Thank you so much, Michelle! I’m so happy you liked them 🙂 And yes, with cranberries and white chocolate it sounds delicious too, just make sure you use the same amount you would do with chocolate chips for thick cookies. Del
I give this recipe high marks. I added 3 cups atoll House semi-sweet chocolate chips and only 1 cup walnuts. The cookies came out delicious, crunchy outside, warm and gooey inside. I do believe that the type of oven determines how well they turn out because at 400 degrees, my cookies began to burn at the bottoms before browning at the top. So I removed both trays which were lined with double sheets of parchment paper, reduced the heat to 350 and put the trays back in. The cookies browned nicely and the bottoms did not get darker. They baked at 350 for about 10 minutes. I allowed them to cool on the trays. I did notice that my cookies left oily spots so not sure if the 1 cup butter was too much but overall these cookies are definitely delicious.
★★★★★
I’m so happy you liked them! Thanks for your feedback, I truly appreciate. Del
My chocolate chip cookies always turn out flat & crispy. I finally got some depth to them using your recipe. I just added a 1/4 tsp of Mexican vanilla to the recipe. I used semi sweet chocolate chips, so they weren’t so sweet. Thank you for sharing the cake flour hint!
★★★★★
Awesome! I’m so happy you liked them. Thanks for taking the time to write a little review here, I really appreciate 🙂 Del