NYC Chocolate Chip Cookies!
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details!*
Giant, gooey and utterly delicious NYC chocolate chip cookies based on the famous cookies from New York City!!
NYC chocolate chip cookies
Can we take a minute, right at the beginning of this blog post, to appreciate… that I have given you guys this recipe. I have finally given you all the recipe that you have been after, for such a long long time. QUEUE THE APPLAUSE.
I’m joking – seriously. But anyway… I will say the reason they took this long to come to my blog, is because I only, finally, went to New York four months ago, so I finally got to try some classic NYC cookies for myself!
I wasn’t prepared or willing to post an NYC chocolate chip cookies recipe before I had actually eaten some for myself! I feel like that is pushing the limit really… can you make a recipe for something as famous as this, if you haven’t even there and eaten them?!
Levain Bakery
Anyway. When I was in New York, I ate so. many. cookies. The best of all, for me personally, was the ones from Levain Bakery. Oh, holy geeeeeeee they were insanely epic. I heard lots and lots of talk about Levain Bakery on my social channels before I went, and my gosh they did not disappoint.
I managed to get in when there was absolutely no queue, and then trotted over to Central Park to enjoy them, and my gosh it was the best thing ever. Not only was I finally taking in the sites of Central Park, in actual New York City, but the cookies… wow.
When it comes to making a recipe for them though, I will say that these are not authentic Levain Bakery cookies, as I just don’t think they can be recreated. I really don’t. There are many great NYC chocolate chip cookies recipes out there – this recipe from Modern Honey is great, so is this one from Cupcake Jemma, or this one from Kirbie Cravings!
Recipe
I have honestly made about 20 batches of cookies now, to get these right. There are so many factors when it comes to making these cookies – and jeez it’s hard to get them all right. When researching into recipes, what Levain Bakery and other bakeries such as Creme in London and so on do.. it is a bit of a mix. What flavours actually go into them, what order you put the ingredients in, and so on! Lots of recipes use a mix of two flours, but I like to stick to just one!
I basically just wanted to create giant chocolate chip cookies, that resemble NYC chocolate chip cookies, that are easier to make. They are definitely different from the rest of my cookies, but that’s what we want – NYC cookies are a world of their own. I teased this post on my Instagram a little while ago and you guys went crazy for them… so I hope you are READY!!
This recipe is quite easy to follow, luckily. I wanted to make it as simple as possible – but obviously any questions, leave them below.
The cookie dough
The cookie dough for this recipe is quite similar to the other NYC Cookie recipes I’ve shared on my blog – the basic cookie dough, as you will see can be used in so many variations, but they work for me – so why change it?
- Butter – I use fridge-cold baking spread or room-temperature block butter, but either works well.
- Sugar – A blend of granulated sugar and light brown soft sugar enhances the flavour and gives the cookies a rich taste.
- Egg – I usually bake with medium eggs, but you can substitute with one large egg if that’s what you have on hand.
- Flavours – Vanilla extract is optional but add a wonderful depth of flavour.
- Flour – Always use plain flour for your cookies! Self-raising flour will result in a cake like texture, which you want to avoid.
- Raising Agents – I use both bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. Bicarb is the traditional choice for cookies, while baking powder helps achieve the signature texture of a New York-style cookie.
- Salt – I add sea salt to my cookie dough because it enhances the flavours, but you can skip it or use salted butter if you prefer.
Sugar
I use a mix of two sugars… light brown sugar (soft), and white granulated sugar. This is similar to my other recipes, such as my Mini Egg cookie bars – in the fact that it gives the best flavour and texture. You really want to stick to these if you can – but you can use all brown, or all white if you have to.
Switch the sugars to caster sugar can really change the texture. I’m not the biggest fan of caster sugar in cookies anymore – and if you try this recipe as listed, you will agree with me. There is alot of science behind sugars in cookies – and if you can grab the listed sugars I will promise you, they will be better.
Flour
Now when it comes to the flour… I stand by using cornflour in my other recipes. I really honestly do. I even think these are better with a bit of cornflour. The cornflour creates a softer texture in the cookie, without drying the cookie out. It’s perfection. However, a lot of you don’t like using it.
A lot of NYC Cookie recipes use a mix of flours, but again I wasn’t a fan… I wanted to make it be fewer ingredients. However, you can switch it up. You can easily use self-raising flour instead of plain, but you would then only use the bicarbonate of soda, and no baking powder
I use all plain flour and add in the baking powder to get the texture, and I love it. You want the rise from the raising agents to create the perfect texture.. and it really works! You want a decent amount of flour, and to help it raise to get the classic texture so that when you bite into it… heaven.
