This Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies are thick, soft, with gooey centers, and loaded with melted chocolate chips. They’re my homemade version, and everything you love about the famous New York Levain Bakery cookies, but in a smaller (still giant) size. Each bite is rich, buttery, and filled with chocolatey goodness.‘
I’ve recreated the magic of Levain chocolate chip cookies, but made them half the size, so that you can commit to all the indulgent flavor, gooey centers, and crispy edges without committing to a massive cookie. They’re still packed with chocolate chips in every bite, and now you can make them at home in under 30 minutes, no trip to New York City required.
This Levain bakery chocolate chip cookie recipe is adapted from a few different recipes I found online, first from A Bountiful Kitchen. I always make the cookies with just chocolate chips (and no walnuts) to keep them extra chocolatey throughout. The original Levain recipe has walnuts in them.
Why You’ll Love These
- Half the Size, Double the Fun: All the flavor of the original Levain cookie in a smaller size. Instead of a giant 6 oz cookie, these are each 3 oz.
- Perfectly Gooey: The best crisp and golden edges, with soft and gooey centers. Especially if you eat them warm from the oven!
- Quick to Make: You make these with cold butter, and no chilling, so they’re ready in less than 30 minutes from start to finish.
- For Chocolate Lovers: Packed with 3 cups of melty chocolate chips! This keeps them extra thick, and extra chocolatey.
Ingredients Needed
This is a quick overview of the ingredients you’ll need for this Half Sized Levain Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. Specific measurements and full recipe instructions are in the printable recipe card below.
- Unsalted Butter: Use cold butter, straight from the fridge. This helps keep the cookies extra thick.
- Brown Sugar + Granulated Sugar – A balance of both adds the perfect amount of sweetness and soft, and chewy texture to the cookies.
- Eggs – Two large eggs helps bind the cookies together
- Vanilla Extract – Just a little for flavor. The original Levain recipe does not have vanilla extract.
- All Purpose Flour
- Cornstarch – Helps the cookies stay soft and tender
- Baking Soda + Baking Powder – To give the cookies the best amount of lift
- Salt – Balances our the sweetness
- Chocolate Chips – Lots of chips to make these extra gooey, and chocolatey. It also helps keep the cookies thick (If you remove chocolate chips, add extra flour)
How to make Levain Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
Step 1: Cream the Butter and Sugars. In a large mixing bowl, beat the cold sliced butter with the brown sugar, and granulated sugar for a couple minutes until light and creamy. Add in the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
Step 2: Add in the Dry Ingredients. Add in the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir them together until you have a soft cookie dough.
Step 3: Add the Chocolate Chips. Dump the chocolate chips into the bowl and fold them into the cookie dough until divided into the dough evenly.
Step 4: Measure out the Dough. Grab out large portions of the cookie dough (weighing them out to be 3 oz each) and place them onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Don’t pack the dough or roll it into a ball. Place 5 to 6 cookies per sheet.
Step 5: Bake the Cookies. Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for about 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cookie tops and bottoms are golden. The middle will still look gooey. Let the cookie rest on the pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely, or enjoy warm.
Tips and Tricks:
- Use Cold Butter: Unlike most recipes, you are going to keep your butter cold, and cut it into slices before mixing. The cold butter will remove the need for chilling your dough, and help keep the thick Levain-style cookies.
- Don’t Skimp: These cookies are loaded with chocolate chips. If you don’t use a full 3 cups of chocolate chips you will need to add nuts, or extra flour to make up for the difference.
- Chill the Dough: I can usually bake these immediately and they turn out thick, but if you bake a test cookie and it spreads more than you like, scoop the dough into the portions, and place them on a pan and chill in the fridge for 1 hour. They may spread if your kitchen is extra warm, or you overworked the dough.
- High Oven Temperature: I know 400 F seems high, but this allows the outside of the cookies to crisp up first, and helps the cookies rise taller, without giving them more time to spread as they cook. This will also keep the centers nice and gooey, which we love!
- Don’t Over Bake the Cookies: The centers of the cookies will look slightly underdone. The cookies will keep baking a little on the pan, and as they cool down. If you want them extra gooey, eat the cookies warm, they’ll get more solid as they cool.
