Levain Bakery-Style S’mores Cookies

These Levain Bakery-Style S’mores Cookies are made in the style of the famed NYC bakery but done up with an original s’mores flavor that’s perfect for summertime! You’ll love the combination of gooey marshmallows, melty chocolate chips and crushed graham crackers!

You don’t have to have traveled to Manhattan and eaten at the famed Levain Bakery to have probably heard of or seen the monster cookies they put out daily. Lines are usually wrapped around the block to score one of their four flavors, but nothing beats a warm cookie and then walking through Central Park! However, save the airfare money and make them at home! I have recipes for Levain’s Chocolate Chip Walnut, Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip, and Oatmeal Raisin PLUS three Levain-Inspired Cookies I created: Funfetti Cake Batter, Red Velvet, and Ultimate Peanut Butter. These S’mores Cookies are another one I have dreamed up that Levain doesn’t carry, but that are done in the signature Levain “style” we all love (or that you’ll come to love if this is your first foray with them!)

Levain Bakery is known for their huge 6-ounce-apiece cookies in four signature flavors with craggly exteriors and gooey, underbaked centers. You can get them shipped to you for a pricey fee, and apparently now they have frozen versions which I hear are less than stellar for some reason. Or just try my versions!

There are a few key components to making these cookies successful, and those components are:

• Cornstarch: Cornstarch is my number one favorite secret cookie ingredient for a light and tender cookie texture. Time after time, it yields soft cookies!
• Cake Flour: Cake flour is Levain’s secret weapon for creating large cookies with a surprisingly tender crumb. If all all-purpose flour were to be used in cookies this size and density, they would taste scone-like and too dense. The addition of cake flour lightens things up a bit.
• Extra mix-ins: There are a LOT of mix-ins in these recipes because not only do the mix-ins impart flavor, but they help maintain the structure and integrity of the cookie shape and helps discourage too much spreading.
• Brief chill-time: These cookies need to chill about 30 minutes in the fridge for optimal results. We’ll only bake one sheet of cookies at a time, so while that sheet bakes, keep the remaining cookie dough refrigerated. This keeps the dough cool enough to discourage too much spreading.

And for perfect bakery-style results, follow these tips:

• Shape: I like to shape my cookies very rough and loose. We’re so used to tight, smooth and compacted balls of cookie dough using cookie dough scoops, but these are going to be rougher, with a craggy exterior and a looser pack which gives them that texture. For accuracy, I recommend a digital cooking scale for measuring out exactly 6 ounces of dough.
• Size: These cookies are monstrous, so I recommend only baking 4 cookies on one baking sheet at a time, staggering them on the baking sheet so they’re about 3 or more inches apart from one another. This helps so that when they bake and inevitably spread a little, they won’t form into one giant cookie and it helps keep baking consistent.
• Do not over-bake!: These cookies will have a drier, duller exterior finish with a gooey, underbaked center and the key to achieving this is to not over-bake! Everyone’s oven varies in heat levels and baking times, but this should take anywhere from 8-12 minutes. Mine took around 11 minutes for these particular cookies. Remember, we’re only going to bake one baking sheet at a time for utmost accuracy and consistency. And also keep in mind that once removed from the oven, the cookies will continue to finish cooking as they set and cool. If you’re unsure, a good tip is to bake off one cookie in the center of a cookie sheet and experiment with timing that way.
• One at a time: We’re only baking one sheet at a time in the center rack of the oven.

Gooey, thick, chewy and packed with yummy s’mores goodness, you’re going to love these S’mores Cookies!

Print Recipe

5 from 6 votes

Levain Bakery-Style S'mores Cookies

These Levain Bakery-Style S'mores Cookies are incredible! Reminiscent of the cookies made at the famed NYC bakery, they are supremely thick and gooey with underbaked centers and a fun s'mores flavor!

Prep Time35 mins

Cook Time12 mins

Total Time47 mins

Course: Cookies, Dessert

Cuisine: American, Dessert

Servings: 9 cookies

Equipment

• Digital kitchen scale, for accuracy

Ingredients

• 1 cup COLD unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups semi-sweet OR milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup miniature marshmallows
• 1 cup roughly chopped graham crackers

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 410° degrees F. Line 1 baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner and set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar together with the paddle attachment on low speed for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and beat for another 30 seconds, then increase speed to high power and beat for a final 30 seconds or until creamy and smooth. Add in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract. Add in the cornstarch, baking soda, salt, graham cracker crumbs, cake flour and all-purpose flour and mix on low speed until a soft dough comes together. Lastly, gently stir in the chocolate chips, miniature marshmallows and graham cracker pieces. Cover and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes to chill. This is mandatory.
• Using a digital cooking scale for accuracy, measure out a 6 ounce portion of cookie dough and form it into a tall, roughly shaped ball - not a compact, tightly rolled one like we're used to. Stagger 4 cookie dough balls 3" apart on the baking sheet - no more than 4 dough balls per baking sheet. We're only baking one sheet at a time, so refrigerate any remaining dough.
• Bake the cookies in the center rack of the oven for 8-12 minutes or until the cookies appear set and look dry and dull on the outside. You can always bake off one cookie to test to gauge how long your oven will take as everyone's ovens differ in time and temperature. Your cookies should be slightly gooey and underbaked in the center. Remember, do NOT over-bake! The cookies will continue to set up some as they cool. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets to set, at LEAST 30 minutes before serving as cookies are quite delicate while hot.

Notes

Because we're working with marshmallows, some melting is going to happen when the marshmallows seep out of the cookie dough and melt on the pan. Chilling the dough helps chill the marshmallows too, which slows down their melting process some. 

My fave part about these cookies? The gooey, slightly melted/caramelized marshmallow parts *drools*. SO GOOD.

Have a super sweet weekend!

xo, Hayley