I couldn't find dark cocoa powder anywhere, so I gave up and just used a dark chocolate cocoa mix and decreased the amount of sugar from the recipe. I think the only problem with this was that the mix had those added ingredients like milk powder, which probably all messed up the dough. They're supposed to be hard, dense, rock-like with little spread, and very dark chocolatey, but these spread a lot (as you can see), and they weren't dark enough to me. BUT if I just eat these without expecting them to taste like Levain Bakery's cookies, then these are pretty good. Got the copycat recipe from Lisa Michele, whose cookies look close to the real things! I WILL try again someday with the right ingredients. Now that I've tried these, I really love the idea of dark chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips. So good.
Nooooo to the picture below:
Here's how many I made: 21 huge cookies.
Levain Bakery Copycat Dark Chocolate Peanut butter Chip Cookies (1 dozen cookies when done right supposedly; 21 flatter ones when done my way - oops)
- 2 sticks cold & cubed unsalted butter *NO! Don't leave them cold!! They're impossible to make fluffy right away. Stupid, stupid idea. I waited until the butter got soft because I just couldn't stand it, and there's no chemical purpose for keeping it cold because it all gets mooshed together AND no other recipe I've ever read that wasn't for scones or pie crust said to leave the butter cold. OK. Rant over.
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup good quality dark cocoa powder
- 2 1/4 to 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
- 3/4 to 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups peanut butter chips
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2) In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle (I did this by hand), cream together butter & sugar until well blended and fluffy
3) Add eggs & beat until well-incorporated, & then beat in cocoa powder
4) Mix in flour, salt & baking powder until just combined
5) Gently fold in remaining ingredients
6) Transfer dough to clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients
7) Divide into 12 equal portions (I ended up making 21 mounds because I was so afraid the cookies would smoosh together, which they kinda did anyway), **~4 oz each, and place each on sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake in the oven 16-20 minutes depending on how gooey and raw-like you like the middles, taking care not to overbake.
8) Let cool on a rack & store what you don’t immediately eat in an airtight container
LISA MICHELE's NOTES:
Note – The Levain Bakery doesn’t use vanilla extract in their cookies, as they feel it’s unecessary. However, some feel you need it. You can add 1 tsp to 1 T to each recipe if desired. Just add it after each egg is incorporated.
** Note – The Levain Bakery uses 6 oz of cookie dough per cookie. As mentioned above, If you want 12 cookies out of the above recipes, a little over 4 oz per cookie (4.1 to 4.2 oz. Use a kitchen scale) will get you that. If you want to use 6 oz of cookie dough per cookie, you’ll probably get only 6-8 cookies. However, a little over 4 oz makes a cookie just as thick and huge, so you don’t even notice the difference.
*** Note – Regarding the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies. I mostly use Dutch-process cocoa. If you use basic, natural unsweetened cocoa (you know, the Hershey’s in the brown can or whatever), add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp baking soda (I just use a heaping 1/4 tsp when using regular baking cocoa) to the dry ingredients. Also, if they’re too ‘chocolatey’ and rich for you, use only 1/4 cup cocoa powder, and add 1/4 cup extra flour.
