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 am looking to make a batch of these cookies for a party (around 60 cookies) and wanted to know if you could help with the following please:
Could you recommend the best plain flour/Butter to use: I generally use McDougalls Plain Flour and Willows butter but I just wanted to know if there was a better brand that I could use for both?
I generally use aldi brand sugar/white sugar/vanilla extract/baking powder and bicarb soda is this ok or should I be using a branded version of these products?
If you could please let me know I would really appreciate it as I am making a big batch and want them to turn out really good for the party. Thank you in advance
Hey! To be honest I generally use supermarket own on all products (apart from Vanilla – I use Nielsen Massey) x
These are the BEST EVER Chocolate Chip Cookies that I have made!!! Tried with addition of cornflour and as you mentioned texture is really good. I only used 200g chocolate chips and for me this was more than enough (adjusted weight of each to about 105g). Super easy to make, though not sure that’s a good thing!!!!
Can I ask if anyone has made these gluten free and what the result was like?
Have made them the normal way abs they are AMAZING but have a GF friend and would like to make her some also if it doesnt affect the taste/texture too much
They work wonderfully with simple GF substitutes!
I make them gluten free every time as my partner is Coeliac and I just swap out the flour for GF plain flour and add a 1/4tsp xanthan gum and that works perfectly, can’t tell the difference
Hello, whenever I do these so they are still gooey inside, they don’t have much colour (very pale tops) but whenever I wait until the tops are the same as yours- they’re no longer gooey, any help? Thankyou for the recipe I do love it!
These have came out lovely both times I’ve made them however mine look more like pancakes. They’re really smooth and don’t have those signature cracks going through them, why would that be? I will be honest the only thing I don’t use in this recipe is the raising agents, would this be why mine do not have those cracks? Probably is an obvious answer 😆 but just thought I’d check! Going to try the NYC recipe next
Hiya! Yes, you must use all of the ingredients to have the same result. x
“hi, they didnt rise!! why is this? i dont use the raising agents but i dont know why they dont rise!”
My cookie dough was very crumbly and seemed too dry. Why is this and what is the best remedy?
Thanks
How did you mix the dough? It will come together without any extra ingredients or swaps, it may just need kneading together with the warmth of your hand. If mixing by hand in general it can take a little extra mixing to bring it together
Love this cookie dough recipe. I mould the dough into a log about 12 inches wrap in cling film and keep in the fridge. Then slice cookies off as I need them. Any dough left after a few days I freeze. Always freshly baked cookies on hand.
Hi Jane, this recipe is sooooo good! I am looking to make a sugar free version can you help me with this as I’m not sure what to use.
There are sugar alternatives by Pure Via they do soft brown sugar and caster sugar (unfortunately no granulated) and they work the exact same way as normal sugar. Hope this helps
Probably the best cookie recipe I’ve ever tried- not too sweet and such a nice texture! I just swapped the milk chocolate chips for walnuts and used cubed cold butter rather than softened so i didnt have to freeze them for as long and it worked great. My oven temp may have been a bit too hot as they didnt flatten much but that was easy to fix by pressing them down with a spatula while they were still hot. Most cookie recipes ive tried are just soooo sweet and capital G Greasy , while these are just perfect and moreish!! 10/10
Hi! Can you freeze these after baking? I made too many for an event but I don’t want them to go to waste. If so what’s the best way of storing them. Thank you x
Yes for sure – they freeze for 3+ months in a freezer proof container! x
I LOVE this recipe! They always come out perfect. I just wanted to know if I can reduce the sugar without impacting them too much? They are a bit sweet for my boyfriends taste so want to make him some slightly less sugary ones without ruining the texture etc.
Absolutely delicious- Made some gluten free and worked well too, just added some xanthan gum and used gf flour like normal!
Does anybody know the calories per cookie please ? 🙂
a little over 500 calories per cookie but they’re huge so just make them smaller if it worries you
Hi! Can I add Nutella filling to this cookies, if so, the timing will change? Thank you!
How, could I use half the dough to make make smaller/more cookies out of the batch? So each cookie would be 60g each? Would the cooking time be the same?
Hi, will the baked cookies be ok frozen even though the cookie dough was frozen prior to cooking?
Thanks
Laura
Definitely! x
BEST NYC COOKIES I HAVE EVER TRIED
I am still making these after more than 2 years and people love them. The best Ive ever tasted. I make 2- 2 inch rolls wrapped in plastic and chill them . After an hour, I roll them into golf ball sized and freeze them. Bake them next day straight from the freezer. They keep their shape really well and dont flatten. I have sold many of them here at AMERICAN COOKIES in brasil. I highly recommend using this recipe. You will never buy or bake another recipe.