You probably don’t remember but a long time ago I posted about trying Levain Bakery’s oatmeal raisin cookies. If you are unfamiliar with their cookies, they are very famous as being some of the best cookies ever. The bakery is in New York City and they ship their cookies nationwide. The only chocolate-free ones available to order were the oatmeal raisin.
I ordered them and was so excited. They were huge, my favorite trait in a cookie. But when I tried them I was very disappointed and didn’t even finish one. I didn’t understand the hype.
The cookie I really wanted to try was their Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip, named by Rocco DiSpirito as the best thing he’s ever eaten. Alas, that couldn’t happen.
Until now, when the cookie gods led me to carob and Brown Eyed Baker’s recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies, a Levain copycat recipe. Sure, I didn’t make them for awhile afraid all the work would be for nothing and I wouldn’t like them just like the oatmeal raisin.
But that did not happen. These are the best cookies ever. These are the kind of cookies you lose all cool with when you eat them. You stand over the piping hot tray and burn your mouth while stuffing an entire giant cookie into your mouth in a flash and having to force yourself to go in the other room so you don’t devour another. Not that I would know anything about this 😉
I was going to use peanut butter chips, but realized I was out, so I used a mixture of carob and white chocolate. Best. Decision. EVER. These cookies are like a brownie and a molten cake and everything I’ve ever wanted in food and cookies and really life.
So seriously, make these cookies. Now. And if you want to be all normal boring, feel free to use cocoa powder and chocolate chips.
Giant Carob Cookies
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 cookies 1x
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup carob powder
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup carob chips
- 1 ½ cups white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I did this by hand, but a hand or stand mixer would also work. Beat in eggs until well combined, followed by vanilla. Stir in the flour until just combined, then mix in the carob and white chocolate chips. Stir until fully distributed.
- Divide the dough into 12 roughly equal portions. Place on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 16 to 20 until the tops of the cookies are starting to set. Eat warm or cool completely on the tray. Cookies may be stored in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or frozen, wrapped in parchment and foil and placed in a zipper bag for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature about an hour or in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
Wow — these look seriously good. Seriously. Good. 😉 Terrific recipe — thanks.
These cookies look amazing! I love my desserts to be BIG 😉
Wow, these cookies sound fantastic! I must admit I’m a bit nervous about baking with carob, but maybe I should give it a try. So glad you like this version.
I swear that you won’t be able to tell the difference between chocolate and carob. It’s crazy how alike they are. Everyone I’ve give carob anything to has been impressed.
Such good decisions you make in your baking!! These look amazing and while not as easy as your Flourless Triple Peanut Butter Cookies, I just may have to make them. You know my addiction to peanut butter….and chocolate (although I know this is carob)
These are not quite as easy, but they are not very difficult to make and so worth it. You would love them, although I know you don’t like things that are too rich, so you might want to share or make them smaller and reduce the baking time.
here’s the problem with ordering Levain cookies: they’re ordered and thusly not perfectly fresh and warm. That’s when the magic happens.
Also…yeah…oatmeal raisin is the least good option.
I’m SO glad you were able to make these carob copy cats so you could get an idea of the DELICIOUSNESS! They look fantastic!
I typically have good luck with ordering things, but I hear what you’re saying. And I definitely believe oatmeal raisin is not the best!
EDITTED COMMENT:
We just whipped up a batch of these, and baked a test cookie. It is really powdery and dry. Also, it didn’t expand like regular cookies do. The dough ball just baked and never moved or changed shape. So we ended up with a cookie ball that crumbled when I tried to pick it up. Is there supposed to be more liquid to the recipe than just the butter, egg, and vanilla? The flavor was great, but the texture is terrible. The only modifications we made were replacing the white chocolate chips with more carob chips. I JUST REMEMBERED THAT WE DID ALSO USE GLUTEN FREE FLOUR AND ARTIFICIAL SWEETNER (SUCRALOSE) INSTEAD OF ALL PURPOSE FLOUR AND GRANULATED SUGAR. Lastly, the recipe doesn’t specify when to add the carob powder, so we made a guess and added it to the dry mixture with the flour, salt, and baking powder. The recipe only says when to add the “carob and white chocolate chips”. We assumed that meant the carob chips and not both carob chips and carob powder. Any help in fixing our botched cookie dough is greatly appreciated.
Hey Nichole! I am so sorry you had trouble with the recipe. I can’t say for sure what went wrong, but if I had to guess I would say it was the artificial sweetener. I use GF flour frequently and don’t typically have an issue using it in recipes. However I have never worked with artificial sweetener. I hope you give the recipe another try.
This is an amazing recipe that I have made numerous times. My favorite variation so far is to add a teaspoon of mint extract, 1/2 cup of carob chips and 1/2 cup of green mint chips instead of the carob/white chocolate chip combination.
Today I’m experimenting with substituting 1/2 cup of almond flour for the equivalent amount of all-purpose and adding 1 1/4 teaspoon raspberry extract, 1/4 teaspoon almond extract, 1/4 cup of carob chips and 1 cup of freeze-dried raspberries,
Also – I use 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons of stevia.
Outstanding recipe – delicious and the cookies keep well.
Adding mint is such a fantastic idea! I love the idea of almond and raspberry too. How did they turn out?
Just finished a batch of these. So good! I made them quite small and ended up with a lot of cookies. 👌🏼 I didn’t have carob chips or white chocolate chips, so I used cashews and mini chocolate chips. They turned out great. This will be a new staple around here. 😊
Caroline
★★★★★
The cookies sound great, Caroline! I’m glad you enjoyed!
These are excellent cookies! Just made a batch! I bought a large bag of carob powder and have been trying to find recipes to use it. I’m printing this recipe now to keep on hand. I used Lily’s dark chocolate chips and chopped pecans. SO GOOD. I love how the cookies puff up, instead of flattening out.
★★★★★
Yay! I am so glad the cookies were a hit, Sandi!
Hi Laura,
I am SO glad I found your Giant Carob Cookie recipe recently with all your comments and photos to go with it. I am allergic to Chocolate and trying to find a good cookie recipe has been challenging till now. But Yay!!, I found your recipe! Everyone loves these cookies.
My little twist to make them taste more like chocolate, is to add a heaping TBSP of Instant Espresso Coffee. And I add in walnuts plus the carob chips. (I skipped using the white chocolate – just not my thing). Next time I will try the peanut butter chips.
And since I want more cookies, I make smaller cookies. So both times I got about 27-29 cookies.
★★★★★
Diane! I’m so glad you like the cookies!! I love adding coffee as well and walnuts sound like a fabulous addition!