These unbelievably thick and gooey vegan Levain chocolate chip cookies are just as addictive as the famous bakery version – with NO eggs or dairy!
New York City’s Most Famous Cookie
My first introduction to Levain chocolate chip cookies came just about a month ago.
As soon as I saw the legendary soft and chewy cookies, packed with melty chocolate in each bite, I fell instantly in love.
How had I never heard of these before???!
The New York City bakery was slated to open a new location in Georgetown – their first shop ever outside of NYC – and suddenly everyone I knew was talking about their classic chocolate chip walnut cookies.
Also try this Vegan Chocolate Mousse
Enlisting my non-vegan friends as taste testers, I set about to recreate the beloved dense and gooey texture of the original bakery-style cookies in a dairy free way.
We went through a few trials to get them perfect, but the final results were totally worth it.
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The Tricks To Soft Cookies
These vegan Levain cookies are the opposite of my Crispy Cookies.
So I employed the same baking tricks as I did with the crispy cookie recipe, just in reverse this time.
I used brown sugar because it has more moisture than white and is more acidic, meaning it reacts with baking soda to produce air that helps the cookies rise.
And I baked them at a higher temperature than my other cookie recipes, because this reduces spreading.
To achieve the softest, fluffiest chewy chocolate chip cookies from scratch, I added a little bit more flour and less sugar, and I chilled the dough before baking.
The recipe calls for traditional chocolate chip cookie ingredients – no coconut oil, chia seeds, or flax eggs required.
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More Vegan Cookie Recipes
Above, watch the video of how to make vegan Levain bakery cookies
The recipe was adapted from my Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies and these Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Vegan Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup white, spelt, or oat flour (for flourless, try these Keto Cookies)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, unrefined if desired
- 3 tbsp regular sugar, unrefined if desired
- 2/3 cup chocolate chips
- 3 tbsp butter (such as Melt vegan)
- 1 1/2 tbsp milk of choice
Instructions
- Stir dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut in the butter (soft but not melted) and milk. If mixing by hand instead of with a stand mixer, it will seem dry. Keep stirring (don't add more milk) and it will eventually turn into cookie dough. Smush into a big ball, then break off dough and roll smaller balls. For soft cookies, cover and chill in the fridge at least 1 hour (overnight is fine). Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake cookies on a parchment-lined sheet on the center rack for 15 minutes.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Vegan Recipes With Chocolate Chips:
I’m not vegan and have tried the real Levain cookies. Both my sister and I agree that these are somehow even better than the real ones. Great job Katie!
It must make a difference if you grind your own oat flour? I think mine may have been too coarse b/c they all flattened out. I didn’t do any subs (it says oat flour in the recipe) other than I used funfetti chips instead of chocolate 🙂 That being said – they are still tasty. Just rather sad that they didn’t stay nice and puffy! Looking forward to trying again but maybe using a different flour 🙂 thanks for the recipe!!
These came out perfect !!! I used almond flour and baked for a little longer (18 minutes instead) – been forwarding this to so many people. Obsessed !
Just wondering if not vegan, whether adding an egg might improve the texture?
Hi Katie,
I have not tried your recipe yet but will this weekend. I lived in New York and have been to Levain Bakery several times and fell in love with there cookies. I was wondering can you do half spelt flour and unbleached regular flour or should you stick to just one.
Thank you so much.
Half / half will work great! 🙂
Hi, can you please tell me what is a good package of chocolate chips that are made with unrefined sugar. thank you
We like Enjoy Life Foods. Hu also makes chocolate gems that are delicious.
Would truvia and almond flour be appropriate substitutes?
Hi, just use this recipe instead 🙂
https://lett-trim.today/keto-cookies-recipe/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
These were incredibly easy and SO good. Only problem was my kids were disappointed we only had 5 to eat 😂
Thank you for the wonderful recipe. My cookies look much like pictures and taste so good. I did have to add an extra tablespoon of almond milk to get the dough to come together. I used a stand mixer and packed the crumbly dough with my hands, refrigerated the dough for a couple of hours. I used Trader Joe’s almond milk and all-purpose flour, Flora plant butter and Endangered Species Chocolate oat milk chocolate chips.
Thank you so much for making them!
I’ve made these 4 times now. The first two times they came out as pictured! The last two times they spread out and were flat. Still good, but not like the soft puffy chewy ones! Can’t figure out what went wrong. Is 350 the correct temp? Does chilling the dough make a difference? Or the brand of vegan butter??
Hi, are you using different ingredients now than you were the first two times? If you’re using the same ingredients and same oven then the only thing that would change the recipe would be an outside force like the weather or humidity in the air on a certain day.