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New York City’s Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies are decadent, have a molten brownie-like texture, and melt in your mouth. These rich and gooey cookies can be made in advance and frozen. Bake them when you’re ready to eat them. Perfect for Christmas morning or when the mood strikes.
Now that I have a kid, nothing makes me happier than baking insanely rich cookies on Christmas morning. I feel like I have someone to feed. Levain Bakery cookies are some of the best and most hyped-up cookies. Well, at least in New York City, they’re super famous.
Thanks to Modern Honey who created a copycat recipe of the Levain Cookie – I made slight modifications and came up with my version of the dark chocolate chocolate chip cookie. Generally speaking, I tone down the sugar in my desserts and prefer using very dark chocolate so the cookies aren’t terribly sweet.
If you love chocolate chip cookies, you’ll love the Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies and The New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Table of Contents
- What are Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Ingredients & Substitutions
- How to Make Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Recipe Tips
- Serving Suggestions
- Levain Bakery Cookies Gift Ideas
- Recipe FAQs
- More Holiday Desserts!
- Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Recipe
What are Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Levain Bakery is a famous bakery in New York City known for its thick, rich, and gooey cookies. Each cookie weighs 6 ounces and is crispy and chewy with a soft and gooey interior that melts in your mouth. These cookies are decadent and perfect for the holidays.
Levain serves many flavors including their top seller – Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, Oatmeal Raisin, and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Rich & Decadent Cookies – These cookies are rich with an intense chocolate flavor that melts in your mouth. A chocolate lover’s dream come true!
- Perfect Sweet Balance – The cookies are sweet, but balanced using less sugar than the original recipe calls for and bittersweet chocolate chips.
- Crowdpleaser – Levain cookies are meant to be shared making them perfect for gatherings and special occasions.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Unsalted Butter – Butter should be unsalted, cold, and cubed. Using cold butter prevents the cookies from spreading too much and results in a crispy cookie on the outside with a tender center.
- Eggs – Make sure you use room-temperature eggs.
- White Sugar: You will need granulated white sugar.
- Light Brown Sugar: Light brown sugar has a subtle molasses flavor which is so nice in cookies. This results in a soft and chewy cookie.
- All-Purpose Flour – You’ll need a combo of all-purpose white flour and cake flour (see next bullet).
- Cake flour – Finding cake flour may be tough, so here’s a substitute…
1 cup all-purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons cornstarch = 1 cup cake flour. - Cocoa – Use unsweetened cocoa for this recipe.
- Chocolate Chips – I prefer bittersweet (or dark) chocolate chips, but feel free to use semisweet as well.
*See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.*
How to Make Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
STEP 1: Preheat Oven & Combine Dry Ingredients
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Combine Dry Ingredients. Add all-purpose flour, cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl (Image 1). Whisk and set aside (Image 2).
Cake Flour Substitute
TIP – Finding cake flour may be tough, so here’s a substitute…
1 cup cake flour = 1 cup all-purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons cornstarch
STEP 2: Prepare Cookie Batter
Cube cold unsalted butter (Image 3).
Combine Wet Ingredients. Combine light brown sugar, white sugar, and butter in a large bowl (Image 4). Using an electric mixer, cream the ingredients together until well combined. This process will take 4 minutes. Start at a slow speed and gradually speed up (Image 5). Now add 1 egg at a time (Image 6).
Mix well until all the ingredients are well incorporated (Image 7).
Add Dry Ingredients to Wet. Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture in 3 batches (Image 8). Mix, but do NOT over-mix (Image 9).
Add chocolate chips. Fold them in and mix well. It’s an arm workout (Image 10).
STEP 3: Form Balls, Wrap & Refrigerate Cookie Batter
Form Cookie Dough Balls. Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop the batter onto a plastic wrap (Image 11). Form 8 large cookie dough balls that resemble the size of a tennis ball – yes, a tennis ball. Each ball should be 6 ounces, so feel free to weigh them (Image 12).
