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If you haven’t picked up on it already, I am full-on obsessed with cookies.
I created two other Levain Bakery Copycat recipes and they have been the top recipes on Modern Honey ever since. Levain Bakery’s signature cookie is still holding on to it’s 5 star rating over a year after posting the recipe —
Levain Bakery Copcyat Chocolate Chip Crush Cookies
Levain Bakery Copycat Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies has a 5 star rating as well.
Now it’s time to share my original Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Copycat Cookies recipe. This recipe is so much like the original Levain Bakery cookie that you will not even know the difference!
This cookie is full of rich chocolate and studded with semisweet chocolate chips for all of the chocoholics out there. The fascinating thing about Levain Bakery cookies is their ability to be thick without being cakey.
If you read my other Levain Bakery copycat cookie post, you will know that those cookies are my husband’s favorite cookie of all time. I think the reason is that they aren’t over the top sweet. They are rich and decadent without putting you into a sugar coma.
There are a few SECRET tricks that make these Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies extra special:
- Â Use very cold butter. Now, I am not talking about throwing two cubes of cold butter into the mixer and hoping the butter will incorporate into the sugars. Nope. The key is to cut the butter with a knife into small cubes, making it easier to cream with the sugar. We want them to become one and meld together to break down the graininess of the sugar. Cream for at least 4 minutes on high until light and fluffy.
- Use good high quality cocoa, if at all possible. Levain uses dark cocoa for these cookies. If you can find that in your grocery stores, use it! Hershey’s makes a dark chocolate cocoa that would be fantastic. Guittard and Ghirardelli makes high quality cocoa powders as well. If you follow me at all, you know I am a huge fan of Callebaut cocoa. It’s found in the bulk bin section at Winco and is very reasonable.
- Use a mix of cake flour and all-purpose flour. Why cake flour? You know how I talked about Levain being a thick cookie without tasting like a scone? When you use cake flour, it creates a more TENDER crumb on the cookie which creates a mouth watering texture.
- Another game changer is cornstarch. It also helps to create and soft and tender cookie.
- Bake at high heat. You want to shock these Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies with high heat so they don’t spread too rapidly. It helps keep their shape and make those crispy edges.
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Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Copycat Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup Cold Butter cut into small cubes
- 1 cup Brown Sugar
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1/2 cup Dark Baking Cocoa
- 1 cup Cake Flour
- 1 1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Cornstarch
- 3/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1 1/3 cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 410 degrees.
- In large bowl, cream together cold butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Add cocoa, cake flour, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt and stir until combined. Stir in semisweet chocolate chips.
- Chill dough for 15 minutes.
- Separate dough into large balls and place on lightly colored cookie sheet. Lightly press on top of dough to smooth out. If you have a scale, you can make them anywhere from 4.5 ounces - 6 ounces. You will fit 4-6 cookies on one large cookie sheet. The dough makes 8-12 extra large cookies.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown on the top. Let them rest for at least 10-15 minutes to set.
Video
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
You are going to go crazy over these Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Copycat Cookies and won’t be able to tell the difference.
Happy Baking, my friends! xo
Hi! Quick question. I only have natural cocoa powder. Can I use that instead of Dutch-process? Would I need to make any adjustments to the amount of cocoa powder or to other ingredients in the recipe? Thank you!
I would like to know this as well. Above recipe uses baking soda which is usually paired with natural cocoa, yet it appears MH uses dutch cocoa? Dutch processing naturalizes the acid component and so is usually paired with baking powder. Interested in your thoughts on this? Thanks.
I ended up buying and using the Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Cocoa. It’s apparently a blend of Dutch cocoa and natural cocoa. It worked really well! The cookies turned out delicious!
I have a question, please. My oven is from 1996, and the degree settings are in increments of 25. I cannot set it to 410 degrees. About how long should I bake the cookies at 400 degrees? Thank you! I am looking forward to making them.
Oh em gee! This cookies are to die for! First time to try this recipe and it was a success! My cookies are high and it tastes really good! Can’t wait for my son to try this since he wanted to go to Levain Bakery to buy this specific cookie. Thank you very much Melissa for sharing your mouth-watering cookie recipe! God bless you and tour family ????????????
Hello
Being in Australia I was hoping that you had the measurements in grams for the sugar and butter? We have different weights for cups compared to US.
Thank you!
