Chunky New York chocolate chip cookies with Easter eggs

I have been obsessed with chunky New York bakery-style chocolate chip cookies for a while. Like the kind you get at Levain Bakery. This is an Easter rendition of that style of cookie, and they are so delicious. I have packed three kinds of chocolate into these cookies to make them an utterly indulgent and the perfect Easter treat.

Full disclaimer I have never eaten a Levain Bakery chocolate chip cookie before so I can’t say that these are better than those, but they are THE best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. I fully intend to be making them soon though and have the particular recipes lined up.

If you are making these cookies at a time outside of Easter, just replace the eggs with the equivalent weight in milk chocolate chips or chunks (cut-up slab of chocolate). Place a few bigger pieces of chocolate or chocolate chips on the top of the cookies to decorate.

When I am making a normal-sized cookie, I like them to be a bit gooey in the middle, but for these chunky cookies, I like them to be just baked through. Take them out of the oven 2 minutes earlier if you like them soft in the middle.

Do you need to chill New York chocolate chip cookies before baking?

I tested these when I cooled the cookie dough before in times ranging from half an hour to a few hours. This is often a crucial step when making this style of cookie. Mine didn’t spread much when baked straight away without any cooling. so I have skipped this step. This could be due to the lower sugar-to-flour ratio in the recipe. Recipes with a higher sugar-to-flour ratio will spread more.

If you are using chocolate chips and making these bigger, you might want to chill the dough before. Using cut-up slabs of chocolate creates some fine chocolate which thickens the dough.

I pressed the cookies down a little so that they had a wider surface area to stud with halved chocolate mini eggs. If you don’t press them down, they will be extra thick which you may prefer. 

You could make the dough balls even bigger than I did, but for portion control, I was happy with the perfect 10 this recipe made. The true New York baker style will go as big as 240 grams per cookie. They are meant to be GINORMOUS.

In terms of the measurements, apologies to Americans, it is always the best practice to weigh out your ingredients to get absolute accuracy. I have also kept this recipe metric but it could easily be converted to imperial weight measurements. 

Ingredients for chunky chocolate chip cookies:

Light brown sugar – I have used light brown sugar, but you could do a combination of half a darker muscovado, and half white if you prefer. Using some brown sugar gives the cookies a caramel flavour as well as a softer texture. You can also use only white granulated sugar.

Salted butter – I tend to always use salted butter in my baking and then reduce the amount of added salt. Salt is such an important component of many baking recipes, especially chocolate chip cookies. You could sprinkle sea salt flakes over the finished cookie as well if you wanted (this seems to be the trend these days but it’s a personal preference thing).

1 large free-range egg gives this cookie a little softness. 

Vanilla extract is essential in chocolate chip cookies, and I have used 2 teaspoons. Use the good stuff if you can. Next time I might add a full tablespoon because I love vanilla so much and it’s difficult to detect it here as there is so much chocolate.

Flour – Cake flour or all-purpose flour will work in these cookies. I prefer cake as it gives the cookie a finer crumb.

Chocolate – Good quality 70% dark chocolate chopped into small chunks. I have used Lindt in this recipe as we can’t procure good quality dark chocolate chips easily in South Africa. Use either if you can get them where you live. I found a cut-up slab of chocolate was perfect, and I love that you get different-sized pieces of chocolate when cutting them by hand. This I think also makes the dough very thick which helps prevent it from spreading. 

Milk chocolate cut into small chunks (I used Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate). I wanted to add milk chocolate to the cookies but not to add additional sugar-coated mini eggs as this would make the cookie too sweet but use any milk chocolate or leftover eggs here.

Easter eggs – Cadbury mini eggs broken into halves or Quarters. These are delightful mini Easter eggs with pastel colours and they make the perfect addition to these chunky chocolate chip cookies. They are available in Pick n Pay stores in South Africa.

I used an additional handful of mini eggs cut in half to press into the finished cookie. You can add them whole and more of them if you prefer. You will need to buy 3 x 80-gram bags if you want to do this. You will be so happy with these extra eggs sticking out of your cookie, trust me. 

How to make chunky New York choc chip Easter cookies

1. I used my Kitchenaid stand mixer with a paddle attachment and two large cookie sheets lined with nonstick baking paper to make this recipe. Use a handheld mixer to cream the butter and sugar if you don’t have a stand mixer. This stage is very important when making cookies. Creaming your butter and sugar together well is the most important step in making a good chocolate chip cookie.

2. Make sure you cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy before adding the egg.  Scrape the bowl a few times if necessary.

3. Add the egg, vanilla, baking powder and bicarb and continue to beat until well incorporates. If you are unsure beat, it a little more. You cannot over-mix the batter at this stage. 

4. Add the flour and mix briefly until combined. You do not want to overmix cookie dough.

5. Add all the chocolate (or chocolate chips) and mix briefly until well incorporated. It will still be a bit crumbly. You shouldn’t see any flour and the chocolate will be well distributed in the dough.

6. Weigh out approximately 85-90 grams of dough in a loose ball, and roughly roll it between your hands. You don’t need to compact the dough too much.

7. Place 5 cookie balls on a tray spaced out. Flatten them down a bit to increase the surface area and press an additional few halved mini eggs with the domes facing up to the surface.

8. Bake for 12 – 14 minutes and until golden brown. Allow them to cool on the pan where they will carry over baking for a bit. Oven temperatures vary and I found anywhere from 12 – 14 minutes worked well. 

If you are looking for more Easter recipe goodness these are a few of my best Easter recipes

You might also like these chocolate recipes:

The Best Chocolate Cake by Ina Garten

The best chocolate Nutella brownies

Chocolate fondant with Lindt Lindor

Brown butter rice krispies treats with chocolate

Double chocolate chip skillet cookie

Toffe salted pretzel and chocolate bark

Recipe – makes 10 medium cookies. Adapted from Jane’s Patisserie

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