Vegan Levain-Style Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
These GIANT Levain-style holiday cookies are absolutely loaded full of dark chocolate and peppermint! Inspired by the bakery’s famously huge cookies that feature a soft interior and crispy exterior, but made entirely vegan, these are the ultimate indulgent holiday treat.
It’s not often that I find myself drawing inspiration from ads on Instagram. But this year, when I was hit with a photo Levain’s newest giant dark chocolate peppermint cookie, I was struck. Completely shattered. My world stopped for a second.
If you’re not familiar with Levain, it’s a NYC bakery that’s famous for their GIANT cookies (and I do mean giant - each cookie weighs 6 ounces prior to baking!) that are crispy on the inside and gooey on the inside. They sound great, right?! 😍 But there’s just one major problem: none of Levain’s cookies are vegan. 😭
I never got around to trying Levain’s infamous cookies in my non-vegan days. So while I can’t say I know exactly what the experience of biting into a giant gooey 6-ounce cookie feels like, that didn’t stop me from trying to recreate the vegan equivalent. Even if I couldn’t try the version straight from the source, I simply couldn’t pass on it, and I knew there would surely be others who felt the same - because being vegan shouldn’t be a reason to miss out on anything. So here’s my recreation of Levain’s holiday cookie, for you to experience in your own home regardless of where in the world you might find yourself for the holidays or whether or not you’re vegan.
Why You’ll Love these Cookies
Levain-style. NYC’s Levain Bakery is famous for their GIANT 6-ounce cookies that are gooey on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside. They are for real the chonkiest cookies I’ve ever seen! 😂 And to give them their beautiful characteristic dome-shape, these cookies have a higher ratio of sugar to fat than typical cookies, along with loads of add-ins that not only make them extra delicious but are in fact actually essential to hold up the cookie’s structure and avoid devolving into a heaping mess. So if the idea of Levain’s style of massive, soft-on-the-inside-yet-crispy-on-the-outside cookies appeals to you, these will surely hit the spot!
Ultra chocolate-y with a peppermint twist. From the cocoa powder inside the dough to the nearly unthinkable amount of chocolate chips packed into these cookies, they’re so chocolate-y that they’ll satisfy even the hardest-to-please chocolate lovers out there! (The only other thing that even comes close to this level of chocolatey-ness is perhaps some ultra fudgy brownies.) And to complement all that chocolate, a hint of peppermint extract and loads of crushed candy canes add an extra layer of depth and turn these into holiday cookies worthy of your dreams. You know, where visions of candy canes dance through your head. 🤩
Great for sharing. This is definitely a standout cookie to impress your friends/family with during the holiday season. Even if, for some strange unknown reason, they hate chocolate (if you’re reading this, Michael, I’m looking at you), the size will probably still blow them away (so they’re entertaining)! 😂 And if your friends/family are normal and do, in fact, actually LIKE chocolate, these cookies are such a crowdpleaser that they’re pretty much guaranteed to blow everyone away. Also, because they’re so big, and not to mention so RICH, they’re also great for splitting between 2-4 people.
Ingredient Overview
Vegan butter. The fat source! To get the texture right on the cookies, make sure to use the kind that comes in stick form (not the tubs!) and allow it to soften at room temperature before creaming it with the sugars.
Cane sugar & light brown sugar. To sweeten the cookies, we use a 50/50 split of cane sugar and light brown sugar. While the cane sugar helps crisp them up, the brown sugar adds extra moisture and flavor depth to enhance their chocolate flavor.
Aquafaba (i.e. the liquid in a can of chickpeas!). The egg replacer! Aquafaba works similarly to eggs during baking by adding structure and lift into vegan baked goods.
Vanilla & peppermint extracts. For flavor! While the vanilla helps to enhance the chocolate-y flavor of the base dough, the peppermint adds an extra level of flavor and depth (and it’s what makes these a true holiday cookie!). The peppermint is actually fairly subtle and doesn’t make these cookies overly peppermint-y.
Baking soda & salt. For rise and flavor balance.
Cocoa powder. To add chocolate into the cookie dough base!
All-purpose flour. Plain all-purpose flour works perfectly in these! I haven’t tested any other flours and don’t recommend making any substitutions.
Chocolate chips & crushed candy canes. Not only do these (obviously) add gooey chocolate pockets and crispy candy canes, they’re also responsible for upholding the structure of the cookies! They ensure you’ll be left with beautifully-domed thick cookies as opposed to flat ones.
Tips for Making these Cookies
Make a full or a half batch! You can make a full batch of these cookies, but just be forewarned that you’ll need about two full boxes of candy canes for them, and a full batch makes a pretty big amount. Luckily, if you’re baking for a smaller number of people, you can very easily cut this recipe in half.
