Copycat Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

These decadent double chocolate chip cookies are thick, soft, and rich. They taste very close to the dark chocolate chocolate chip cookies from Levain Bakery in New York City.

There are many copycat recipes out there. After trying a few, this one is the one I found most promising and incorporated many techniques I suspected when analyzing the cookies. When the cookies are first baked, they are thick, crispy on the outside, with a still-soft center, and a light crumb. They stay so for a few hours, but eventually they did lose the crispy exterior and the crumb became denser. The ones I had from Levain Bakery managed to maintain that just-baked texture almost a full day. So I’m still not quite sure how Levain Bakery does it.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup unsalted cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• ½ cup graulated white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder (try to use a premium brand for richer flavor)
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1½ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks or roughly chopped chocolate
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 410 F.
2. In a mixing bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
3. Add in cocoa, cake flour, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt and set mixer on lowest speed setting to stir until dough is just combined (please note in the video the mixing is sped up to keep the video short). You want the dough to be smooth and uniform in color, but you don't want to overmix it. Stir in chocolate chunks.
4. Place the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes to chill.
5. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats. Measure out about 4.3 oz of dough and roll into a ball. Place several chocolate chips on top and adjust chips until the dough weighs 4.5 oz. Place dough ball onto baking sheet. You will place four on each baking sheet, spaced about 2 inches apart. You should have enough dough to make 8 cookies, but it is best to weigh the balls so that they are all the same size and will cook evenly.
6. Please visit Copycat Levain Bakery Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies for full instructions.