Wrap & Refrigerate. Wrap the cookie dough balls with plastic wrap and refrigerate them for 12 hours. (Image 13)
STEP 4: Bake Cookies
Bake. The next day, place the cookie dough balls onto a baking tray. Make sure the cookie dough is at least 2 inches apart so they can spread. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Do NOT overbake them so they remain gooey (Image 14). Once the cookies are out of the oven, LET THEM COOL FOR 10 MINUTES. They will firm up slightly. They’re so decadent. Enjoy! (Image 15).
Baking Tip
TIP: I baked 4 cookies, and froze the remaining 4 cookies wrapped in plastic wrap for another time.
Recipe Tips
Vanilla Extract: Levain cookies don’t contain vanilla extract, you don’t need it.
Cake Flour: This recipe calls for cake flour and all-purpose flour. If you don’t have cake flour, just use this substitute:
1 cup of cake flour = 1 cup all-purpose flour minus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour plus 2 tbsp cornstarch.
Chocolate Chips: I used extra dark chocolate chips in this recipe as I don’t like painfully sweet desserts. Feel free to use bittersweet or semisweet chips.
Mixing Batter: Do NOT over mix the batter after adding the dry ingredients to the wet. Just mix the batter until everything is mixed well.
Perfectly Balanced & Sweet: In general, I prefer my baked goods not to be painfully sweet, so these cookies are just right, using bittersweet chips and less sugar.
Refrigerate: The cookie dough should be refrigerated for 12 hours before baking. This results in a chewier and tastier cookie.
Cookie Batter Weight: The cookie batter makes 8 large cookies. The cookie dough should be split evenly into 8 balls that are the size of a tennis ball. Alternatively, feel free to weigh each cookie dough ball which should be 6 ounces each.
Freeze: I baked 4 cookies and froze the remainder of my batter shaped in tennis size balls with the plastic wrap on. The next time I baked these cookies, I placed my frozen cookie dough in the refrigerator for 12 hours before baking.
Share: Levain Bakery cookies are incredibly rich and high in calories. Half a cookie is a meal. I was pretty full after eating just half a cookie. Although the result is 8 large cookies, these cookies can easily be shared between 16-24 people.
Microwave: If you have leftover cookies that are baked and you want them warm and gooey, simply microwave a cookie for about 15 seconds, check, and then microwave them for a little longer if you wish.
Serving Suggestions
→ You’ll end up with 8 cookies, but I can assure you they’re super rich and decadent. Personally, I can’t eat an entire cookie in one sitting, but rather half. I recommend splitting a cookie into halves or thirds because they’re decadent and high in calories. In my opinion, these Levain Bakery cookie recipe makes 16-24 servings depending on the crowd you’re feeding.
→ Enjoy these cookies with a cold glass of milk or a hot cup of tea or coffee.
Levain Bakery Cookies Gift Ideas
These cookies make a great gift around the holidays.
Frozen Cookies: I have gifted my friends frozen unbaked cookies in a cookie box with instructions on how to bake them. This way people have the flexibility to bake them when they want.
Baked Cookies: Alternatively, you may bake these cookies and wrap them up in cellophane bags for gifting.
Recipe FAQs
For cocoa:
Use unsweetened and dark! Also, make sure it’s a high-quality cocoa powder. Some of my recommendations are Scharffen Berger, Guittard, or Ghirardelli.
For chocolate chips:
I prefer using bittersweet or extra dark chocolate – it’s the same thing. For this Levain Bakery cookie recipe, I used extra dark Guittard chocolate chips. Feel free to use bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips.
Absolutely!
Unless you have plenty of people to feed, baking all 8 cookies at once is a lot.
Freeze the tennis ball-shaped cookie dough – cover each one in plastic wrap and freeze. When you’re ready for your next cookie, place the cookie dough in the fridge 12 hours before baking. Bake as usual and your cookie will taste incredible.
My favorites are their Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip (I need to make this one).
More Holiday Desserts!
- Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
- The New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Cranberry Orange Bundt with White Chocolate Glaze
- Cranberry Orange Cheesecake
- Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Tried this recipe? If so, please leave a comment & rate this recipe. That would mean so much to me. If you’re on Instagram, please tag me so I can see your creations. I’m happy to share and mention you. Thank you!
Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted grass-fed cold butter, cubed I like Kerrygold
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar don’t use dark, use light
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 organic eggs
- 1 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/3 cups dark chocolate chips, I like Guittard 63%
Instructions
- Preheat Oven & Combine Dry Ingredients. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Combine Dry Ingredients. Add all-purpose flour, cake flour (See Notes below), cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt to a medium-bowl. Whisk and set aside.
- Prepare Cookie Batter. Cube cold butter and set aside. Combine wet ingredients in a large bowl – light brown sugar, white sugar, and cubed cold butter. Using an electric mixer, cream the ingredients together until well combined. This process will take 4 minutes. Start at a slow speed and gradually speed up. Next, add 1 egg at a time. Mix well until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add Dry Ingredients to Wet. Now add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture in 3 batches. Mix, but do not over mix the batter. Then add chocolate chips. Fold them in and mix well. It’s an arm workout.
- Form Balls, Wrap & Refrigerate Cookie Batter. Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop the batter onto a plastic wrap. Form 8 large cookie dough balls that resemble the size of a tennis ball – yes, a tennis ball. Each ball should be 6 ounces, so feel free to weigh them. Wrap the cookie dough balls with plastic wrap and refrigerate them for 12 hours.
- Bake Cookies. BAKING TIP: I baked 4 cookies, and froze the remaining 4 cookies wrapped in plastic wrap for another time.The next day, place the cookie dough balls onto a baking tray. Make sure the cookie dough is at least 2 inches apart so they can spread. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Do NOT overbake them so they remain gooey. Once the cookies are out of the oven, LET THEM COOL FOR 10 MINUTES. They will firm up slightly. They're so decadent. Enjoy warm!
Notes
- Cake Flour: This recipe calls for cake flour and all-purpose flour. If you don’t have cake flour, just use this substitute:
1 cup of cake flour = 1 cup all-purpose flour minus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour plus 2 tbsp cornstarch. - Chocolate Chips: I used extra dark chocolate chips in this recipe as I don’t like painfully sweet desserts. Feel free to use bittersweet or semisweet chips.
- Mixing Batter: Do NOT over mix the batter after adding the dry ingredients to the wet. Just mix the batter until everything is mixed well.
- Refrigerate: The cookie dough should be refrigerated for about 12 hours before baking. This results in a chewier and tastier cookie.
- Cookie Batter Weight: The cookie batter makes 8 large cookies. The cookie dough should be split evenly into 8 balls that are the size of a tennis ball. Alternatively, feel free to weigh each cookie dough ball which should be 6 ounces each.
- Freeze: I baked 4 cookies and froze the remainder of my batter shaped in tennis size balls with the plastic wrap on. The next time I baked these cookies, I placed my frozen cookie dough in the refrigerator for 12 hours before baking.
- Share: Levain Bakery cookies are incredibly rich and high in calories. Half a cookie is a meal. I was pretty full after eating just half a cookie. Although the result is 8 large cookies, these cookies can easily be shared between 16-24 people.
- Microwave: If you have leftover cookies that are baked and you want them warm and gooey, simply microwave a cookie for about 15 seconds, check, and then microwave them for a little longer if you wish.
Came across this recipe and could not resist the urge to try them out. The recipe is easy to follow with good instructions. I was very happy with the final outcome. Delicious, rich and goey cookies. Irresistible. I even baked some for my friend. Thanks for this recipe, Nisha.
Prachi – thank you. It’s so delicious, I agree. I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
What is the metric measurement for the recipe?
I’m sorry, I don’t have the metric measurement for this recipe. You can copy and paste it and find a site that does the conversion. Sorry!