Levain-Style Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, Inspired by Levain Bakery
Six-ounce mounds of brown-butter dough loaded with semisweet chips and toasted walnuts, chilled overnight and baked cold so they stay tall, crusty outside and molten inside. Inspired by, not official.
Inspired by Levain Bakery. Not an official Levain recipe: the bakery has not published its recipe, and nothing here claims to reproduce it. Wikipedia says Constance McDonald and Pamela Weekes opened Levain in 1995 at 167 West 74th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side, selling artisan bread, and that its best-known product, a 6-ounce chocolate chip walnut cookie, grew out of their training for an Ironman triathlon (that story is uncited in the article). America's Test Kitchen says the cookie's tall shape, big walnut chunks, crusty browned outside and soft center made it a social media sensation, with customers lining up for $6 cookies (Andrea Geary and Rebecca Hays, July 28, 2026:). It is the Toll House cookie (our Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe) pushed to its American extreme: one cookie weighs about as much as 12 of Wakefield's.
🇺🇸 This one is American
Six-ounce mounds of brown-butter dough loaded with semisweet chips and toasted walnuts, chilled overnight and baked cold so they stay tall, crusty outside and molten inside. Inspired by, not official.
🇩🇪 The original
Europe's holiday cookies came first: Nuremberg's spiced nut Lebkuchen, Scottish shortbread and Tuscan cantucci, recipes that German, Scottish and Italian immigrants carried to America. See the Nuremberg Elisenlebkuchen recipe.
📖 Origin story: Was the Chocolate Chip Cookie an Accident? Ruth Wakefield's Story →
Why it works the kitchen science
Browned butter, less of it
Browning drives off the butter's water (about 18 percent of its weight, per ATK) and adds a nutty flavor, so the dough is richer but drier and spreads less; ATK also cut the butter and sugar because the nuts and chips add plenty.
Big and cold
A 6-ounce ball baked straight from the fridge takes so long to heat through that the outside browns while the center stays soft, which is the whole Levain effect.
Step by step
- Step 1
Put both sugars in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat, then keep cooking and swirling until it is dark golden and smells nutty, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour it over the sugars, whisk and cool 5 minutes.
- Step 2
Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
- Step 3
Whisk the eggs and vanilla into the butter mixture until smooth. Fold in the flour mixture, then the chips and walnuts.
- Step 4
Divide the dough into 8 equal portions (about 3/4 cup, 6 oz each), shape into rough balls and set them on a parchment-lined sheet. Refrigerate, uncovered, at least 8 hours.
- Step 5
Heat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the middle. Put 4 cold dough balls on each of two parchment-lined sheets, about 3 inches apart.
- Step 6
Bake one sheet at a time about 22 minutes, rotating halfway, until the tops are deep golden brown and the edges are set.
- Step 7
Cool on the sheet on a rack 1 hour before eating.
Levain-Style Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, Inspired by Levain Bakery
Serves 16 (half a cookie each) · 8 very large cookies (about 6 oz each) · 2 hr 20 min total
Brown butter base
- 2/3 cup (132 g) packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (99 g) granulated sugar
- 9 tbsp (128 g) unsalted butter
Dry
- 2 1/4 cups (319 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp table salt
Wet and mix-ins
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups (210 g) walnut halves, toasted and broken into 1/4 to 1/2-inch pieces
- 2 cups (340 g) standard-size semisweet chocolate chips
Method
- Put both sugars in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat, then keep cooking and swirling until it is dark golden and smells nutty, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour it over the sugars, whisk and cool 5 minutes.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
- Whisk the eggs and vanilla into the butter mixture until smooth. Fold in the flour mixture, then the chips and walnuts.
- Divide the dough into 8 equal portions (about 3/4 cup, 6 oz each), shape into rough balls and set them on a parchment-lined sheet. Refrigerate, uncovered, at least 8 hours.
- Heat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the middle. Put 4 cold dough balls on each of two parchment-lined sheets, about 3 inches apart.
- Bake one sheet at a time about 22 minutes, rotating halfway, until the tops are deep golden brown and the edges are set.
- Cool on the sheet on a rack 1 hour before eating.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen (Cook's Illustrated), "Levain-Style Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies" by Andrea Geary, as written for 8 cookies (ATK counts 16 servings). ATK's Behind the Recipe article (linked above) explains the browned butter, the 6-ounce portion and the overnight chill. Inspired by, not official. America's Test Kitchen. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Do not skip the chill. ATK found frozen dough left the centers pasty, so refrigerate rather than freeze before baking.
- ATK says the portioned dough keeps up to 6 days in the fridge (move it to a zipper-lock bag after 12 hours), so you can bake a few at a time.
