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Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
The BEST Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies. The Famous Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe that everyone goes crazy over!
I’ve got issues.
I am a cookie junkie of epic proportions.
There’s probably a support group somewhere for people like me.
When I was a teenager, I would go to the library and thumb through cookbooks to find every single chocolate chip cookie recipe and would beg my Mom to try out the recipe creations almost daily. Issues, I tell you.
I started off by following recipes and then I thought….let’s take a walk on the wild side and start experimenting by throwing stuff in and see what happens. What’s the worst that can happen? Well, that’s another story. Little tweaks here and there were the difference makers – browning the butter, raising or lowering the temperature of the oven, and trying out some interesting ingredients.
When I won a trip to NYC to film a perfect cookie segment for the Cooking Channel’s Perfect 3 Show in the Food Network studios, I went online to seek out the best bakeries in Manhattan. The highest rated cookie was awarded to Levain Bakery and I knew that it had to be mine. Pronto.
Oh, and it was legit. Legit and different. Unique in such a way that I had to figure out how in the world they did it. I became a mad scientist in the kitchen to figure out the how to make the Famous Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies.
I developed a massive crush on a cookie.
I have never, ever worked on a recipe as much as this one. Another trip had to be made to NYC in the name of food science to do some more investigative research. A trip to the Truvia Baking Star competition in NYC meant multiple trips to buy my favorite cookie. We rode our bikes in the freezing cold just for that one bite. By the time we arrived, my feet were frozen, but sacrifices have to be made, right?
I came home and tweaked some more and then it happened…. that glorious batch was perfection and I finally had it.
I was taught in kindergarten that it’s nice to share so that’s what I am doing. Sharing my years of experimenting so we can all have Levain at home. It’s just the right thing to do.
Let’s start with the basics.
Use cold butter. Cut into small cubes. Since you are collecting it straight out of the fridge, you need to cut it into small pieces so the butter and sugar can become friends and make a creamy masterpiece. It takes about 4 minutes for them to warm up and become besties.
This is where it’s all over for me….cookie dough. It’s my kryptonite, unfortunately, and I blame my hips on this goodness. Who else loves this stuff?
Now, these aren’t some ordinary bite-size cookies. No these are a full-on meal. Well maybe for some people. Here’s the deal – you make them big. Really big. Like only four can fit on a cookie sheet, BIG. These are the BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES EVER. Yep, I said it.
Usually, with thick cookies, they turn out like hockey pucks – cakey messes that hardly resemble a gooey cookie.
This is where these are different. We are going to crank up the heat in the oven to cook the outside quickly and leave that center nice, warm and gooey. As a cookie should be.
There are a few ingredients and techniques that set these cookies apart. First, you use cornstarch to add thickness without making the cookie dry. It does wonders in these cookies! Using cake flour also lends to a more tender cookie but you can also substitute all-purpose flour. Here’s one of my favorite cake flours — King Arthur Cake Flour
I am a huge fan of using nonstick silicone baking mats (Silpat) placed on top of the cookie sheets, which allows the cookies to be easily removed from the pan and to bake nicely. My cousin gave me a set as a gift years ago and I had no idea what I was missing out on! These are ones I have loved —Silicone Baking Sheets – 2 pack
You may want to eat these Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies the second they come out of the oven, but patience is a virtue and you must exercise some with these cookies. They need to “set up” so give them at least 10-15 minutes before you devour them. The amazing part of these cookies is that they are the only cookies I have ever made that are still cookie perfection even after a few days.
If you LOVE these cookies, you will love these other Levain Bakery copycat recipes:
- Levain Bakery Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
- Levain Bakery Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Levain Bakery Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
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Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Crush Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup Cold Butter cut into small cubes
- 1 cup Brown Sugar
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 1/2 cups Cake Flour*
- 1 1/2 cups Flour
- 1 teaspoon Cornstarch
- 3/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 3/4 teaspoon Salt
- 2 cups Chocolate Chips
- 2 cups Walnuts roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 410 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together cold cubed butter, brown sugar, and sugar for 4 minutes or until creamy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one.
- Stir in flours, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just combined to avoid overmixing. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Separate dough into large balls and place on lightly colored cookie sheet. They are bigger than you think! You will fit 4 cookies on one large cookie sheet. The dough makes 8 extra large cookies.