- More Like Levain: The original Levain recipe has no vanilla, if you want to leave it out, you can just skip it, no need for substitutes. Remove 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips, and add in 1 cup of chopped walnuts.
Storage Instructions
Let the cookies cool to room temperature and then you can store them in an airtight container for up to 4 days. For longer storage you can freeze the cookies on a baking sheet for 1 hour, then transfer to a freezer safe container and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. The cookies should be thawed at room temperature before enjoying.
You can also freeze the unbaked cookie dough balls. Bake the balls directly from frozen by adding 1 to 2 minutes to the total baking time.
These Levain style Chocolate Chip Cookies have all the indulgence of the famous bakery treat, made at home. Extra gooey, extra chocolatey, and ready in less than 30 minutes, without spending $5 a cookie, or traveling to NYC.
More Cookie Recipes
- Cookies Double Choc
- Monster Cookie Recipe
- Banana Bread Cookies
- Brown Butter Cookies
- Hot Chocolate Cookies
- Biscoff Cookie
- Peppermint Cookies
- Haystack Cookies // Best Christmas Desserts
- Drop Sugar Cookies // Best Christmas Desserts
If you make this Mini Levain Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe please leave a comment and 🌟 rating letting me know what you think! If you post the photo on Instagram, please tag me – I’d love to see what you’re making!
Mini Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter (cold, unsalted, two sticks)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 TBS cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 cups chocolate chips
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet or two with parchment paper.
- Cut your butter into slices. Add the butter slices into a large bowl (or stand mixer) with the sugars, and mix for a couple minutes until smooth. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed. 1 cup butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar
- Add in the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until combined. 2 large eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Dump in the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low speed until the wet and dry ingredients combine into a soft dough. 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour, 1 TBS cornstarch, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt
- Add in the chocolate chips and fold them into the dough until they are evenly mixed throughout. 3 cups chocolate chips
- Measure out the batter to be 3 oz, grabbing and placing the dough with your hands. Don't pack it or roll the dough into a tight ball. Place 5 to 6 cookies per cookie sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookie top and bottom are golden. The tops won't look done.
- Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking pan for about 10 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to continue cooling completely, or for another 10 minutes to enjoy warm.
Video
Notes
-
- Use Cold Butter: Unlike most recipes, you are going to keep your butter cold, and cut it into slices before mixing. The cold butter will remove the need for chilling your dough, and help keep the thick Levain-style cookies.
-
- Don’t Skimp: These cookies are loaded with chocolate chips. If you don’t use a full 3 cups of chocolate chips you will need to add nuts, or extra flour to make up for the difference.
-
- Chill the Dough: I can usually bake these immediately and they turn out thick, but if you bake a test cookie and it spreads more than you like, scoop the dough into the portions, and place them on a pan and chill in the fridge for 1 hour. They may spread if your kitchen is extra warm, or you overworked the dough.
-
- High Oven Temperature: I know 400 F seems high, but this allows the outside of the cookies to crisp up first, and helps the cookies rise taller, without giving them more time to spread as they cook. This will also keep the centers nice and gooey, which we love!
-
- Don’t Over Bake the Cookies: The centers of the cookies will look slightly underdone. The cookies will keep baking a little on the pan, and as they cool down. If you want them extra gooey, eat the cookies warm, they’ll get more solid as they cool.
-
- More Like Levain: The original Levain recipe has no vanilla, if you want to leave it out, you can just skip it, no need for substitutes. Remove 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips, and add in 1 cup of chopped walnuts.
- Storage Instructions: Let the cookies cool to room temperature and then you can store them in an airtight container for up to 4 days. For longer storage you can freeze the cookies on a baking sheet for 1 hour, then transfer to a freezer safe container and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. The cookies should be thawed at room temperature before enjoying.
- Frozen Cookie Dough: You can also freeze the unbaked cookie dough balls. Bake the balls directly from frozen by adding 1 to 2 minutes to the total baking time.
Nutrition
These Homemade Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies were first posted on February 6, 2018. The photos and blog text were updated for clarity on August 18, 2025.
Kelly says
No vanilla in this recipe?
Aimee says
The original levain recipe does not have vanilla. You can add some though!