Chocolate?!
When it comes to the chocolate chips, I, as always, use actual chocolate chips. I use a 50/50 mix of milk chocolate and dark chocolate. You get the sweetness from the milk chocolate, but also some bitterness from the dark chocolate which creates the balance. You can, of course, use all of one or the other.
I like to use baking chocolate chunks as they are slightly larger, but you can use bars of chocolate that you can chop up, or you can use any supermarket chocolate chip. Honestly, any work. You can use a mix of other flavours of chocolate as well, or even adapt to include extras. I just wanted a base recipe on this particular recipe post.
Tips & Tricks
- These are best eaten on the day of baking, but can be revived by microwaving for 15-30 seconds, or putting into a hot oven for 2-3 minutes
- You can freeze the raw cookie dough easily, and bake from frozen if you don’t want to bake the entire batch
- If you are baking straight from frozen after some time, I usually bake for the same 12-14 minutes, at the same temp, but an extra couple minutes won’t hurt
- Once baked, these will last for 4-5+ days
- You can use any chocolate you fancy, I just love the combination of milk and dark chocolate
- You can use chocolate bars chopped up instead of chocolate chips, just make sure the chunks aren’t too big
- If your oven runs hot you will want to reduce the temp slightly as mentioned in the method
- If you prefer your cookies flatter, you can squish them down slightly before baking but I don’t do this personally
- If you want a lovely texture – you can add in 1 level tbsp of cornflour, and take out 25g of the flour
- If you can’t access one of the sugars, use all of the other one – i.e. all granulated, or all light brown sugar. Using other sugars can change the texture.
- If you want to make smaller cookies (60g) – they take about 9 minutes to bake
NYC Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Ingredients
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 100 g light brown sugar
- 75 g white granulated sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tsp vanilla (optional!)
- 300 g plain flour
- 1 + 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 300 g chocolate chips (150g dark, 150g milk)
Instructions
- Add your butter and sugars to a bowl and beat until creamy - I use my stand mixer with the beater attachment
- Add in your egg, and beat again. If using vanilla, add it in now
- Add in the plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt and beat until a cookie dough is formed
- Add in your chocolate chips and beat till they're distributed well
- Weigh your cookies out into eight cookie dough balls - they're about 120g each
- Once they're rolled into balls, put your cookie dough in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, or in the fridge for an hour or so
- Whilst the cookie dough is chilling, preheat your oven to 180C Fan, or 200C regular! If your oven runs hot, go for 160C-170c.
- Take your cookies out of the freezer/fridge and put onto a lined baking tray. I put four cookies per tray
- Bake the cookies in the oven for 12-14 minutes. I don't personally flatten the cookies, as they flatten enough during baking - however, if you like flat cookies, flatten them a bit before baking.
- Once baked, leave them to cool on the tray for at least 30 minutes, as they will continue to bake whilst cooling
- ENJOY!
Notes
- These are best eaten on the day of baking, but can be revived by microwaving for 15-30 seconds, or putting into a hot oven for 2-3 minutes!
- You can freeze the raw cookie dough easily, and bake from frozen if you don't want to bake the entire batch!
- If you are baking straight from frozen after some time, I usually bake for the same 12-14 minutes, at the same temp, but an extra couple minutes won't hurt!
- Once baked, these will last for 4-5+ days!
- You can use any chocolate you fancy, I just love the combination of milk and dark chocolate!
- You can use chocolate bars chopped up instead of chocolate chips, just make sure the chunks aren't too big!
- If your oven runs hot you will want to reduce the temp slightly as mentioned in the method!
- If you prefer your cookies flatter, you can squish them down slightly before baking but I don't do this personally!
- If you want a lovely texture - you can add in 1 level tbsp of cornflour, and take out 25g of the flour!
- If you can't access one of the sugars, use all of the other one - i.e. all granulated, or all light brown sugar. Using other sugars can change the texture.
- If you want to make smaller cookies (60g) - they take about 9 minutes to bake!
ENJOY!
Find my other Traybake Recipes on my Recipes Page!
You can find me on:
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Youtube
J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.
I love your recipes especially your cookie ones!
If I make a batch of cookie dough and roll it in to balls to store in the freezer ready to bake when ever, how long would you bake them for if they have been in the freezer for days?
Thanks 🙂
Hey!! Ahh yay! So they take roughly the same time for frozen or 1-2 minutes more! (It depends on your oven!) X
Hi thank you for the recipe. My kids enjoyed making with me. Can I ask the reason for the salt is it for flavour or needed to activate something? I’m not a fan of sweet and salty and personally found the rock salt a bit of a distraction from the yumminess of the biscuit🙈 could it be left out? Or maybe just a pinch of regular salt used as I dont like the chunks of salt you get with rock salt?
