Inspired by the popular Levain bakery these thick cookies have a soft gooey interior and a crisp exterior. Studded with chunks of milk chocolate and toasted walnuts these are the best cookies!
Background
Chocolate chip cookies are my weak spot, and I think I can say the same for so many other people. The combination of soft butteriness and chocolate is just… And that’s just normal chocolate chip cookies.
When I first discovered Levain Bakery chocolate chip cookies a few years back I was ready to get on a flight to New York. THICK chocolate cookie studded with walnuts and melted pockets of milk chocolate?! I’ve always been a soft chocolate chip cookie fan, but the combination of a crispy outside and soft gooey centre beat any cookie I’ve ever had, and I hadn’t even tried it… So it became a mission to recreate my sky high expectations for how the Levain Bakery cookie would be, in my own kitchen.
Frequently asked questions
How to make cookies thicker?
These days thick cookies are trending. To keep your cookies tall even after baking make sure you chill the dough. Chilling the dough before baking helps the cookies retain their shape in the oven and bake up nice and thick.
Why are my cookies turning out flat?
There are a couple of reasons. The first is that the cookie dough was not chilled enough before baking. If the dough isn't chilled the butter will melt at a faster rate in the oven, causing the cookie to spread. Don't skip the chill time!
The second could be too little flour. Flour is what contributes to the structure of the cookie and if there is less flour the cookie will not be able to hold the height. Make sure to measure the flour carefully using a scale or properly levelled measuring cups.
Should I flatten my cookie balls?
Nope! You might think that your cookies are going to turn out more spherical than a cookie when baking them as a ball. However, due to the butter and sugar in the dough they will flatten out as they bake to the perfect height and shape.
How to make the perfect cookies
- Make sure the butter is chilled
- Chilled butter is important in the texture of these cookies. It helps give the soft and gooey interior and crisp exterior.
- Toast and skin the walnuts
- Although it might be a little of a hassle skinning the walnuts makes a huge difference. The skin of the walnut is what gives it a bitter taste. By toasting and removing it you are left with a crunchy and fragrant nut
- The easiest way to skin the walnuts is by placing the warm toasted nuts in a clean tea towel and rubbing them together. This helps the skins to fall off easily!
- Watch the bake time
- This is the most important to achieve the signature gooey interior. I have timed it perfectly so if you have portioned the dough into 4 large balls they will be done at 13-15 minutes.
- Even if they seem too soft at 15 minutes they will firm up as they cool.
Let's Get Baking!
Developing this recipe probably gave me diabetes for two lifetimes, but it was worth it. The result is a perfectly balanced cookie. Not just the crisp and soft texture, but the overall sweetness and cookie experience. This is not a normal cookie. The size of the cookie is bigger than the size of my hand, but it’s flavour balance is so perfect I could eat more than one in one sitting… (yes I’m giving myself a lot of compliments… but after pouring over pages of recipes, writing up the LONGEST spreadsheet of possible cookie ratios and baking tonnes of cookies, I think I deserve it 😁)
I’m so happy I can finally reveal my cookie secrets and share this recipe with you guys. To help you with the process I’ve created a recipe video to go alongside it.
If you liked this recipe make sure to leave me a comment and rating down below, I would love to know how you went.
Also, don't forget to tag me on Instagram @catherine.desserts and hashtag #cattycakes so I can see and share your desserts. Follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, and TikTok for more of my baking creations and updates! Until next time... happy caking!
Print📖 Recipe
Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
Inspired by the popular Levain bakery these thick cookies have a soft gooey interior and a crisp exterior. Studded with chunks of milk chocolate and toasted walnuts these are the best cookies!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Cookie
- Method: Easy
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 105g Unsalted butter, chilled and cubed (½ cup)
- 50g Granulated sugar (¼ cup)
- 75g Brown sugar (½ cup 2 tbsp)
- 170g Plain flour (1 ½ cup 2 tbsp)
- 3 tbsp Cornstarch
- ½ tsp Baking soda
- 1 Egg
- 160g Milk chocolate, roughly chopped (1 cup)
- 125g Walnuts, toasted, skinned and roughly chopped (1 cup)
Instructions
- Combine butter, sugar and brown sugar in a bowl, beat until well combined
- Add the eggs and beat until just combined
- Add the flour, cornstarch and baking soda, beat until dough begins to come together
- Add the walnuts and chopped chocolate, mix
- Shape into 4 large dough balls (170g each)
- Place in the fridge for 60 minutes
- Bake at 200°C / 390 °F fan forced or 210°C / 410 °F conventional oven for 13-15 minutes
- Remove, cool for 30 minutes and enjoy!
