prep time: 15 min | bake time: 15 min | total time: 1½ hrs
If you love bold, oversized bakery cookies with crisp golden edges and soft, gooey centers, these Thick NYC Chocolate Walnut Cookies are going to be your new favorite. Inspired by the famous New York Levain-style cookies, they are tall, chunky, loaded with chocolate, and packed with crunchy walnuts.
The best part is that they are completely eggless and can easily be made dairy-free. Every bite gives you rich chocolate flavor balanced with toasted walnut crunch and a beautifully crisp exterior.
True New York-style cookies
Big and bold: NYC cookies are large, thick, and bakery style not thin or flat.
Tall dough balls: The dough is rolled into tall portions so the cookies bake up chunky and impressive.
Chilled dough: Resting the dough in the fridge helps prevent spreading and keeps that thick shape.
Perfect bake: The edges turn crisp while the center stays soft and slightly gooey.
Great texture: A mix of crisp edges, soft centers, melty chocolate, and crunchy walnuts.
In a bowl, beat the room temperature butter until light and fluffy using an electric whisk or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the cane sugar and light brown sugar and beat until creamy.
Mix in the room temperature milk and vanilla extract until combined, then add the cocoa powder and mix well.
Add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt, mixing just until combined.
Fold in the chopped walnuts and chocolate chips, reserving a few to press on top before baking.
Scoop the dough into balls (about 135 g for large NYC-style cookies or 65 g for smaller ones) and chill for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Place the dough balls on the tray, leaving space between them, and press extra chocolate chips and walnuts on top if desired.
Bake for about 15 minutes (9–10 minutes for smaller cookies) until the edges are set and the centers remain soft.
If needed, reshape with a cookie cutter while still warm. Sprinkle with flaky salt and cool on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
New York-style cookies are all about “stalling” the melt. If the dough is room temperature when it hits the oven, the fat will liquify and spread into a flat pancake before the flour has a chance to set. Chilling ensures the outside develops a beautiful crust while the inside stays dense, cold, and gooey.
You can, but you’ll lose that iconic “molten” center that makes them NYC-style. The massive size is actually what protects the middle from overbaking. If you do go smaller (around 65g), make sure to reduce your bake time to 9–10 minutes so they don’t turn into hockey pucks.
This usually happens if you overmeasured your flour or overbaked them. Eggless dough relies on the perfect balance of moisture from the milk and sugars to stay tender. I highly recommend using a digital scale to measure your 170g of flour, even a tablespoon too much can make a huge difference in the final texture.
You likely rolled the dough into smooth, perfect balls. To get that rugged, bakery-style look, try the “shaggy” method: instead of rolling, pull the dough apart and stack it back together roughly. Those uneven peaks and valleys are what create the golden, crispy ridges in the oven.
The “Cookie Scoot” is your best friend here. Since these cookies are loaded with chunky walnuts and chips, they don’t always bake in a perfect circle. The moment they come out of the oven, while they are still soft and hot, place a large circular bowl or cutter over them and gently “scoot” the cookie in a circular motion to tuck in the edges.
If these 6-ounce boulders have you craving a full-on bakery marathon, don’t stop here! There’s nothing better than a kitchen that smells like toasted sugar and dark chocolate.
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For more foolproof, bakery-style secrets, grab a copy of my cookbook Vegan Baking Made Simple. It’s designed to help you bake like a pro without ever needing an egg!
One Response
Thanks for sharing