NYC Chocolate Chip Cookies!
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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!
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J x
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Hi, I’ve been asked to make a giant nyc cookie for a birthday. Do you think I could use this recipe (which I love!) but not split the dough, just roll it into a ball an bake? If you think it would work, how long would you bake it for please.
Hiya! Take a look at one of my Giant Cookie recipes. Hope this helps! x
Hey Jane,
Made these the other day and they were incredible, my kids obliterated them. I made them again today but stuffed them with Nutella but the cookie dough was much softer than last time and it was quite a messy job stuffing the frozen Nutella in. The only changes I made were changing 25g flower out for a tbsp of corn flour and the other difference is I didn’t have any unsalted butter in the fridge so I used stork which does seem to be a little softer at fridge temp. Do you think it’s the stork or is the dough runnier because of substituting some of the plain flower for corn flower?
Hiya! This will most likely be because of the stork, Id recommend trying again! Hope this helps! x
In order to make slightly smaller cookies for more people …..please can you tell me how long these wonderful cookies should be in the oven if divided into 10 instead of 8. Would the cooking temperature and 30 mins cooking when out of the oven be the same?
Thank you.
Hi Jane, I followed the recipe to a T, but my cookies didn’t spread at all…..any ideas?
Hiya! This could be because the balls of dough were rolled too tight, the oven was too hot, or the dough was overworked! Hope this helps! x
The most AMAZING cookies! Cannot go wrong with this recipe, they’re perfection every time.
I’m a huge fan of cornflour in cookies, and replacing 25g of the flour with cornflour always keeps the texture spot on.
I also like ULTRA chocolatey cookies, so chopping up chocolate instead of using chips makes these the best EVER!
Love these cookies! Is there a possibility to swap the chocolate chips to something like M&Ms or would there colour run? I’m thinking of a doing a Christmas twist with red greens and blue m&m or smarties
If you dont want the colour to run freeze them first for a few hours 🙂
This recipe is perfect. It can be tweaked if you like but it works perfect as is.
I don’t mix my sugar. I prefer all brown. To get it fine I usually pass it through my ninja until it’s like powder. It works great. And I use 1 1/2 of cups of chocolate chips instead. If I have white sugar only, I add 1/2 tablespoon of molasses to it . It adds that extra yumminess and caramelization that you won’t get from white sugar alone.
I love all your recipes Jane.
Hi! Just wanted to share… I used this recipe as a base for coconut cookies, replacing the vanilla extract with coconut extract and the chocolate chips with a little less desiccated coconut – and they turned out gorgeous, however a little small, would you have done anything differently?
that sounds lovely am so going to try it, cheers.
Always love love love doing these cookies, they never fail!!!! Super lazy question though, is there any way of making these with SR Flour??
if u read the writing before the recipe she says yes but use 1/4tsp of bicarbonate and no baking powder x
When I have made these they look more like risen cakes? I thought I followed recipe but clearly not!! Any ideas? I’ll try again!
Can these be made without the bicarbonate of soda?
Hiya! Sadly you cannot – the bicarbonate of soda is important to achieve the best bake! Hope this helps! Team Jane x
I made these gf and they turned out amazing
Hi Jane,
Love this recipe! Just wondering can I use self-raising flour but just take out the baking powder will it turn out the same?
Thanks so much!
Hiya! You can do, though it may be ever so slightly different. Hope this helps! x
Honestly all these cookie recipes are hands down the best! I found it easier just using a spatula rather than any hand held mixer. But these are hit with family and friends every time I make them! I used caramilk, milk choc and dark choc and turned out amazing
Yuhhh definitely hands down same here ;D
can I leave the dough to rest overnight to taste better? which do you think will taste better? 15 minutes resting in the fridge or overnight?
Hiya! Im sorry I don’t understand – please follow the recipe for the best bake! x
Hi Jane I was wondering how to make this just using a handmixer and hand held devices.
I’ve mixed everything with a hand held mixer until the moment of adding the choc chips. I’m mixed them in using a wooden spoon. It took a little while but worth is, cookies are delicious.
Hi,
I am thinking about using this recipe to make Cookies Mix in a jar gift but I am not sure it would still work if you mix all the dry ingredients together an then just add it all to egg and butter?
I would really appreciate your advice on this 🙂
I can confirm these are the best cookies I have EVER made! I absolutely adore this recipe and I have been baking for years. Saw Jane on This Morning which really persuaded me to have a look at her recipes. Mum rated them 10/10 and little brothers 9/10, they said it would’ve been a 10 if there were more chocolate chips in, but I only had 200grams. Excited to try the gooey cookies next.
I’ve made these cookies before, but was thinking of freezing the dough in advance. Are the cookies just as gooey cooked from frozen as they are if cooked on the day?
Many thanks marie xx
Yep, as they’d still be fresh out of the oven after!! x
They’re amazing from frozen. I freeze logs of this cookie dough, so I can grab one out, slice it up and have the cookies baked in 15 minutes for guests. I’ve also baked the cookies, then frozen them, as I was baking ahead of time for a large birthday. Once defrosted (I live in a tropical climate, mind you) they tasted amazing. As if I’d just baked them and waited for them to cool. I didn’t have to warm them up in the oven.