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Gluten-Free Levain Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

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Gluten-Free Levain Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies – These ultra thick gluten-free dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookies are as delicious as they are impressive!

Front view of gluten-free levain dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, revealing their gooey center

I’m so glad you’ve been loving our Gluten-Free Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies as much as we have! I can’t get enough of the colossal size, but the flavors are even better!

Today I’m back again with another gluten-free Levain style cookie recipe. If you missed it the first time around, let me explain! Levain Bakery is a NYC-based bakery that’s known for their ultra huge (like, 6 oz.!) cookies. They’re 2-3x the size of your average cookie, and the flavor and texture are both outstanding.

They have a small but mighty cookie lineup, that at the moment includes chocolate chip walnut, two chip chocolate chip, dark chocolate chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookies. They’re enormous, but somehow manage to nail the perfect texture–light and delicately crisp on the outside, giving way to a gooey, almost fudgy center that’s absolutely loaded with goodies. Is your mouth watering!?

Levain doesn’t offer gluten-free cookies yet, so we’re making it our mission to tackle them at home. (Because everyone deserves amazing cookies!) This time, we’re making their chocolate peanut butter chip cookies gluten-free. These thick gluten-free chocolate peanut butter chip cookies are packed with peanut butter chips that melt in your mouth and look impressive, to boot.

Best of all, these yummy cookies are SUPER easy to put together. Here’s all you need to get started…

Ingredients For Gluten-Free Levain Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies:

  • Cool Butter. Since our goal is THICK gluten-free chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, cool (not rock solid cold, not room temperature) butter is extra important. It’ll help keep the cookies from spreading too much during the bake time. I recommend cutting it into cubes to help it cream better.
  • Brown Sugar & Sugar. This blend of sweeteners gives the cookies excellent texture and flavor. They’re the perfect balance of moist and chewy and delicately crisp on the outside.
  • Room Temperature Eggs. Using room temperature eggs helps them blend into the creamed butter/sugar mixture better. (Here’s a trick for getting eggs to room temperature quickly!)
  • Unsweetened Dark Cocoa Powder. Levain uses unsweetened dark cocoa for their cookies, so we are too! I’ll give these cookies and ultra chocolatey look and taste. If dark cocoa isn’t your favorite flavor, you can use 1/4 cup dark cocoa for color and 1/4 cup regular cocoa for flavor. It’s a great sweet spot in the middle!
  • Gluten-Free Measure-For-Measure Flour. We highly recommend King Arthur measure for measure gluten-free flour for these cookies. It’s got a great blend of starch and protein, which gives these cookies perfect texture.
  • Cornstarch. A “secret” ingredient! Cornstarch keeps the cookies from tasting floury, and helps with their signature texture.
  • Salt. More than you might think, but don’t second-guess it! This helps give the cookies a more balanced flavor and offsets the sweetness of both the cookie dough and the peanut butter chips.
  • Peanut Butter Chips. Speaking of which, you’ll need peanut butter chips! We recommend Reese’s brand for flavor and texture.

How To Make Gluten-Free Levain-Style Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies, Step By Step:

  1. Preheat The Oven & Prep Your Pans! Fully preheat the oven to 415 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. (You’ll only bake one batch at a time, but you don’t want to put cold dough on a hot baking sheet.)
  2. Cream The Butter & Sugars. In a stand mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, and sugar 2-3 minutes, or until slightly lighter in color and fluffy. Scrape down the edges of the mixer.
  3. Add Eggs One At A Time, beating to incorporate after each addition.
  4. Scrape Down The Edges & Add Your Dry Ingredients. Add cocoa powder, gluten-free flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Mix until almost combined, but still powdery.
  5. Add Peanut Butter Chips and mix until the dough is no longer powdery and the peanut butter chips are fairly evenly distributed.
  6. Double-Check Your Dough. Use a large spatula to stir through the dough once more to make sure the peanut butter chips are well distributed.
  7. Measure & Weigh Your Cookie Dough. Use a 2/3 cup to scoop 6-6.2 oz. balls of dough. For best results and most even baking, it is highly recommended that you weigh each cookie dough ball. This might seem fussy, but it’ll ensure that the cookies bake evenly.
  8. Gently Shape The Dough Balls with your hands. Don’t make them perfectly smooth or pack the dough down tightly. You want to just gently shape.
  9. Arrange Just 4 Balls Of Dough at a time on a baking sheet, arranging the cookies slightly offset from each other (see the photos or video for an example). Place remaining cookie dough in the refrigerator to keep the butter cold while the first batch bakes. (This prevents the cookies from spreading too much)
  10. Work One Batch At A Time (Chill The Rest!). Bake the first batch of cookies at 415 degrees for 11-14 minutes, or until the outsides look set but the centers are still molten.
  11. Cool The Cookies. ALL THE WAY. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet at least 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool at LEAST 20-25 minutes on the cooling rack before you break, cut, or bite into the cookies. (If you try to eat or cut them earlier, they’ll still be underdone in the centers!)
  12. Bake The Second Batch. Repeat the cooking process with the remaining dough, allowing all cookies to cool completely (at least 20-25 minutes) before eating.
  13. Serve Or Store. Store leftover cookies at room temperature 1-2 days, or store in the freezer up to 6 weeks.
Overhead view of a gluten-free levain chocolate peanut butter chip cookie

FAQ + Tips And Tricks For The Best Gluten-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies:

Don’t Rush The Cooling Time! Just in case you miss all my emphatic type-shouting everywhere else: PLEASE DON’T RUSH THE COOLING TIME! I love a hot cookie as much as anyone, but with a thick, Levain-style cookie, it’s crucial that you allow the cookies to cool the entire time directed. If you don’t, they’ll be raw in the middle. Friends don’t let friends eat raw cookies!

