Thick, Gooey, and Iconic: How to Bake Levain-Style Cookies Like a Pro

Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald didn’t set out to create the most famous cookie in New York City. They were friends, triathletes, and bakers who opened a small bread shop on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in 1995—Levain Bakery, named for the French word for leavening. The cookie? That was an accident. A calorie-dense training snack they whipped up one day to fuel long bike rides. But once they started selling it in the shop, the response was immediate and overwhelming.

Thick as a hockey puck, crisp on the outside, molten in the middle, the Levain cookie redefined what a chocolate chip cookie could be—and kicked off an entire category of "gourmet cookie culture" that still echoes through bakeries across the country.

Over the decades, the cookie has achieved cult status. Tourists line up for it. New Yorkers ship it to ex-pats like care packages from home. And despite the company’s growth (they now have bakeries on both coasts), the Levain ethos hasn’t changed: do it by hand, use great ingredients, and never skimp on size or gooeyness.

Let’s get one thing straight, though: the real Levain cookie recipe is a closely guarded secret. “I can’t divulge the recipe,” Connie says. But what they will share is how to capture the feeling of the cookie—that decadent contrast of crispy, gooey, and just-barely-baked that’s made Levain an icon. 

We sat down with Pam and Connie to get the okay-to-tell-secrets behind their iconic cookie—and how home bakers can recreate something close to that “OMG” moment in their own kitchens.

Start With Big Dough: Why Size Matters in Levain-Style Cookies

If there’s one non-negotiable when it comes to Levain-style cookies, it’s size. These aren’t your everyday bake-sale morsels—they’re dense, dome-like, and unapologetically massive. But the heft isn’t just for show.

That generous portion size—six-ounces if you’re weighing at home—is what allows the outer shell to caramelize without drying out the center. It also means you can build real texture contrast—crispy ridges, chewy edges, and that molten middle.

"Our cookies are so big, it's really, like, on the outside, you know, they're really crunchy and...if you let them cool almost a little bit on the more well done side on the outside...you're able to get that gooeyness inside without having them be raw, because there's nothing really worse than a raw cookie, nothing,” Pam says.

At home, you’ll want to weigh your dough. A digital scale is your best friend here—aim for around 6-ounce balls (roughly the size of a small fist). Shape them gently but don’t flatten them. The iconic Levain cookie isn’t spread-out—it’s a mound, practically a biscuit, that holds its shape as it bakes.

Chill the Dough? It’s Complicated.

You’ll find plenty of bakers who swear by chilling their dough—and at Levain, the dough is often chilled out of necessity. But co-founder Pam Weekes actually prefers a different approach.

“[Someone was] asking if we always chill our dough, and honestly, like, I prefer it when we don’t,” Pam says. “But often it is [chilled] because we’re making it, you know, a little bit of the dough ahead of time, so we have it available to bake as needed. So it pretty much often now is always chilled, but I think it’s even more delicious when we mix it and bake it immediately.”

Still, chilling has its benefits. Cold dough holds its shape better in the oven and can help develop flavor over time. So if you're baking at home, try it both ways. You might find, like Pam, that the straight-from-the-bowl batch has its own magic.

How to Bake Thick, Gooey Cookies Like Levain

The goal isn’t just to bake the cookie—it’s to temper it. That crispy crust with a just-melted center is a balancing act of temperature, time, and intuition.

At Levain, the cookies bake in commercial ovens calibrated for consistency. But at home, your oven is… temperamental at best.

“You know, Connie and I are always saying…and I'm sure anybody who bakes a lot in a few different places experiences this…Every oven is different. It doesn't matter if it's the same brand, you know, they just have their own little quirks. They have…hot spots, cool spots, so it's always really good to put a thermometer in your oven to see what the actual temperature is. Because pretty much, all the time, I would say what it says on the device is not what the thermometer says inside,” Pam explains.

Set your oven to 375°F (190°C) and bake the cookies for 16 to 20 minutes, depending on your oven and dough temp. They should be golden brown around the edges, a little cracked on top, but still soft in the center when you press lightly.

Don’t Aim for Perfection—Aim for Simplicity

If you’re aiming for cookie perfection, Pam and Connie would tell you to let that go. Levain’s cult-status cookie didn’t come from precision—it came from play.

“Don't be afraid of simplicity,” Pam says. “And don't also, don't be afraid to experiment. You know, I remember I started baking when I was really little, and I can remember some things turned out really badly…I mean, I was, like eight years old or something. But I think you learn by having failures for sure, and even your failures probably taste okay to most people.”