- Use standard-size chips; ATK found extra-large 60% cacao chips too big. Pecans can replace the walnuts, but keep the nuts in.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- This is Levain's recipe. Folklore: it is a copycat, inspired by, not official; Levain has not published its recipe.
- The cookie was invented as triathlon fuel. Disputed strength: Wikipedia tells the Ironman story without a citation; treat it as the founders' story.
- The secret is cake flour or cornstarch. Disputed: popular copycats use cake flour and cornstarch at 410°F; ATK uses only all-purpose flour and gets the texture from brown butter, less fat and a cold bake.
- Eat them warm. Documented as ATK's advice: within a few hours of baking, after the hour of cooling.
Every other cookie
Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
The recipe that started it all: a butter, white sugar and brown sugar drop cookie loaded with semisweet chips and walnuts, baked hot and fast until just golden.
Scottish Shortbread (Petticoat Tails)
Butter, sugar, flour and a little rice flour rubbed together cold, pressed into a round, scored into 16 wedges and baked low and slow to a pale biscuit color.
Cantucci (Biscotti di Prato)
Tuscany's twice-baked almond cookies: a lightly sweet egg dough packed with whole unpeeled almonds and a hint of orange, baked as logs, sliced on the diagonal and baked again until crisp.
Nuremberg Elisenlebkuchen
Nuremberg's soft spice cakes: whipped egg whites, sugar and honey folded with ground hazelnuts, almonds, candied peel and Lebkuchen spice, spread on wafers, dried overnight and glazed with chocolate or sugar.
Moravian Spice Cookies
North Carolina's paper-thin holiday cookies: a molasses, brown sugar and shortening dough with cloves, ginger and cinnamon, chilled overnight, rolled as thin as you dare and baked in minutes.
Swedish Pepparkakor
Sweden's thin, snappy Christmas gingersnaps: butter, dark syrup and sugar melted with ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom, rested a full day, rolled thin and baked for 5 minutes.
Linzer Augen (Linzer Cookies)
Upper Austria's favorite Christmas cookie: a short almond and lemon dough cut into rounds, half of them with peepholes, sandwiched with apricot or red currant jam and dusted with sugar.
Danish Vaniljekranse (Vanilla Wreaths)
The Danish Christmas cookie behind the famous blue tin: a rich butter dough with ground almonds and a whole vanilla bean, piped through a star tip into little rings and baked crisp and golden.
Mexican Polvorones (Mexican Wedding Cookies)
Crumbly pecan snowballs: butter, shortening, ground pecans and powdered sugar pulsed into a short dough, rolled into balls, baked golden and buried in more powdered sugar.
Snickerdoodles
Soft, slightly cakey sugar cookies made tangy with cream of tartar, rolled in cinnamon sugar and baked hot until they crackle on top.
New York Black and White Cookies
Big, soft, cakey 4-inch cookies with a hint of lemon, iced half in vanilla and half in chocolate, the New York deli classic.
Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
The oat-box classic: butter, brown sugar and cinnamon with three cups of rolled oats and a cup of raisins, baked just until light golden for chewy middles.
Chinese Almond Cookies
Crumbly, lightly sweet bakery cookies made with lard, butter and toasted almond flour, crowned with a whole almond and brushed with egg for a shiny golden top.
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
One bowl, no flour, about 30 minutes: peanut butter, brown sugar and an egg with a few chocolate chips, flattened, baked 8 to 10 minutes and pulled while the tops just crinkle.
Meatballs of the World
Italian-American Meatballs
Big, tender meatballs braised for an hour in red sauce over spaghetti. The one most Americans grew up with.
Pallottine (Abruzzo Meatballs)
Tiny meatballs, smaller than a marble, tossed right through square spaghetti alla chitarra. No bread at all.
Swedish Meatballs (Köttbullar)
Small, soft meatballs browned in butter, in a cream sauce made from the same pan, with lingonberry jam on the plate.
Danish Frikadeller
Pork meatballs shaped with a spoon and fried slowly in butter, crusty outside and soft in the middle.
Königsberger Klopse
German meatballs that are never fried: poached, then served in a creamy white sauce with capers.
Spanish Albóndigas in Almond Saffron Sauce
The tapas bar classic: small meatballs in a golden sauce thickened with fried almonds and bread.
Mexican Albóndigas with Chipotle and Mint
Soft meatballs with rice and fresh mint inside, simmered in a smoky tomato and chipotle broth.
Izgara Köfte (Turkish Grilled Meatballs)
Small, flat meatballs kneaded hard, rested cold, and charred on a hot grill pan.
Lion's Head Meatballs
Big, soft pork meatballs, stirred into a sticky paste, fried to set, then braised in a savory sauce.
Chicken Tsukune
Japan's chicken meatball: kneaded sticky, grilled on skewers, glazed with sweet soy tare, dipped in egg yolk.