Cream the butter and sugar, then add in the aquafaba. Like most cookie recipes out there, this one also starts out by creaming the butter and sugar together. Once those two have been completely integrated, add in the aquafaba and continue beating everything together for about 2-3 more minutes until the mixture starts gradually getting fluffier. Your butter might “split” at this point, but just keep going - everything will come together in the end.
Use the full amounts of chocolate chips and candy canes. I know there’s A LOT of chocolate chips and candy canes packed into these. If you had the same thought and you found yourself tempted to use fewer add-ins than the recipe calls for, DON’T. The chips and candy canes aren’t just great for the flavor of the cookies (although that’s obviously important!), they’re also absolutely essential for holding up their structure.
Chill the dough. Once you’ve made your dough, pop it in the fridge for about 1-2 hours to chill before baking. Chilling the dough allows it to harden, which is essential for making sure these cookies don’t spread too much during the baking process (again, you’re going for those tall domes!). Plus the cold dough also makes it easier to shape them!
Weigh and shape the dough. You’ll want to weigh the dough to make sure each cookie weighs exactly 6 ounces (this is the size Levain makes them at their bakeries!). After that, roll the dough into a ball and place each ball onto a cookie sheet, making sure you only bake about 4 cookies on a standard-sized baking sheet.
Bake just until the outsides start crisping up. Bake the cookies too long and the edges will start burning, or bake them too little and you’ll be left with an underbaked mess - so it’s crucial that you pull these out of the oven at precisely the right time. But don’t worry, it’s fairly easy to tell by using visual cues! The cookies will be ready when 1) the dough balls have spread into domed cookies, 2) the outer edges are just starting to crisp up, and 3) the middle is still gooey if you were to try pressing it. Once you remove the cookies from the oven, the middle will continue to bake as they cool. After 20-30 minutes of cooling, they’ll be perfect to eat - slightly crispy on the outside and gooey (but fully baked!) on the inside!
Now that you’ve learned the basics behind these Levain-style cookies, it’s time to get going on your own batch!
Levain-Style Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Vegan
Makes 8 giant 6-ounce cookies (or make half the recipe for 4 giant cookies)
Ingredients
½ cup (96 grams) cane sugar
½ cup (lightly packed) (96 grams) light brown sugar
8 tablespoons (113 grams/1 stick) vegan butter, softened at room temperature and cubed
6 tablespoons aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoons peppermint extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup (48 grams) cocoa powder
2 ½ cups (300 grams) all-purpose flour
2 ⅓ cups vegan dark chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life)
1 ½ cups candy canes, crushed* (about 20 candy canes/2 standard boxes)
Directions
Before you begin, please note these cookies are best when fresh, so if you don’t plan on serving all of them immediately, I suggest making a half batch of this recipe (which yields 4 large Levain-style cookies).
In a large bowl, use an electric hand mixer to cream together the cane sugar, light brown sugar, and butter.
Add in the aquafaba and continue using the hand mixer to beat everything until the mixture starts looking fluffier, about 2-3 minutes.
Add in the vanilla and peppermint extract and mix briefly to incorporate. Add in the cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and mix again to incorporate.
Add in the flour and continue mixing until a dough forms.
Add in the chocolate chips and crushed candy canes and use a rubber spatula to start incorporating the add-ins into the batter. You might want to switch to using your hands near the end of mixing to make sure you’ve evenly incorporated the add-ins into the dough.
Transfer the dough to the fridge and let chill for 1½- 2 hours (for full recipe) or 1 hour (for half the recipe).
Pre-heat your oven to 400°F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper (or one baking sheet if making half the recipe).
Weigh 6 ounces/170 grams of dough for each cookie, then shape the dough into a round ball. Place no more than 4 balls onto each baking sheet, making sure to spread them apart from each other (see photo in blog post above).
Bake for 16-18 minutes, until the dough balls have spread into domed cookies with the outer edges just starting to retain their shape/crisp up, and the top/middle middle is still gooey if you were to try pressing it. The cookies will continue baking as they cool!
Let the cookies cool, untouched, on the baking sheet for at least 30 minutes (or transfer them to a baking rack after 20 minutes to continue cooling - just don’t try to move them before this as they won’t have formed their shape yet!).
These cookies are best when enjoyed immediately after cooling for 30-60 minutes! Leftovers will keep in an airtight container for 1-2 days.
Notes:
*The best method I found for breaking down the candy canes is using the back of a large chef’s knife to cut/crush them while they’re still wrapped inside the plastic. Once crushed, remove the broken down pieces from the plastic. It’s not perfect, but it works!
If you enjoyed these cookies, please consider sharing the recipe with a cookie-loving friend and leaving a review in the comments below. Thank you for your continued support in making my recipes more visible!