Big, chewy & gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies (and a sugar cookie version too!)

Every time I go to NYC, I stop by Levain Bakery to get some cookies. They are giant, heavy cookies, that are firm, yet tender and have a soft slightly gooey middle encased in a thin crispy cookie shell.... there are so many copycat recipes online and not one is exactly the same as that original cookie from Levain. It’s a recipe that remains a mystery!

I of course have tried to duplicate that cookie, changing flours, leavening, sugars, weight, time and temperature and I do believe that although most definitely not the same as Levain‘s cookie.... mine comes pretty close and most importantly, tastes divine! I have made both a chocolate chip version and a sugar cookie version..... recipe for the chocolate chip cookie and the adaptations for the sugar cookie below:

For this cookie it is important, actually it is crucial for the dough to be made in advance and rest in the refrigerator overnight or up to 18 hours.... so plan ahead! The result won’t be the same if you don’t. Ingredients:

3 cups of Bread Flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1-2 teaspoons of salt (I use 2)

2 sticks (1 cup) room temp unsalted butter

3/4 cup brown sugar very packed

1/2 cup white sugar

2 large eggs (cold is fine)

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups of chocolate chips (I used chocolate disks because they stay soft inside the dough, as well as chocolate chunks cut from bar chocolate)

1/2 cup of toasted nuts of choice (optional)

In a bowl mix flour with the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl beat the softened butter with the sugars until well blended, 2 minutes or so. Add eggs one at a time and mix in well. Add vanilla extract and mix in. Once all the wet ingredients are mixed, go ahead and add the dry ingredients, mixing until almost all the flour has been incorporated. At this point add your chocolate and nuts if using. Fold the chocolate in until well incorporated and then put the dough in plastic wrap or a ziplock bag or leave it in the bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set the dough in the refrigerator overnight or up to 18 hours. Once the dough is done chilling and you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees and ready your baking sheets with parchment. I like to make these cookies 3 ounces each (you can make them bigger like Levain’s cookies or smaller but will have to remember to adjust your baking time accordingly). I do weigh my dough on a kitchen scale to measure the first few 3 ounce cookies and then just eyeball the rest. I fit 6 3 ounce balls of dough per half sheet. You want to make the dough balls almost oval... round balls of dough that are a little taller than wide. In my oven I put the cookie sheet on the middle rack and I bake 1 cookie sheet at a time for 11-12 minutes.

You want to under bake rather than over bake. Remember the cookies will continue to bake

outside of the oven as they cool on the cookie sheets. They are supposed to be gooey in the middle but not raw. These cookies can be adapted to make oatmeal raisin or sugar cookies, etc by adding, changing or leaving out the add-in ingredients. I made a sugar cookie version as well that took an extra minute to bake to eliminate that too gooey and almost raw interior.

Download/Print Recipe