- Bake for 9-12 minutes or until golden brown on the top. Let them rest for at least 10 minutes to set.
Video
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Now go make some Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies! You need one (or two or three….no judging here) of these warm, gooey cookies, a big glass of cold milk and a to-do list with nothing on it except catching up on Netflix or those cheesy Holiday Hallmark movies that somehow keep playing on my TV.
If you are a huge fan of Levain Bakery cookies or just eating the best chocolate chip cookies, you will love my other copycat recipes — Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies and Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies.
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Happy Baking!
It took me a couple of tries to figure out the baking time on these cookies. I had never tasted these cookies before so I did not know exactly how gooey the cookie should have been. I also added milk chocolate chip and felt that the cookie was to sweet. Other than that if you don’t mind eating a big cookie it, was delicious.
Can the cookies be made with no nuts? My daughter is baking them for an extra credit assignment for school in math and they need to be nut free. Would we replace the nuts with anything? Suggestions?? Thanks so much!!!
I make them all the time without nuts. You can add more baking chips if you’d like or just leave them out. I like less chocolate in my cookies so I tend to just leave them out.
Neighbor made with white chocolate and cranberries were awesome.
You can make as listed above without nuts, no substitutions needed!
Hi! Can you please share how to freeze the cookies once they are completely baked? How do I wrap them? Can’t stack them, so… ? I want to make a large quantity, so how can I most effectively freeze them so they are just as delicious when I thaw them out? Thank you so much!
Haven’t tried freezing the baked cookies yet, but I usually scoop out balls of cookie dough onto a baking sheet and I’ll let them all harden before throwing them in a ziploc bag to store in the freezer. I let them defrost on the counter for about 5 min before baking as usual.
I love this recipe. Anyway you could post it in grams or ounces for easier more accurate measuring
Thank you
Hi! Could you get the recipe in quantities in grams? Thanks
I used these conversions:
226 g butter
200 g brown sugar
100 g granulated white sugar
336 g all purpose flour
27 g corn flour
340 g chocolate chips
224 g walnuts
(Baking soda and salt as written)
I don’t keep cake flour on hand, so I used a homemade cake flour recipe and adjusted the all purpose flour and corn flour quantities accordingly.
Hello did you weigh the cookies before baking them? I want to be able to make sure they all weigh the same so they cook evenly.. I’ve never had thick chocolate chip cookies. I can’t wait to try these.
I weighed the dough all together once the ingredients were mixed. Then I divided the amount of grams I had by 8, and re-measured scoops of cookie dough that were the same number of grams! It worked well.
Mine just came out of the oven. They’re a little over 1” thick by about 4 inches round. I have a thing about toasting all nuts I use when baking but, this is the only change made in the recipe. They turned out fantastic! Thank you for sharing this lovely recipe. 💕💕💕💕
Can I freeze the dough?
I freeze them dough balls from this recipe all the time. You just add a couple minutes to the bake time and bake from frozen.
Do you use salted or unsalted butter?
I use unsalted!
I have used unsalted when making them for kids or my mom. I actually prefer them salted. But you can do either.
Hi! I attempted to make these delicious cookies.
However, I am having trouble with the cookies spreading WAY too thin in the oven. I tried with the temperature at 425 degrees as well as baking another batch at 350 degrees (and chilling the dough). By the first minute, the bottom of the cookies were very very spread out. ( I also did not add walnuts to the recipe).
I live in a very humid climate–Could that be a reason as to why the cookies are spreading? Do you recommend me reducing the amount of butter and increasing the amount of flour? What are your thoughts?
-P
You might want to put your cookie dough in the refrigerator to thoroughly chill. I’ve had issue with humidity and my kitchen being too warm. If you chill it first, then scoop out your portions, they usually don’t flatten. I do this place my cookies in the oven and place my cookie dough back in the fridge while the first batch is baking. I hope this helps.
I made the Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip this past weekend, and my family went wild. I usually try new recipes in the Fall, so that we can evaluate them for Christmas baking. These were so incredibly received by everyone – that they made it to the top of the Christmas Cookie List!! The batter was so moist – and the dough is not sickly sweet. There were a very few left the next day – and I was so happy to find that they were just as good as Day 1. I did not use vanilla, but I may add in December – not sure. THANK YOU for sharing this recipe – it is really, really good!