If the title “better-than-your-bakery chocolate chip cookies” wasn’t so long, that would be the true name of this recipe. Loaded with chocolate chips, these jumbo cookies have a gooey center when fresh and hot, and a soft thick center when cooled. Inspired from the famous Levain Bakery and Crumbl cookie stores spreading wide, these cookies will save you quite a few dollars and I think they taste just as good (dare I say, even better).

After just having my first baby, I learned very quickly that there were 3 very important priorities in my time at home: snuggles, a solid nap time routine, and most definitely COOKIES. I would be embarrassed if I told you how many batches of cookies I made in a single day…okay fine I’ll tell you. Four! I put on my most precise baker’s thinking hat and got to work to find the most incredible cookie recipe.

Here’s the thing about cookies just to be fair. They’re are lots of different styles out there of just a chocolate chip cookie. You have your soft and chewy, thin and crispy, thick and cake-like…I could go on. I also absolutely believe that there are different cookies for different kinds of occasions. Some cookies work better with ice cream sandwiches and some work better with a glass of milk. That’s to say, I tried to find comparable styles to make the competition fair. When I liked different things about each of them, I decided to pull in what I loved and leave out what I didn’t, and as a result, this recipe was born. So where does this recipe fall?

When making the full 6 oz jumbo size, these loaded cookies make you feel all the warm cozy feels. They’re impressive enough on their own to make the perfect gifts. I like to put a single cookie in a cellophane bag, tie it with a cute ribbon and note, and ta-dah. It’s the perfect ‘thinking of you’ gift. They’re so big no one is wondering why you gave them just one cookie – because it’s basically 5 cookies in 1. They make amazing smaller cookies as well though. It’s still my go-to recipe that I make a little smaller when I need to feed a crowd.

What makes this recipe work so well? First, the secret to a long lasting soft cookie is corn starch. It also helps add stability to the cookie and is what helps it keep it shape. Many recipes use cake flour in the Levain Bakery copycat recipes which has a very similar effect as just adjusting the flour ratios and adding more corn starch. I’ve found in trying both methods (cake flour vs not) I can’t tell a difference, so anytime I can simplify the recipe, I go that route.

Other aspects that helps keep this cookie so stable are the cold ingredients and the mass amount of chocolate chips. Because the ingredients we are using are cold, there is no need to chill the dough (yay for simplicity again!). As far as the chocolate chips, you can also choose to add nuts to this. In fact, the original Levain cookie has them! My family usually opts out of nuts, so I didn’t jump at including them in my recipe, but if you’re a walnut fan, I recommend it! Feel free to also mix up the chip types. I added butterscotch chips to one version and we fell in love with that too. So don’t be afraid to get creative! Enjoy!