These Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies are extra large, extra thick cookies with a soft, gooey inside and loaded with chocolate chips and walnuts. The supersized cookie takes a chocolate chip cookie to a whole new level of indulgence! They are based on Levain Bakery’s signature chocolate chip walnut cookie that has been around for over 25 years! I adapted this recipe from Modern Honey with a comparison to the Levain bakery’s cookie and couldn’t be happier with the results!
Copycat Levain Cookies Ingredients & Smart Substitutions
- Butter: Using cold, unsalted butter helps the cookies get nice and chunky without flattening out too much. If you are looking to get the same texture, richness, and flavor as the famous bakery’s cookies, make sure the butter is cold. If using salted butter, you may want to lessen the amount of salt in the recipe.
- Sugar: Both light brown sugar and granulated sugar have a purpose in these cookies. The brown sugar adds moisture, a caramel-like flavor, and a chewy texture. The granulated sugar adds sweetness and gives the outside a lovely crispiness.
- Flour: Get out some cake flour and all-purpose flour for the cookies. Cake flour is lower in protein than all-purpose flour, so it helps give the cookies a little bit of a cake-like texture. The all-purpose flour gives the cookies a little structure. They work perfectly together in these cookies! However, if you don’t have cake flour, you can make your own. Or, use 3 cups of all-purpose flour. The cookies may have a denser texture, but will still be good!
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch helps the large cookies stay together, but still have a soft, chewy texture.
- Chocolate Chips: It’s hard to have chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips! I added semi-sweet chocolate chips. But, you could try other candy chips like milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate chips, butterscotch, or your favorite. A combination of a couple would be delicious, too!
- Nuts: Since this cookie is based off of a chocolate chip walnut cookie, I stuck with chopped walnuts. However, other nuts would be good, too, like almonds, pecans, or your favorite. If you don’t want to add nuts, just leave them out and enjoy your massive chocolate chip cookies!
The Secret To Thick & Chewy Cookies: Chilling The Dough!
I encourage you to NOT skip the step of chilling the cookie dough. Chilling the dough helps make cookies thicker and chewier. In addition, it stops the cookies from spreading too much in the oven, so they stay nice and puffy. Plus, chilling the dough makes the flavors taste better and the dough easier to handle. Overall, it helps you bake the best cookies!
How To Tell When Copycat Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies Are Perfectly Baked
Since these cookies are so thick (not complaining, though), it’s hard to check them for doneness just by the looks of them. Your best bet is to use an internal thermometer. When inserted into the cookies, the temperature should read anywhere from 175°F (for a fudgier cookie) to 200°F. The edges should be set.
How To Store Copycat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Once cooled and set, store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They will last up to 2-3 days. If you keep the cookies in the refrigerator, they can last up to a week.
Freezing Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
You can freeze these chocolate chip walnut cookies before they are baked or after. Here is how:
- To freeze after being baked, let the cookies cool completely. Then, store them in a freezer-safe container, making sure to label and date the container. Let them thaw at room temperature when ready to enjoy.
- To freeze the cookie dough, scoop the dough onto a lined baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the freezer for about an hour, or until frozen. Once frozen, store the cookie dough in a freezer-safe container for up to three months, labeling and dating the container. When ready to bake, simply bake from frozen, adding a couple of minutes to the baking time.
For more tips, check out my Guide to Freezing, Baking, and Storing Cookies.
Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks / 227 g) unsalted butter, cold, cubed
- 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (170 g) cake flour
- 1 ½ cups (187.5 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups (364 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups (234 g) walnuts, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add cold butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Mix on medium speed until light and creamy (about 3-4 minutes).
- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition, scraping the side of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the cake flour, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing on low speed until just combined.
- Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts until evenly distributed throughout the dough.
- Divide the dough into 9 equal portions (about 6 ounces each). Shape each portion into a rough ball, but do not flatten them. Place the dough balls onto the lined baking sheet and transfer to the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes, up to 24 hours.
- When ready, preheat oven to 400°F and line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Place the chilled cookie dough balls on the baking sheets, spacing each about 3 inches apart (about 4 per sheet).
- Bake for 10-11 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown around the edges, but the middle is still slightly underbaked.
- Allow baked cookies to rest for 10-15 minutes before enjoying.
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Is it possible to make this recipe but make them into smaller normal sized cookies? Same temp and time?
You can make them smaller but you don’t get the ooey-gooey interior effect when they are small.
Thanks for the recipe. Can’t wait to try.
I’m a baker recipes I’ve tried have always been very good. I’ve made the chocolate cheesecake with ganache several times.
I’m not going to leave a low rating because this recipe is a very good one. The only problem is that this is a direct copy of a recipe from years ago by Melissa Stadler on her website, ModernHoney com, that has over one thousand reviews. However, I did not see any mention of this on your site.
No mention? It’s literally in the first paragraph, with a direct link to her recipe.
And its not a “direct copy”. I changed quantities of salt, baking soda, added a 30-minute chill time, and decreased baking temperature after my research and testing. After completing all my testing and adaptations, Melissa’s original recipe was the one that was adapted the least (and is so good!), which is why I gave her a direct link in the first paragraph of my post.
I made different recipes this last weekend.
The first two were from Modern Honey – they tasted great but were flat – I followed her recipes from start to finish, the issue with the Modern Honey chocolate chip recipe is that chilling the dough isn’t included in the steps if you “jump to recipe”. The chocolate peanut butter did say to chill for 10 mins, which helped, but they were still flat. All were delicious, but didn’t ‘look’ like Levain, just giant delicious cookies.
This recipe includes the chill time (30 mins) in the steps, and it makes ALL the difference in the end result. These cookies not only looked like Levain, but were just as delicious.
My new ‘go to’!
Thanks!
What happens if u use all purpose flour instead of cake flour
The cookies will be crispier and flatter.
I came across Modern Honeys recipe a little over a year ago. I had never tried a Levain cookie so I had nothing to compare but was sold on her recipe! Thank you for sharing this again and making reference to her. It really is the best cookie and also the 1st ever choc chip recipe I have been able to make and it turned out amazing. So fast forward to a month ago. We took a girls day trip to Chicago. I got a few of the famous Levain cookies and brought them back. Made a batch of these and did a blind taste test with my very picky adult cookie fans. And this recipe was chosen over the actual Levain cookie! I agree as well! Thank you again!
just curious almost all recipes use vanilla in them but I see you do not in this one
We testing various recipes we discovered that it wasn’t needed and make zero difference in the final flavor.
I’ve been baking a long time and these are the most perfect chocolate chip cookie you will ever find. Thank you!
Would the structure of the cookie change if you left the nuts out?
Just use this recipe! 🙂
https://iambaker.net/thick-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies/
I made these exactly the way you wrote the recipe and they are amazing!! Thank you!