Save your sourdough discard and make these Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies.
These soft and chewy cookies are loaded with chocolate chips, so each bite offers a sweet morsel.
You use browned butter, which enhances the flavor of the cookies tremendously.
The sourdough discard is perfect for making naturally fermented cookies with a tangy component that sets them apart from other chocolate chip cookies.
Learn how to make a sourdough starter, Goldfish crackers, or sourdough graham crackers.
All are delicious recipes that offer sourdough flavor.
Reasons To Make Sourdough Cookies
- By using a sourdough discard, you help reduce waste and truly utilize all your sourdough starter discard.
- The fermentation is going to allow you to digest the cookies more easily.
- It offers probiotics from the sourdough starter, which makes this gut-healthy.
- Homemade cookies are made from scratch; kids and adults will enjoy the flavors.
- Unique and different it is a cookie that is going to wow others when you serve them up, and can be a great conversation topic.
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients
Butter: Butter will bind the cookie dough, allowing for a tender and soft cookie.
Sugar: Granulated sugar and brown sugar come together to create the perfect sweetness to the cookie with a hint of caramel-like flavor due to the brown sugar.
Eggs: Eggs are another binder in the recipe, helping the ingredients stick together and bake up nicely.
Sourdough Discard: This is usually tossed out of your active sourdough starter, but you can use it to add flavor and help the cookies rise as they bake.
Vanilla: Vanilla enhances all the flavors in the cookie dough to help add depth.
Salt: I always add salt to my baked goods to balance the sweetness. The flaky salt on top of cookies is optional.
Baking Soda and Baking Powder: Both help the texture and rise of the cookie in the oven, allowing for a light and fluffy cookie.
Flour: I use all-purpose flour as the base of the cookies. It is the perfect flour for a cookie recipe.
How to Make Soughdough Cookies
Full instructions on how to make these easy sourdough cookies are in the recipe card.
This is a quick walkthrough of how easy it is to make your sourdough cookies at home.
Step 1: In a small saucepan, add butter and let it melt over medium-low heat.
Step 2: Once it begins to bubble, foam, and brown, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the fridge.
Step 3: Add the cooled brown butter and both sugars to a stand mixer.
Mix on medium until creamy and smooth.
Step 4: Work in the sourdough starter, eggs, and vanilla.
Mix to combine.
Step 5: Then, slowly add all the dry ingredients, making sure to scrape down the sides of the mixer.
Step 6: Fold in the chocolate chip cookies.
Step 7: Roll the cookie dough into a long strip and wrap it in plastic wrap.
This will make it easy to slice into cookies later.
Place the dough in the fridge for 12-24 hours to let the flavors build and the dough firm up.
Step 8: After the refrigeration time, preheat the oven and bake the cookies as directed.
If you like, you can add sea salt to the top of each cookie.
Variations To Recipe
- Skip the browned butter and use softened room-temperature butter instead. It will alter the flavor a bit, but the cookies will still be delicious.
- Any chocolate works: white chocolate, milk, dark chocolate, or sugar-free chocolate.
- Feel free to mix 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup of chopped nuts. Pecans or walnuts would be delicious in these cookies.
- You can use a gluten-free flour blend if you need it. Adjust the cookies if needed, and know the texture will vary a bit.
- Mix in some dried fruit like cherries or cranberries for another layer of texture and flavor.
- Coconut flakes would add a nice tropical twist to the cookies. Do 1/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes.
- You can use some of your active sourdough starter if you do not have any discard on hand. It will work the same.
How to Store Homemade Cookies
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days or refrigerated for 3-4 days.
The other option is to freeze the cookies for up to 3 months. Then, eat straight from the freezer or let them thaw on the counter.
Tips for Success
- It is essential to allow the browned butter to cool before mixing it with sugar or other ingredients.
- Allowing the cold dough to be put on a tray and baked helps prevent the cookies from spreading and flattening.
- The baking time is a guide, so if your cookies are fully cooked before the time is up, remove them from the oven so they don’t dry out.
- Allow the cookie dough to rest in the fridge, as this will deepen and enrich the flavors tremendously.
- When mixing the cookie dough, make sure all the sourdough starter is fully mixed in and no streaks are left.
Do I need to feed my sourdough starter before using it in cookies?
This recipe is ideal for using unfed sourdough discard.
So just remove it from the starter and use it as is for the recipe.
What if I don’t have brown sugar?
If you do not have brown sugar you can make homemade brown sugar with granulated sugar and molasses.
It takes just a minute to do.
Can I reduce the sugar in the recipe?
The sugar is needed to help with the texture and sweetness of the cookies.
You can reduce the sugar by 1/4 cup if you need.
More Sourdough Recipes
If you like this sourdough recipe, you’ll love these ones too:
- Sourdough Graham Crackers – You can make s’mores with them, snack on them with some chocolate milk, or mix them up and use them as a graham cracker crust for a cheesecake.
- Cheesy Sourdough Discard Crackers – Easy, crunchy, salty, and a tasty cheese cracker that curbs that crunch factor.
- Sourdough English Muffins – Simple everyday ingredients that make the best English muffins you can make.
- Sourdough Sandwich Bread – Soft, tender and slightly tangy sourdough bread is what you will get in this sourdough sandwich bread.
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 c unsalted butter
- 1 c sugar
- 1 c brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 c sourdough starter discard
- 2 t vanilla
- 1 ½ t salt
- ½ t baking powder
- 1 t baking soda
- 3 c flour
- 2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Flaky salt to garnish, optional
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, heat the butter over medium low heat. Stir occasionally until the mixture melts. Once it begins to bubble and foam, stir constantly as the butter begins to brown. Remove from the heat as soon as you begin to see the brown specs accumulating on the bottom. It can go from browned butter to burnt very quick. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes in the fridge before continuing.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the cooled brown butter, sugar and brown sugar. Cream until smooth.
- Add in the sourdough starter, eggs and vanilla. Mix until combined.
- Add in the baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour. Mix until thoroughly combined, scraping the sides often.
- Fold in the chocolate chips until evenly distributed throughout.
- Transfer the cookie dough to a strip of plastic wrap and roll into a log. Fold the sides to cover the entire log with the plastic wrap and seal. Chill the dough in the fridge for 12-24 hours to allow the flavor to develop. Do not freeze.
- After 12-24 hours, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the baking sheet(s) with parchment and set aside.
- Using a small ice cream scoop, divide the dough into equal portions about the size of a ping pong ball. Flatten into a disc for more even baking. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt, if desired.
- Place on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the center is no longer shiny. Allow to cool.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is automatically calculated with ingredients and serving size and may not be accurate. Please always double check with your own nutritional apps as well.