Keywords: cookie, levain, new york style, chocolate chunk, walnut, chocolate chip cookie, chocolate
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psyma
looks sooo good! what milk chocolate do you recommend?
Catherine Zhang
i love cadbury!
Jaimie
Just beautiful! Thank you for sharing this 🙂
Catherine Zhang
thank you!
Sarah
Love a good gooey choc chip cookie, they look delicious!
Catherine Zhang
Thank you! hope you like the recipe!
Amina
This cookie looks great!! Sounds amaZing!! But could you please not call it a Levain cookie? If you haven’t had it, you don’t know what you’re trying to make. Even if it’s better than THE Levain cookie, for someone like me who’s trying to replicate the cookie, this is misleading and honestly just clickbait. Thank you!
Catherine Zhang
Hi Amina, Thank you!
The base of this cookie is the common ratio used to make Levain copycat recipes! I compiled over 50 different Levain cookie recipe to find the "golden ratio" and see what worked. This is basically a combination of all the Levain cookie recipes out there 😆A little bit of science and a little bit of trial and error is what I use to develop recipes so I hope that helps you with your search to replicate them 😊
Kloria Bao
I have to agree with Amina, Catherine. I really appreciate you developing the recipe and generously share it with all of us! As you mentioned you’ve compiled over 50 “Levain” recipes but that’s the problem coz none of the other 50 Levain cookie recipes out there are actually real Levain recipes. I had my husband getting me Levain cookies every time he came back from his biz trip in NYC so I know how they taste. As my husband (and everyone else) can’t travel since March I have tried a number of copycat recipes online and none of them really replicate Levain for me 🙁 Nonetheless I’m genuinely grateful that you’ve done so much work putting this recipe together, if you and others who so generously share their recipes could kindly call their recipes something like “cookies inspired by Levain” I think this could be better representation of the recipes 🙂 xx
Libby
I live in NY but haven't had the Levain cookie in a long while. I do appreciate you're saying at the beginning that this recipe is Levain inspired. Also thank you for doing all that work to bring this great recipe about. Can't wait to try it now at Superbowl Sunday. 😍🤩
Catherine
Hi Libby, Hope you like the recipe!!
Mercedes
Can't wait to try it this weekend. I love your work! Greetings from Germany
Catherine
Hi Mercedes! Hope you liked the recipe 🥰
Tracy
Hello- I am making the recipe and freezing cookie dough into 3 ounce balls, I’m baking at 410 degrees convection oven and thawing about 20 minutes before baking. I love the doughy cookie center, but I’m worried about baking the cookie enough so that the eggs and flour are baked for food safety. What internal temperature do I need to bake this cookie to so that I don’t over bake the cookie and and I get a gooey cookie center and how long should I bake them for? Thank you for any advice!
Catherine
Hi Tracy, sounds great! At a smaller size they would bake in about 10 minutes. If you're worried about the safety bake them until the internal temperature reaches 160F/70C. There shouldn't be any problems without checking though!
Dimosthenis
Amazing. The best one I did so far.
★★★★★
Catherine Zhang
Yay! One of my favourites too! 🥰
Bonnie C
Hi Catherine,
I love your recipes! I'm making this but noticed that your convection temperature is higher than you regular oven temperature which I would think should be less. Am I reading this wrong? Which one is a traditional conventional oven and which one is the convection oven?
Thanks!
Catherine Zhang
Hi Bonnie, Thank you for picking that up! I meant conventional oven rather than convection oven. The fan forced (aka convection) oven should be the lower temperature. Hope that clears things up.
lucy b
Hi, Catherine! your recipe calls for 1/4 cup granulated sugar which is 50gms & 1/2 cup + 2Tbsp of brown sugar---is it a typographical error on 75grams? Correct me if I am wrong , but 1/4 cup is 50gms, so 1/2 cup should be 100gms , and 2Tbsp is about 25gms, it this correct?
Catherine Zhang
Hi Lucy, Thanks for picking that up. It should be 1/4 cup granulated sugar and ~1/3 cup 1 tbsp brown sugar (75g)