These Levain Bakery-Style Chocolate Peppermint Cookies are going to become your new go-to this holiday season! Supremely thick 6-oz chocolate cookies stuffed to the brim with peppermint chips, white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips! So good!
Oops, I have seriously done it AGAIN and I regret NOTHING.
I know I just posted another Levain inspired recipe last week, but I couldn’t wait another freaking minute before posting these. They have catapulted to the very tippy TOP of my favorites list. TRULY. I am a peppermint FIEND and these cookies were seriously divine. A must make for sure.
Levain cookies look intimidating because of their size, but don’t let that scare you off. These are just as easy as any other cookie recipe. Minimal chill time, similar ingredients, big impactful flavor. However, because of their size, there’s a few key components that make Levain cookies a little different.
Here are a few key components to creating the perfect Levain copycat cookies:
- Cake flour: Cake flour is used to create a light and tender crumb. Despite their size, these cookies still remain surprisingly light and tender. How? Cake flour! If all all-purpose flour were to be used, these cookies would turn out dense and scone-like. Cake flour lightens things up a bit and is signature at Levain.
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch is my personal secret weapon for cookie recipes. It gives a tenderness to cookies and yields soft, chewy cookies.
- Brief chill-time: This cookie dough briefly chills for 20 minutes for the best flavor and to prevent a ton of spreading.
- Extra mix-ins: You’ll notice this cookie recipe has 3.5 cups (!) of mix-ins. That’s not a typo! It’s a deliberately large amount for two reasons: 1) for flavor, and 2) to help maintain structure and prevent spreading. Because of their colossal shape, these cookies need some structure somewhere and the mix-ins help maintain the structure of the cookie and help prevent too much spreading as well.
And for optimal baking results, check out these tips:
- Shape: I like to shape these cookie dough balls rough and loose. In cookie recipes we’re used to, a cookie dough scoop is used and those create compact, tight and smooth balls of dough. But for these recipes, we want a loosely packed, rougher looking cookie dough ball with a craggy texture. For accuracy, I like measuring out 6 oz of dough using a digital cooking scale.
- Size: These cookies weigh a whopping 6 ounces each, so I like using a digital cooking scale to measure out that amount of cookie dough. Because of their size, I like to only bake 4 cookie dough balls on one baking sheet at a time and stagger the dough balls 3″ apart from one another to help with consistent baking and prevent spreading. We’ll also only bake one baking sheet at a time for consistent results.
- Do not over-bake!: Levain’s cookies are notorious for being underbaked and gooey in the middle and that’s our goal here as well, too. These cookies have a baking time range from 8-12 minutes. Because everyone’s oven operates differently, it’s important to see when your best timing will be. For this reason, I highly recommend baking a test cookie to gauge your perfect timing. Mine were done at the 9-minute mark, but yours may be different. A test cookie is the perfect way to test this timing. Remember: the cookies will continue to finish cooking as they cool on the baking sheets, so don’t over-bake!
- One at a time: For best results, we’re baking 4 cookie dough balls per sheet, one sheet at a time, in the center rack of the oven.
Chocolaty, gooey, pepperminty goodness. You guys are going to swoon over these Levain-Style Chocolate Peppermint Cookies!
Levain Bakery-Style Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup COLD unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 1½ cups granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1¼ cups Andes peppermint baking chips
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the cubed cold butter and the granulated sugar on low speed for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and beat for another 30 seconds. Lastly, increase speed to medium-high and continue beating for 30 more seconds or until butter mixture is creamy and pale.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla and peppermint extracts. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed. Add in the cocoa powder, baking soda, cornstarch, salt, flour, and cake flour and mix on low speed until the cookie dough comes together. Lastly, stir in the Andes peppermint baking chips, white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 410° degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone liner. Using a digital cooking scale for accuracy, measure out a loosely packed, roughly textured ball of dough weighing at 6-ounces. I like to make my dough balls on the taller side to help with spreading as well. Place 3" apart, staggered, on the baking sheet, using only 4 dough balls per sheet.
- Bake one sheet of cookies at a time in the center rack of the oven for 8-12 minutes or until just about set. The exterior will appear dry and duller textured. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for at least 30 minutes before cutting or serving as the cookies are quite fragile when they're hot. Keep remaining cookie dough refrigerated when not in use.
Notes
I am in LOVE with these ultra gooey, fudgy and pepperminty cookies and I know you guys are going to love these.
Have a super sweet day!
xo, Hayley
Rebecca says
They look so delicious! Got to get all the ingredients to make them
Erin says
Thank you for taking the time to research and type out all the notes, I would never have thought about any of that. I’m really excited to try these!
Audrey says
I appreciate a recipe that leaves enough chocolate chips in the bag for me to eat while the cookies bake!
Theresa says
These look delicious and I’m planning on making these this weekend! But does the recipe really only make 9 cookies? I’m trying to plan how many times I should double the recipe. Thank you!
thedomesticrebel says
Hi Theresa, yes, it only makes 9 cookies because the cookies are 6oz each!
Tessa says
These look incredible! Can’t wait to make these. How long do you think I would need to bake these if I make them smaller, say 2-3 ounces? Also, do they freeze well, baked or unbaked? Thank you!
thedomesticrebel says
Hi Tessa, I’m not sure of the timing for a smaller cookie since these were made to be the large size. Maybe 5-7 minutes total? I would freeze them baked!
Pierrette LeBlanc says
Tessa, I was wondering why your instructions specify to use”cold” butter in this recipe? I always use room temperature but tried it your way and they flattened out, as is always the case with cold butter.
Rachael says
These cookies came out perfect! I was honestly nervous because I don’t own a mixer ( so I mixed everything by hand!) I thought the consistency may not turn out as good but I was wrong! Amazing taste and texture! I couldn’t find the Andes baking chips so I just bought the actual Andes chocolate squares and chopped them up-worked great! This recipe is so versatile, you could just eliminate the peppermint elements and turn it into a whole different cookie if you wanted to. Would highly recommend.
Tasty recipe says
OMG, it’s just looking so tasty…😋😋😋