No need to travel to NYC for Levain’s cookies when you can make these Authentic Copycat Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies in the comfort of your own home! Easy, fast, and utterly decadent!
So as you can probably tell, I am on a Levain copycat cookie kick and I don’t intend on stopping!*
*well, I’m stopping after Wednesday’s post of their copycat oatmeal raisin cookies. THEN I’m stopping.
These cookies are just SO good that I had to keep making the rest of the cookies in the series. It’s only fair!
So far I’ve made the Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies and the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies, and the oatmeal raisin is coming soon! But first: these dark chocolate wonders.
If you’ve never had Levain Bakery’s cookies, they are insanely good. At a whopping 6 ounces EACH, they’re ginormous and packed with tons of gooey goodness. Usually Levain has a huge, long line snaked around the block outside and once inside on their Upper West Side location, there’s about 5 cubic square feet to move around in before you’re bum-rushed out by a new wave of eager and hungry customers. So it isn’t exactly a relaxing bakery sit-down experience.
And if you wanted to ship Levain’s cookies home, you’d be looking at a hefty price tag. For 2-day air shipping it’s around $40-50!!! That is insane to pay for 2-day old cookies, IMO, when you can make these Copycat Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies from home!
The best part is that these taste nearly identical to the famed bakery without ever leaving your home. Score!!
There are a few key components to creating perfect Levain copycat cookies. Check out the insider info:
- Cake flour is used to create a light and tender crumb. Even though these cookies are massively thick and huge, they are surprisingly light and delicate with a tender crumb. That’s because of cake flour! Had we used all AP flour and omitted the cake flour, they’d be way more dense and scone-like.
- Cornstarch gives these cookies a soft and lovely texture, too! I love using cornstarch in my cookie dough recipes because it just creates a damn fine texture.
- To keep these cookies nice and thick, we briefly refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes to allow everything to quickly meld together and prevent the butter from spreading too much. Using a ton of dark chocolate chips in the dough also helps prevent the dough from spreading.
- Cookies are baked one sheet at a time in the middle rack of the oven for optimal results, with only 4 cookies on each sheet. This helps the cookies bake as evenly as possible and prevents them from sticking together.
- We’re used to forming cookie dough into smooth, compacted balls but these cookies need to look rougher and craggly on the outside. I prefer barely forming them into loose balls which aids in texture but also the appearance. And remember, the dough balls are 6-ounces each, so for best results I recommend using a digital kitchen scale for accuracy.
- Lastly, do not over-bake! Cookies will appear dry and dull on the outside and seem mostly set. Levain Bakery’s cookies are notoriously underbaked and gooey in the center, and my version is no exception! Everyone’s oven temperatures vary, so for best results my recommendation is to bake 1-2 cookies at a time to test and see what baking time is best for your oven. We start around 9 minutes but it could be up to 12.
Ultimately, you NEED to make these fantastic cookies! You’re going to LOVE them!
*adapted from Kirbie Cravings
Authentic Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- Digital kitchen scale, for accuracy
Ingredients
- 1 cup COLD unsalted butter cut into small cubes
- 1½ cups granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder like by Hershey's Special Dark
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract optional but recommended
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 3 cups dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 410° degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners; set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together cubed butter pieces and granulated sugar on low speed for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and beat for another 30 seconds, then increase to high speed and beat for a final 30 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, followed by the vanilla, if using. Add in the dark cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, cake flour, and all-purpose flour and mix on low speed until just combined. Mix in the dark chocolate chips until fully incorporated.
- Refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes before baking.
- Using your hands, scoop out rough 6-ounce portions of cookie dough (using a digital cooking scale for accuracy is best). Roughly form the dough into a ball shape - it should be rougher textured, not at all like the smooth compacted cookie dough balls we're used to (see photos in post for an idea). Place 3" apart staggered on a lined baking sheet with 4 cookie dough balls per sheet.
- Bake one sheet at a time in the center rack of the oven for approximately 8-12 minutes, checking at the 8-minute mark. Cookies should appear dry and dull on top and look mostly done with slightly gooey centers; increase baking time if needed. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheets for at LEAST 30 minutes before serving, as they will continue to finish cooking and setting on the baking sheet after being removed from the oven and are quite delicate straight from the oven.
Notes
Thick, gooey, chewy and utterly decadent – you’re going to swoon at first bite with these cookies!
Want more chocolate goodness? Check out these recipes!
Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
And check out these chocolate recipes from around the blogs!
Copycat Cheesecake Factory White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake by Tried and Tasty
Devil’s Food Cake by Grandbaby Cakes
Dalgona Whipped Chocolate by Sweet Tea Thyme
Have a super sweet day!
xo, Hayley
Francie says
i made these yesterday and they are soooo good! I’ve been craving some seriously chocolate, chocolate chip cookies and these hit the spot!
thedomesticrebel says
Francie, I am so thrilled you loved the recipe!
Elaine Ruth Arriola-Enteria says
I made them tonight and my family loved it! Thank you for the recipe.
Sarah+Rubin says
I made these cookies once and they came out flat. There is much user error on my part when ever I bake so I know they should have been thicker. They still came out delicious! I would recommend this recipe for anyone looking to impress with some homemade cookies.
Karen says
I don’t have cake flour. Would it be ok to use only all purpose flour?
thedomesticrebel says
Hi Karen, yes you can, but keep in mind it will make these cookies denser, almost like a scone.
Maria Flores says
Hi. Can I use like Duncan hines flour for the cake flour ingredient? Tks. I love thick and chewy cookies. 😋😋😋
thedomesticrebel says
Hi Maria, I have not heard of Duncan Hines flour. I recommend using a cake flour and all-purpose flour combo for the best texture.
Karen says
Hi, I want to make these in advance, can I form the dough and freeze it for later baking? Thanks
thedomesticrebel says
Hi Karen, that should work! You may want to increase baking time for frozen dough – maybe a few minutes? Test one cookie first so you don’t overcook a whole batch by accident.
Rene says
Needs ingredients listed by weight. I can’t get repeatable results measuring flour and brown sugar by volume.
Lynne says
That would be helpful!
Lynne says
I made the Chocolate Chip Walnut cookies, they turned out fabulous! However, when I made these they turned out flat! I even refrigerated the second half longer but they still came out flat. Where did I go wrong?
thedomesticrebel says
Hi Lynne, I’m so sorry your cookies came out flat! There could be a few reasons. Are you sure you used real butter and not margarine? Real butter is a must, and sometimes margarine can be sold in sticks which is confusing. Was the butter cold? Even softened butter will affect the recipe; it needs to be cold. Were your leavening ingredients fresh? Even if they are technically not “expired” according to the date on the package, if they hadn’t been used in awhile they could have gone bad.