Looking for Valentine’s Day ideas, how about chocolate in the form of a gigantic cookie? Like the other Levain copy cats, these are big, fat, and have fudgy soft centers. The ones I tried in New York were very dark and had peanut butter chips and I’ve found this recipe to be very similar — especially when made with a dark Dutch processed cocoa powder. The ones in this picture were made with natural style, and while they were still very good, the Dutch processed ones were even better.
The other nice thing about this recipe is that it’s perfect for making ahead. Bake the cookies, wrap tightly and freeze. The texture improves!
Giant Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Giant cookies with peanut butter chips.
Author: Cookie Madness
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 12
Ingredients
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) cold, European style butter, chopped
- 1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (10 ounces) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups (10.1 ounces) King Arthur Bread Flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 2/3 cups (2 ounces) Hershey’s Dark Dutch processed cocoa powder
- 1 cup extra dark chocolate chips
- 1 cup Reese’s peanut butter chips
Instructions
- If you’re going to bake right away, preheat the oven to 350 F convection or 375F regular.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the cold butter until it is creamy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until it is mixed in. Gradually add the eggs and vanilla and continue beating with the paddle on medium until mixed, scraping sides of bowl once or twice. The coolness from the eggs should make the butter seize up again so the creamy mixture will appear lumpy.
- Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix in the cocoa. With the mixer on medium-low (or by hand with a heavy duty rubber scraper), gradually add the flour mixture stirring just until mixed. Stir in the chocolate chips peanut butter chips.
- Empty the batter onto a large flat surface and make sure all the ingredients are evenly incorporated. Instead of lumping it all together, keep it kind of loose. Divide into 12 raggedy pieces. The dough should be cold before you even put it in the refrigerator, but chilling the dough will help make the cookies taller. I’ve also had good results freezing the dough and baking it from frozen.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. If you are using convection, preheat to 350 F convection.
- Arrange cookies (I recommend baking 1 or 2 first to nail down your time) on a chilled, heavy duty cookie sheet. Bake on center rack for 18 minutes at 375 or 15 minutes at 350F convection. Let cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove and finish cooling on a rack. When cool, you can eat OR you can freeze the cookie and thaw them for a better texture.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Anna, I’ve never seen European butter in the grocery store – frankly I haven’t looked for it. Can I use regular butter instead since I still have 2 lbs. in the freezer from Xmas? I want to make these to take to work on Tuesday. Thanks.
It amazes me that the texture improves after the cookies have been frozen – how convenient!
delicious. i live in Malta so all i have is European butter, great
Martha, I think regular butter would work too. In all of my experimenting, I found that the European butter made the cookies more round and less likely to spread. So the cookies maybe spread a tiny bit more, but they’ll still be good. You should probably chill the dough thoroughly before baking.
Those look delicious! In my house, they probably wouldn’t make it to the freezer.
Having visited Levains just a couple of days ago, I’ll be making these soon using black cocoa. I love their Chocolate Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies as I think of the centers as fudge. I had my first taste of real Levains just two months ago. Before that I’d only had Copycat Levains.
While others love Levains regular giant Chocolate Chip Cookies, I’m not a fan as I just think of the centers as uncooked dough, but I get past that with their Chocolate cookies of both varieties. Maybe it was luck of the draw or because it was early morning, but the cc cookies I had both times never looked like the one in the photo of Rodzilla’s friend, just raw dough. I found love with the Chocolate Chocolate Chip. 
These look amazing. I’ve tried some of your other Levain copycats and can’t wait to try these. Thanks!
I have to make these! They look amazing! I love Levain cookies,
oh, im pretty sure they don’t have peanut butter chips in UK ; (
They look amazing, and I love them already, even without trying them yet!
Just returned from the city and of course I had to check out Levain after reading about their amazing cookies on your blog. They lived up to the hype for me! Yum!!! I’m still nibbling on both of the chocolate varieties that I brought home. Being able to re-create them at home may be very dangerous!
My husband would love these! He loves PB&Chocolate. Thanks for the recipe!
Chocolate and peanut butter are a very popular combination in my family! I may just have to make these! I’ve never used European butter before though. Anything I should know about it?
These look and sound so delicious. I haven’t used European butter before — would Kerrygold work? Everyone raves about their butter.
Hi Melissa,
I’m sure it would.