How To Make Giant Levain-Style M&M's Cookies At Home

Levain, the New York-based bakery that became famous due to its oversized chocolate chip-walnut cookies back in the '90s, has come a long way since then. Not only has it opened locations in Boston, DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but it has also started selling its cookies in supermarkets including Whole Foods. The flavor range has expanded, as well, and now includes coffee cookies with toffee chunks, chocolate cookies with peanut butter chunks, and oatmeal cookies with (what else?) raisins. The one thing the bakery doesn't offer at present is an M&M cookie, but recipe developer Kate Shungu is all set to remedy that with her homemade version.

In Shungu's opinion, "Peanut M&Ms are arguably the best M&M variety, and they are the star of these gigantic peanut butter cookies." She also praises what she calls the "wow" factor of these Levain-style cookies due to the size that's long been the brand's hallmark. If a single cookie's too much to manage, you can always cut it in halves or even quarters to make for a smaller snack.

The cookie dough is made from butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, creamy peanut butter, egg, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. For the mix-ins, you'll be using a combination of chopped peanuts and peanut M&M's.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Place the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Beat on medium speed until the butter and sugar are creamed together, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the peanut butter and egg, and beat until combined.

Stir in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Stir in the chopped peanuts and peanut M&M's by hand. The dough will be thick.

Scoop dough into ½ cup portions and roll firmly into balls.

Place the dough balls on a baking sheet or two lined with a silicone mat, about 4 or 6 per baking sheet. Flatten each ball slightly.

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, or until light brown around the edges.

Let cool for 5 minutes on the pan, then remove and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Serve the cookies.

There are a number of different ways to change up these cookies, beginning with the peanut butter. You could swap it out for a different nut or seed butter (even tahini would work). The mix-ins, too, can be swapped out as you see fit. You could go with all peanuts if you wish, or use a different type of nut to match your nut butter (cashews, for example, if you're using cashew butter). You can also skip the added nuts and just double up on the M&Ms. These, too, can be replaced with one of that brand's numerous other varieties — perhaps you'd enjoy using the new(ish) PB&J M&M's, or you might prefer peanut butter without jelly, almond, caramel, or plain. 

Feel free to adorn the tops of the cookies, too. You could sprinkle them with salt if you like, or add some coarse sugar for a sweeter kind of crunch. Crushed nuts, too, could make for a tasty topping. Finally, you can make smaller cookies if you feel Levain-style cookies are just too large. To do so, scoop the dough into portions measuring two tablespoons, then reduce the baking time to 7 to 9 minutes.

The main mystery about Levain cookies is, how does the bakery get them to come out so thick and tall instead of spreading all over the pan? It seems there aren't any super-secret ingredients. Instead, various tweaks in proportion and baking techniques are responsible for the results. For one thing, the cookies contain a fairly high flour-to-sugar ratio as compared to other chocolate chip (or M&M) cookie recipes. They are also made with baking powder in addition to baking soda for even more lifting power.

Properly creaming the butter and sugar is another way to ensure the cookies rise as they should since it's at this stage of the recipe that you're adding the necessary air. If you have time, you can also cover each cookie in plastic wrap and refrigerate it overnight before baking as this will allow the flour to hydrate. In fact, if you don't think you'll eat eight huge cookies right away, you might want to bake just a half or quarter batch at a time and keep the rest of the dough in the fridge where it should last up to a week. That way, your cookies will be as bakery-fresh as if they just came out of the oven — because they did!