Weigh The Dough Balls If You Can. The only way to be SURE your cookies are equally sized (especially since we’re not using a cookie scoop or packing down the dough) is to weigh them. An inexpensive kitchen scale makes this easy and will drastically, instantly improve your bakes!

Use High-Quality Peanut Butter Chips. I’m not the most particular about brands for most things, but I really recommend Reese’s peanut butter chips (not sponsored!) for gluten-free Levain dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookies. There are LOTS of peanut butter chips, so the quality matters more than it would otherwise. These ones are the best I’ve tried!

Our Favorite Cocoa Powder. While we’re chatting brands, we love Guittard and Rodelle cocoa powders best for baking. The quality is a cut above and the flavor is *chef’s kiss.* Perfect for making gluten-free chocolate peanut butter chip cookies!

Can I Make These Regular Sized? Yes! I get that not everyone is ready to tackle or serve 8 GIANT cookies. If you’d like to make these more normal sized, you’ll use a large cookie scoop and bake them for 8-10 minutes instead. They won’t take as long to cool 🙂

WE ♥

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Front view of gluten-free levain dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, revealing their gooey center

Gluten-Free Levain Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies


5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

4 from 1 review

  • Author: One Lovely Life
  • Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
  • Yield: 8 Large Cookies 1x
  • Diet: Gluten Free

Description

These thick chocolate peanut butter chip cookies are as delicious as they are impressive! You’ll love recreating these gluten-free Levain cookies at home! 


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cup (2 sticks, 8 oz.) cool butter, cut into cubes (cool butter is important so the cookies don’t spread too much!)
  • 1 cup brown sugar (lightly packed)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup (48g .) unsweetened dark cocoa powder* (or 1/4 cup dark cocoa + 1/4 cup regular cocoa)
  • 2 1/3 cup (280 g.) gluten-free measure for measure flour**, weighed or scooped and leveled
  • 3 Tbsp. (23 g.) cornstarch
  • 3/4 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 3 cups peanut butter chips (we recommend Reese’s brand)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 415 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. (You’ll only bake one batch at a time, but you don’t want to put cold dough on a hot baking sheet.)
  2. In a stand mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, and sugar 2-3 minutes, or until slightly lighter in color and fluffy. Scrape down the edges of the mixer.
  3. Add eggs one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition. Scrape down the edges of the mixer again.
  4. Add cocoa powder, gluten-free flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Mix until almost combined, but still powdery.
  5. Add peanut butter chips and mix until the dough is no longer powdery and the peanut butter chips are fairly evenly distributed.
  6. Use a large spatula to stir through the dough once more to make sure the peanut butter chips are well distributed.
  7. Use a 2/3 cup to scoop 6-6.2 oz. balls of dough. For best results and most even baking, it is highly recommended that you weigh each cookie dough ball. This might seem fussy, but it’ll ensure that the cookies bake evenly.
  8. Gently shape the dough balls into balls with your hands. Don’t make them perfectly smooth or pack the dough down tightly. You want to just gently shape.
  9. Arrange just 4 balls of dough at a time on a baking sheet, arranging the cookies slightly offset from each other (see the photos or video for an example). Place remaining cookie dough in the refrigerator to keep the butter cold while the first batch bakes. (This prevents the cookies from spreading too much)
  10. Bake the first batch of cookies at 415 degrees for 11-14 minutes, or until the outsides look set but the centers are still molten.
  11. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet at least 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool at LEAST 20-25 minutes on the cooling rack before you break, cut, or bite into the cookies. (If you try to eat or cut them earlier, they’ll still be underdone in the centers!)
  12. Repeat the cooking process with the remaining dough, allowing all cookies to cool completely (at least 20-25 minutes) before eating.
  13. Store leftover cookies at room temperature 1-2 days, or store in the freezer up to 6 weeks.

Notes

*These will have an intense chocolate flavor if you use all dark cocoa. If that’s not your jam, you can use 1/4 cup dark cocoa and 1/4 cup regular cocoa. It’ll give them a more balanced chocolate flavor, though they won’t look quite as dark.

**We highly recommend King Arthur Measure-For-Measure gluten-free flour blend for this recipe. If you use another flour blend, your results may vary slightly. Be sure that whatever blend you use contains xanthan gum!

  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cooling Time: 25 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Category: Cookies
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American
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One Comment

  1. Even though you mention baking soda in the recipe ingredients, the detail didn’t say to add it, so I missed adding it in my first batch. The second tasted quite good, but I didn’t stick to the 4 large cookies or to the 2/3rd cup designation. It yields quite a few cookies (about 29-30 smaller cookies) so keep that in mind also if you didn’t want that many of an average size.