Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sourdough chocolate chip cookies are an incredibly easy-to-make chocolate chip cookie with tons more flavor and yum than a classic chocolate chip cookie! Use up your sourdough discard with this delicious recipe.

"Mom, it smells nice, what are you cooking?"

Don't mind me, it's just browned butter!

Oh yeah, these cookies are loaded with delicious browned butter, chopped Hershey's bars, and... sourdough discard?

Really, Ally, sourdough in cookies?

Hear me out!

Sourdough isn't just for savory foods. These chocolate chip cookies are so delicious, filled with flavor that normal chocolate chip cookies can't reach. The sourdough helps to tenderize the cookie crumb while also adding moisture.

This sourdough chocolate chip cookies recipe is dedicated to something sweet!

Jump to:

• Tips + Tricks
• Key Ingredients
• How To Make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Batch + Storage Information
• More Cookie Recipes To Love
• Variations + Substiutions
• Recommended Equipment
• Check Out These Sourdough Recipes
• If you love this post
• 📖 Printable Recipe

Tips + Tricks

No. 1 --> Need a sourdough starter and fast? I got your back with my easy 24-hour sourdough starter!

No. 2 --> When measuring your flour, use the "scoop + level" method. Stir the flour in your flour bag or container vigorously, then spoon from the bag into a measuring cup, scrape the top of your measuring cup with the back of a knife or something flat. this will ensure you're not packing the flour into the cup.

No. 3 --> I prefer a flatter, chewier cookie to an airy, cakey cookie, so I tend to slightly under-bake my cookies, and I like to give the cookie sheet a good bang on the counter once it comes out of the oven, this deflates a lot of the rise.

No. 4 --> Vary the fridge resting time for these cookies to see what you like best, I find the shorter the rest, the sweeter the cookie and the longer the rest the more nutty and less sweet the cookies turn out.

No. 5 --> When adding the browned butter to the cookie batter, use a spatula and get ALL those little bits of browned milk solids. Those little nuggets add so much caramel, nutty flavor to the cookies!

Key Ingredients

• Butter: For these chocolate chip cookies, we aren't just using butter, we're using browned butter. Browned butter takes on a rich amber color and smells incredibly nutty and sweet. Don't skip this step, it adds incredible flavor to your cookies!
• Sourdough discard: The sourdough discard in this recipe, while not in the active stage, is still sourdough, it will naturally ferment your cookies and condition the dough, making the baked goods more tender and flavorful. We're looking for a 100% hydration discard, which simply means it's fed the same amount of water and flour by weight, not volume.
• Hershey's milk chocolate bar: This ingredient is really up to you as the baker, you could swap the milk chocolate for a deeper, dark chocolate, or use chocolate chips.
• Flour: I generally use unbleached all-purpose flour but bread flour would work too!

How To Make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Brown the butter:

1. Add butter to a small skillet over medium-low heat. Allow the butter to melt, then simmer. Simmer the butter, stirring regularly, until it takes on an amber color, the milk solids have browned, and it smells nutty. This will take between 3-5 minutes of simmering, but do watch it closely because the butter can burn. If it simmers too rapidly, simply turn down the heat. Pour the butter from the skillet into a heat-safe container and set it aside to cool. I popped mine in the fridge for about 20 minutes, so I could get baking sooner!

Make the batter:

1. Once the butter is cooled, add it (and the milk solids that settled at the bottom of the container) and the sugars to the bowl of your stand mixer and beat the butter and sugars together with the paddle attachment until completely smooth. (Swoon over the smell!)
2. Add the egg yolks to the butter/sugar mixture and beat on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes, scraping the sides as required.
3. Add the sourdough discard and vanilla extract to the mixing bowl and beat on medium-low for a minute or two or until the mixture is completely combined.
4. Meanwhile, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Then add to the bowl of your mixer. Stir in the flour at the lowest speed, until just combined.
5. Pour in 2/3 of the roughly chopped chocolate bar and mix for a few seconds until evenly distributed.
6. Using plastic wrap, cover the dough by pressing the wrap firmly into the surface of the dough.
7. Pop the dough into the fridge and allow it to "ferment" or rest in the fridge for 6- 24 hours.

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Bake the cookies:

1. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350f. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Scoop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets with a #40 scooper, flatten the balls and then press a couple of reserved chocolate chunks into the top of the dough.
3. Bake the cookies on the top rack in your oven, at 350f for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are cooked through and beginning to brown around the edges.
4. Remove the cookies from the oven and sprinkle with a pinch of flaked salt, if desired. This step is optional but totally recommended!
5. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire mesh cooling rack. If the cookies are "puffy" when they come out of the oven, give the cookie sheet a firm tap on the counter to deflate some of the rise.

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Batch + Storage Information

Batch:

This recipe makes about 48 (4 dozen) cookies when using a #40 cookie scoop. If you're rolling balls by hand, aim for about 30g cookie balls.

Storage:

Once baked, your sourdough chocolate chip cookies can be kept in a cookie jar with a tight-fitting lid for up to 5 days.

If you don't want to bake all the cookies at once, you can scoop them all into cookie dough balls and place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Pop the cookie sheet into the freezer for 2-3 hours, or until frozen completely, then transfer to a freezer ziplock bag. Frozen cookie balls will keep for 2-3 months in the freezer without any problem!

To bake frozen cookie balls; place them on a parchment lined baking sheet to thaw while the oven is preheating, then bake according to the recipe, adding 2-3 minutes to ensure they are fully cooked!

More Cookie Recipes To Love

Variations + Substiutions

• swap out the milk chocolate bars for dark chocolate bars.
• use chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate chunks.
• add some spice: a teaspoon of cinnamon extract, or cinnamon makes a slightly spiced and totally irresistible cookie!

Recommended Equipment

Stand mixer: My KITCHENAID MIXER is one of my most used tools in the kitchen, I believe every home cook should have one!

Good baking sheets: It's hard to bake a perfect cookie on a lightweight cookie sheet. I like my baking sheets to have a decent weight to them, this helps to prevent the cookies from burning on the bottom before the rest is cooked.

Check Out These Sourdough Recipes

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