How to Make Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies at Home

Thick, rich, and chewy, these chocolate peanut butter chip cookies will have you thinking you’re sitting on West 74th Street at the popular New York City bakery.

Hi friends! Forgive my absence from writing this past month. It’s been a busy one as I’ve been out of town for work a little more than usual, and spent my time in town baking cakes and teaching cake classes. I have so many new cake flavor ideas that I’m dying to test out and share with you, but decided to put those on hold for a bit longer because after my recent trip to New York, where I made yet another visit to the popular Levain Bakery, I simply couldn’t wait another minute to recreate their Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookie – one of my all-time favorite cookies EVER!

I know Levain is probably best known for their Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie, but in my opinion the Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookie takes the cake! I know I’m a little biased because I’m shamelessly obsessed with peanut butter, but even non-obsessed PB fans love this cookie because it’s simply delicious.

Like the classic Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie, the Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookie is slightly undercooked on the inside, but perfectly cooked on the outside and filled with baking chips, making it thick and rich!

Recreating anyone’s cookie, without the actual recipe, is not an easy task. My friend Si, from A Bountiful Kitchen, spent hours and hours recreating the Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie and did an amazing job. But based on her experience, I knew it was a mountain to climb – mostly because people’s expectations would be so high.

Lucky for me, my best friend Lisa is also obsessed with peanut butter and chocolate and was eager to get started on recreating this cookie after I brought her one from New York a couple weeks ago. However, after eating her first version of the cookie together, we both looked at each other with the same thought in our mind, “why didn’t we think of saving one of the cookies to compare all our versions to?”  (Well, obvi – because the cookie is so flippin’ good that you literally cannot think of anything else but eating the cookie while you’re eating it.) Oh well, at least we got started on a recipe while the memory of the cookie was still fresh in our minds.

Lisa’s first try at the cookie was a great starting point for me. I then made the cookie three more times, with small variations each time. I changed some of the all-purpose flour and cake flour ratios, as well as the amount of baking powder. I wanted to make sure these cookies were nice and thick, but not too dense. I also increased the amount of kosher salt and the peanut butter chips (not sure you need a reason for that). Lisa and I also agreed that the baking temperature was too high and the outside of the cookie was getting too crisp, so we decreased the baking temperature from 400 (which we both saw a lot in other versions of the cookie) to 375 degrees F.

One of the things Levain is known for when it comes to their cookies is the size of the cookies. They don’t mess around, people! Each cookie is weighed out to 6 ounces before going on the baking sheet. That may sound huge, but it makes the cookie what it is.

The Levain cookies are also known for being packed with baking chips (and nuts, in some cases). The chips and nuts help to create the height in the cookies. I put nearly a bag and a half of peanut butter chips in my cookies here. I think it’s perfection but I had a couple taste testers, who have also had Levain’s cookie, say they thought my cookie had a few too many chips in it. I totally respect that and if you think you might feel this way too, I’d just suggest omitting 3-5 ounces of the peanut butter chips. Your cookies may not be as tall as mine, but they should still be pretty thick, and the flavor won’t be much different.

I can’t wait to hear what you think!

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cup (180 g) all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup (76.6 g) cake flour
• 3/4 cup (88.5 g) dark cocoa powder (I use Extra Brute Cacao Powder - Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder is a good alternative)
• 1 teaspoon (4 g) baking powder
• 1 teaspoon (5.6 g) kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) baking soda
• 14 tablespoons (197.75 g) unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
• 1 cup (220 g) brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
• 1 whole egg, extra large
• 1 egg yolk, from an extra large egg
• 1 bag (10 oz.), plus 1/3 cup Reese's Peanut Butter baking chips*

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