I Tried This Viral TikTok Cookie Recipe, and I’m Never Going Back

By: Catherine

Consider me someone who is easily influenced by TikTok trends. A new viral lip stain released by E.L.F.? Tried it and loved it. Everyone giving themselves amazing blowouts with a hairdryer brush? You know I had to get one. So, when my TikTok ‘For You’ Page started recommending viral baking videos for me, I knew it was time to turn on my oven and rekindle my love for baking.

I’ve loved baking since I first learned to make chocolate chip cookies when I was 12. I have the world’s biggest sweet tooth, and my love for all things deliciously sweet quickly turned into a full-blown hobby (my friends are still trying to convince me to open a bakery). I’ve perfected everything from French macarons to layered cakes. For my birthday this past year, I even went so far as to gift myself an online baking class hosted by Momofuku Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi. I learned everything from how to make the Milk Bar Birthday Cake to how I can craft my own recipes.

My late-night TikTok scrolling eventually led me to perhaps the most scrumptious cookie I’ve ever tasted. Enter stage right: the Levain-inspired s’mores cookie by Hajar Larbah (@moribyan). For those of you who are unfamiliar with Levain Bakery’s cookies, they are big, cake-y cookies in a variety of flavors—often photographed split in half and stacked on top of each other so you can see how loaded with chocolate chips and filling they are. There’s a reason they’re known as New York’s most famous cookies, too. I’ve been to New York, but with the long lines outside the Levain Bakery, I never was able to get my hands on one of their cookies.

That’s why I knew I had to try this recipe. And trust me when I say, it did not disappoint! The cookies are soft and chewy with a honey flavor from the graham crackers. They give me feelings of nostalgia, almost as if I’m sitting around a campfire in the summer. They’re so popular amongst my friends that I bring a batch with me every time we get together.

Want to see if you are as influenced as I am? Try the recipe for yourself:

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups cake flour

• 1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 2 sticks/1 cup unsalted butter

• ¾ cup light brown sugar

• ½ cup white sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 1 egg yolk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• ½ cup milk chocolate chips

• ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

• 1 cup mini marshmallows, torn into small pieces

• 4-5 graham crackers, crushed into small pieces

• Hershey’s chocolate bar

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF.

2. In a mixer, combine the butter, vanilla extract, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat until creamy and combined
   Pro-Tip from Christina Tosi: if you have a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together for 10 minutes and make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl every 3-4 minutes. You want the mixture to be the palest yellow, almost white. This will result in the creamiest butter and sugar mixture that is a perfect base for your ultimate cookie.

3. In a separate bowl, combine all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
   Fun fact: baking soda helps baked goods spread out while baking powder gives them rise and height.

4. Add your two large eggs and one egg yolk to the bowl with the butter/sugar mixture. Beat until combined. 

5. Add flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat until just combined–only about 30-45 seconds
   Pro-Tip from Christina Tosi: Overmixing your flour into your wet ingredients causes too much gluten to form and will create very dense cookies.

6. Now it’s time to add your mix-ins! Take your chocolate chips, crushed graham crackers, and mini marshmallows (personally, I like to tear my mini marshmallows into small pieces for an evenly distributed marshmallow taste) and mix them into your cookie dough. Once combined, scoop out a good amount of cookie dough and roll into a ball (Levain cookies are quite large. This much cookie dough usually makes about 15-18 cookies).

7. Press the tops of the cookie dough ball down to flatten them out just a bit. Then take a square of Hershey’s chocolate bar and press it into the center. Optional, take additional pieces of mini marshmallows and press them around the edges of the cookie dough.

8. Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least one hour.
   Fun fact: the reason you need to chill your cookie dough before baking is because it helps chill the butter and keeps your cookies from spreading out too much.

9. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

10. Enjoy!

Are you a fellow cookie lover? Tag us in your pics on Instagram @cutlinecrew!