The salt is there for a bit of both. I always use salt in my cookies as it’s far far better with them. If you don’t like it though, you can reduce it, or leave it out. But regular salt is often stronger and doesn’t taste nice at all!
Literally the best cookies I’ve ever baked. I’ve tried a few of your recipes including the white chocolate and raspberry loaf and I can honestly say your recipes are the best, super easy and super super tasty! I don’t bother checking any other recipes anymore, if I want to bake, I come straight to your page! Thank you for sharing your recipes x
Ahh thank you so much!! That means alot! x
Unfortunately we had to share them with the kids!!!!! Delicious
These are the best cookies I’ve ever tried! So so good thank you!
Quick question, I made a batch but only baked 4 so I have some spare cookie dough i kept in a air tight container in the fridge since yesterday.
Would they still be ok if I baked the rest of the cookie dough on Saturday? Even though they’ve been in the fridge rather than the freezer
Thanks! X
Hey! Yes they will be fine in the fridge for that timing – any longer and I would recommend freezing!! x
Absolutely delicious!!
These cookies are amazing! Huge but amazing! I tried stuffing 2 with a ball of frozen Nutella as an experiment and it was the first time I’ve made successful stuffed cookies! they’re so easy and I’ll definitely be making them again!
Best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve tried, and I’ve tried a lot! I’ve made it both with and without the corn flour, and I think they turn out just as nice either way. And, call me crazy, but I actually think these are even better on the second day (no microwaving needed!), which has never happened to me before with cookies. I put only about 200g chocolate (milk) as 300 is too much for me. I’ve had to make them with self-raising flour both times, as cannot get plain right now, so very glad you included instructions on how to do that as well. Next time, I’d love to try and put some of those tiny fudge bits in there that they have on the baking shelf in Tesco’s, from Dr Ötker I think, turquoise small bags, I think that’d be delicious. Thank you for another great recipe! 🙂
I love these cookies however how niece & nephews find them a little large, if we were to halve the size how long would you recommend to bake them?
I would say about 8-9 minutes or so!! x
Oh my goodness, the BEST choc chip cookie recipe EVER!!!!!!!! Thank you so much, I will never make another recipe ever again. I could make these every week if it wasn’t so harmful to the waistline 😂🤣
Oh my my.These are the best cookies ever.Sooo good.I have divided the dough in 24 and weighed each one.They kept their round shape and look perfect.Thankyou very much for this recipe.I will surely be doing them over and over as they are easy to make and delicious too.
Hi Jane I made these the other day and they are incredible! I want to do a peanut butter/reeses cup version, is that doable? I love your recipes so much ❤️ xxx
Hey! Ahh yay! Yes they should be fine – I would just chop them up and add them in! x
I did these. I used the reeses pieces chips and dark chocolate!! They were delicious xx
The recipe is so good! I reduced the chocolate chip amount by 50 grams and also made the cookies small (30 g.) They are still so delicious. It has a crispy outer layer and chewy in the inside. It was the texture I was looking for a cookie. Thank you so much for this recipe!
Even though I pretty much exclusively use blogs for recipes these days, I have never left a review. I bake all the time and have never found a chocolate chip cookie recipe I love. This recipe is hands down the absolute best recipe – the texture is perfection. Thank you for sharing it with all of us!
Ahhh that’s just the best comment! Thank you!!
Hi Jane, this recipe looks awesome and I’m excited to try it. I’ve only got dark brown sugar or demerara sugar though; can I use one of those in place of the light brown sugar or would I be better off just using all white granulated? Many thanks! x
Hey! I would use a mix of the dark brown and granulated! x
Just made these! The recipe was clear and easy to follow, which was very helpful as it was my first time making cookies (I tend to just bake cakes). These are incredible. I used a bit of cornflower as you suggested, baked 4 and have 4 left in the freezer for when we need a little lockdown treat. So happy with how they turned out.
Thank you!
Ahhh yay! That’s amazing!! The cornflour makes such a lovely texture doesn’t it! x
Tried these cookies today for Memorial Day. Made them yesterday and put in the freezer. I’m having a hard time with baking from frozen. We’ve tried up to 20 minutes at 375 and they still look like baseballs, no spreading and some rawness in the middle. Any advice?
As you are in America, ingredients could be different – which could easily cause this! They can sometimes need flattening a bit, but the rawness does go away once cooled for the minimum of 30 minutes!