Patti says
I make these for farmers markets and they disappear quickly. I’m a weirdo in that I don’t like chocolate BUT the customers and kids rave about these
Thanks for great recipe
Aimee says
Oh love that!
Ellen says
I have made these cookies 3 times in the last 2 weeks. Once for my family, we gobbled them right down. Once for my book club, they couldn’t get enough of them. And once for a friend and her family, she called them “deadly” and said they were so soft. They are my favorite cookie.
Amy Wills says
I made these cookies and they were magical. They were melt in your mouth and gooey. The flavour was PERFECT- sweet, rich, and mildly… milky? Either way, these were great! If you’re someone scrolling through the comments contemplating whether you should make this or not, this is your sign to make them. It’ll be worth it!
One thing- these were NOT mini. They were enormous; in fact, everyone had just half a cookie.
I will definitely make these again!
Aimee says
Yay! I’m so glad to hear you loved them! They are definitely not mini cookies, sorry for the confusion! But they are mini of actual levain cookies, since those are about double the size of these, believe it or not 😉
Shreya says
What kind of brown sugar do you recommend for this recipe? Light, or dark, or medium?
Aimee says
I usually just buy light, but any should work!
Marie says
Hello! Just want to clarify if you use All Purpose flour OR Cake flour in this recipe? And if I add walnuts to it, is the baking time remains the same? thank you!
Aimee says
I use all purpose flour, but adding the cornstarch makes it a bit like cake flour. I would just substitute some of the chocolate chips for the walnuts, so the baking time shouldn’t change!
Abby says
We’ve made these on repeat for the last year! They freeze well (either in dough or baked). We typically only use semisweet chocolate chips and they’re still delicious.
Aimee says
Any chocolate chips work great! I also like doing a mix of semi sweet, white chocolate and milk chocolate. Yum!
Jean Claudette Rosales says
Hi, is it okay to use half all purpose flour and half cake flour? Thanks!
Aimee says
I haven’t tried it, you might not need as much or any added cornstarch, but I’m not sure. Let me know if you try it!
Ellen says
Since I discovered this cookie recipe, it has been my go to recipe. Besides that they are so delicious; I love the gooey chocolate and how soft they are; it is nice to have a recipe I don’t need to worry about if I forgot to take out the butter because you use cold butter. The cookies are so good. If you love chocolate chip cookies, you will love these.
EmilyDC says
Hello! I’m planning to make these for a dinner party I’m attending but I have a couple questions. First, I don’t have an electric mixer do you think it’ll be ok to store by hand or will that mess with the results. And secondly, why do you keep the butter cold? Can I melt the butter and let it come to room temperature then mix it in? (Since I’m not using an electric mixer?) thanks!!
Aimee says
You should be fine mixing with a hand mixer, though it may just take longer for everything to come together. The butter is kept cold because it helps the cookies to stay big and thick. If you melt the butter the cookies will probably spread more and not have their traditional thick and gooey shape. Instead of melting it I’d try just letting it warm a bit at room temperature, and see if your mixer can handle that
Judi says
OH my goodness!!! The absolute BEST chocolate chip cookie ever. I used 2 cups of choc chips – it was plenty for my taste, but, these cookies are amazing, and, this is the only recipe I will use from now on. Thank you so much!!!
brooksms says
Have you ever baked these with chilled dough? I’d like to make the dough in advance but find the centers end up way underbaked when these types of recipes are cold!
Aimee says
I’m not sure, I’d recommend thawing it some before making it if you don’t like the middles to be gooey.
Mariya says
Hi
I just wanted to know was ir blog previously named like mother like daughter. Net in full form
Because i used to follow that website n now its gone n instead when I type that it brings me here..ur reply will be highly appreciated
Thanku
Aimee says
Hi Mariya, we’ve been Like Mother Like Daughter since 2010 or 2011, our url used to be likemother-likedaughter-food.blogspot.com, but there is another site called like mother like daughter that is likemotherlikedaughter.org I’m not sure which one you’re looking for
Sarah @Whole and Heavenly Oven says
Oh gosh, these cookies! They look nothing short of perfect, Aimee! Love how ultra-soft and chewy they look. 🙂