Looking forward to trying the recipe
1 cup butter 227 g
1 cup sugar 200 g
1 cup cake flour 112 g
1 cup AP flour 120 g-125 g depending on brand
Which rack in the oven are you baking these on? I assume I just need to move up from middle rack because bottoms are dark but top is not as dark as I would like at 11 minutes and 30 seconds.
I made these cookies for Thanksgiving and for my daughter (she is my chocoholic) and she was so happy. Definitely making these again.
I followed the directions exactly except I weighed my flours and cocoa. Cocoa was dark Dutch processed. Also I used a smaller scoop, a black (1 fluid oz, #30) Disher brand scoop. Baked for 7.5 minutes. Oven temp verified based on my thermometer. The smooth tops were getting dry but any cracks looked wonderfully moist.
I let them cool for 15 min and we dug in. They didn’t sink at all as they cooled, and came out exactly like your photos/description with a gooey but not raw middle and crispy top. Bottoms not overdone.
Taste great! Probably could bake them almost a minute longer to bake the center more (my preference).
They spread a little when pre-chilled for 20 min but still thicker than the average chip cookie.
Only made four test cookies and will freeze pre-scooped balls which will likely make them spread less, but they are thick enough for a small ‘kids at home’ sized cookie.
I think I’ll set the frozen cookies out for 30min and bake. Will have to see how much the cooking time increases with a small test batch.
Thank you!
Well, are a family hit! These are being eaten up by our ‘Test Kitchen” judges more than any other Christmas cookie I’ve made.
Made dough balls with. #40 (3/4 fl oz, 22.2 mL) orchid colored Disher scooper.
I baked the chilled dough balls for 9 min, or set frozen balls out on the counter for 55 minutes and then baked them for 9 min. 9 minutes either way. Inner cookie once cooled is perfectly moist but not overly gooey.
Thank you!
These look great, but I’m confused. Cold butter doesn’t incorporate into sugar or flour until light and fluffy. It stays chunky. Soft butter gets light and fluffy. Doesn’t the chilling prior to cooking take care of the cold butter question? I also don’t have a stand mixer and can’t mix cold butter for four minutes. It just won’t work. I just don’t understand how the butter starting cold, but mixing fully in with the dry mixture and being refrigerated before cooking, makes the difference over starting with soft butter. Help!
Hi,
I’ve made this recipe and the CC Crush version, too, several times and they are beyond amazing. I bring them to work and they disappear in seconds.
Two things-you’re absolutely correct. I just have a hand mixer and cold butter, no matter how tiny the pieces are, don’t incorporate into the sugars. I soften the butter, and then when the whole dough is mixed up wet and dry ingredients, they setup nice and solid in the fridge time.
Second-Stick with the 9 minute bake time. They will be very gooey and untouchable when you take them out. But once they cool and setup, they are perfect. If you go longer on baking, that yummy goo factor will go away and they’ll still be good, just much more done and dense.
I learned (from my favorite bread maker,) to freeze the butter and grate it into the (flour) sugar. I freeze the grater too. I use a standing grater and the biggest holes. Only takes a minute or two.
Thank you again for another incredibly delicious cookie recipe. We made your Levain Chocolate Chip cookies – which were declared by all as the “All time best @%# cookie in the world!” We have made chocolate chip cookies by America’s Test Kitchen, Bon Appetite, Alton Brown, the 11k+ reviewed one from AllRecipes, Nestle Toll House, plus countless others. Your recipe is the best. We have eaten the chocolate chip cookie at Levain, YOURS is better.
We just made the this chocolate chocolate chip version, and of course we had a bit extra batter- one must call the kids over to lick the spoon and bowl, and nibble on cookie batter. They asked again and again not to bake it, the batter is too good. We had to sacrifice one raw cookie ball to eat as cookie dough (the dough is fantastic).
They haven’t even come out of the oven and we already know they are going to be devoured.
Yup! Loved them! We had half a batch of the chocolate chip version in the freezer. I split one chocolate chip and one of these, and squished them together to make a black and white. If you haven’t tried it, it’s the best of both.
I’ve got to say that I have never heard of Levain Bakery, but these are my new favorite cookies!!! I made them smaller and followed all of the steps and they turned out perfect! Next time I’ll make them big! Thank you for being so detailed in your instructions! And thank you for sharing!!